Soccer is the most important sport in Mexico, after a century of practice and 100 years of professionalism. It is the one that moves the most money with a little more than 5 billion dollars a year (according to INEGI) and encompasses a passion in 55 percent of the population. In addition, it is the only country in the world that can be considered to have a second nation of influence as it has almost 70 million viewers in the United States, due to the migrants who have sought their luck in the North American country throughout the last decades.
Soccer was introduced to the country at the end of the 19th century. At the beginning it was practiced by English foreigners who arrived in ships and settled in the region, and although the workers who traveled by train to the interior of the republic, it was the wealthiest who practiced the sport along with Mexicans who belonged to the upper class and gradually became immersed in it.
In 1900, the first English miners founded the first soccer team in the country, Pachuca. A group of Scottish textile workers organized their own team and were joined by the Mexico Cricket Club. These first three teams gave birth to the first soccer tournament in the country.
On October 19, 1902, the British colony gathered for the inaugural game, won by the Pachuca British Club, which was celebrated with tea, as dictated by British tradition. After the first friendly tournament and after more than 120 years of history, the Mexican National Accounts System (SCNM) of INEGI states that Liga MX contributes 0.6% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which represents a quarter of what the health sector generates, which is 2.2% nationally.
From that first tournament it took almost two decades for the formation of the National League (1920) and only two years later the Mexican Soccer Federation was founded. Over the years French, English, German and Spanish migrants began to form their own teams, with which they began to compete and win national tournaments in an amateur era and become a spectacle trying to entertain the fans.Â
For a decade there was a two-tournament division at the national level, but it was not until 1943 that the first professional league was introduced and since that year 24 different teams have lifted the trophy.Â
24 different teams have lifted the championship trophy in the different tournament formats, the first champion in history being Asturias, a historic team.
Traditional teams such as América, Guadalajara, Cruz Azul, Pumas, as well as teams that live in the memory and in history books such as Oro, España, Marte and Atlético Español have been part of the series for the title and of these, the most winning of all has been América with 13 crowns, followed by Guadalajara with 12 and Toluca, which is not part of the so-called "Big Four", but in their trophy cabinets they have 10 crowns.
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