They say that the mule was not surly, but that the beatings made him that way. This analogy fits like a glove to the ordeal experienced by the fans in the Expansion League squares, after the owners of the ball buried the sporting spirit by definitively suppressing promotion and relegation in Mexican soccer.
The indignation is on the surface, and the bitter pill that the President Commissioner of the Mexican Football Federation, Mikel Arriola, had a few hours ago, is proof that the oven is not up for buns.
The manager, accused of years of fattening the coffers of the top circuit with aggressive commercial management, received a dose of reality from thousands of feet above. A fan confronted him in the middle of a commercial flight and told him the truth without anesthesia: "We want promotion and descent, Micky! Don't give me the plane, old man!" The scene, which immediately went viral, completely exposed the fans' rupture with the use of long pants.
The disagreement intensifies because, under Arriola's management, the fractures between the club owners themselves have worsened. You just have to see how they ended up holding each other's throats when it came to signing the controversial foreign investment fund, that project with which they intended to sell the soul of the Liga MX teams to the devil in exchange for greenbacks.
The leader is criticized for prioritizing desk business over competition on the field, giving a coup de grace to the silver division and leaving the most discreet positions in national football forgotten.
In the middle of this troubled river, the teams in the lower circuit feel used and cheated. The straw that broke the camel's back was seeing how frustration descended from the stands directly to the aisles of the planes, evidencing the blow assimilated by fans such as those of Zacatecas, La Paz, Durango, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Atlético Morelia.
Entire projects that, right off the bat, were left without the incentive to compete for the glory of the top circuit.
To make matters worse, in this melodrama of broken promises, doublespeak stands out. The perfect example is the Atlante directive. Los Colts sympathized for years with the guild of the homeless in the silver division, but the romance ended when the wallet appeared.
For this 2026 Apertura Tournament, the “People's Team” made its return to the First Division after 12 years of absence. However, the feat was not achieved by sweating the shirt, but through the green route: buying the franchise from the Cañoneros de Mazatlán for a figure close to 65 million dollars.
The dog dances with money, and the Atlantean's unconditional support for the cause of Expansion magically disappeared as soon as they secured their place at the table of the rich.
