Mexico. In 1985 this country had 2 championsips – due to the hosting of the 1986 World Cup, the regular 1985-86 season was canceled and replaced with 2 short separate championships – PRODE-85 and Mexico-86. Thus, 1985 ended with 2 champions. Second Division, however, was unaffected and continued in its usual schedule, so there was no promotion-relegation after the end PRODE-85. The rest was familiar – the strange mix of North American and European formats.
Second Division. 20 teams, one promoted to First Division and 2 relegated to third level. The teams played twice against all others, like in normal European league, but were divided into 4 groups and according to the final positions in them the top 2 teams in each proceeded to second phase – 2 round-robing groups, the winners of which played a final to decide the champion, promoted to the top division. The last teams in the original groups played relegation tournament – the last 2 teams in it went down. The one with the fewest points after the first stage was directly relegated. Stop! It cannot be that straight-forward… and it was not: in the relegation tournament played those with least points, not the last placed in every group. Made more sense, but does nothing to the fancy league division into 4 groups: such rules affect mostly those trying to win the champiomship: in regular final table the top 8 teams go to the play-offs; in divided league easily could be strong teams concentrated in one group and thus some left out. Meantime weaker teams in another group may go ahead and even win.
As for the league members, most were former top league members, but some were not only unknown clubs, but even suspect: hard to tell what exactly was Nuevo Necaxa, for example. Second team of Necaxa or separate club? Since Mexico followed USA-model – the clubs were ‘franchises’ – it appears that second team could not exist, for there is no base for buying franchise. A second team of one club cannot play in the same league with the prime team of the club, but if such team possess separate franchise there is no reason to stop them playing the same league with the ‘mother club’ – it was weird, for Nuevo Necaxa was in the same time a second team of Necaxa and entirely separate entity. But such complications were largely theoretical – Nuevo Necaxa was very weak. However, Necaxa was very weak as well, so the theoretical was on the verge of becoming reality: Necaxa barely escaped relegation and Nuevo Necaxa was relegated – only luck prevented these two teams to meet in one league, not the First, but in the Second Division. Mexico was not going to leave things relatively clear, of course: a team named Veracruz started the championship, but Yucatan ended the season. Franchise sold, team moved to another town, name changed.
After 36 rounds were played the picture was:
Grupo 1
1. Union de Curtidores 57 points.
2. Jalisco 53
3. Colima 35
4. Santos Laguna 33
5. Zamora 32
Grupo 2
1. Irapuato 58
2. UA Queretaro 58
3. Tepic 57
4. Tecoman 41
5. Salamanca 28
Grupo 3
1. Pachuca 66
2. UA Tamaulipas 61
3. Texcoco 52
4. Cordoba 44
5. Tulancingo 40
Grupo 4
1. Cobras Queretaro 59
2. Roza Rica 40
3. San Mateo Atenco 34
4. Veracruz/Yucatan 29
5. Nuevo Necaxa 26
Well, it happened… Tepic ended 3rd in its group with 57 points and was out of the play-offs. Roza Rica was second in its own group with only 40 points and moved ahead. If it was normal league table, Roza Rica would have been 12th… and that only on better goal-difference. Anyhow, rules are rules.
In the relegation group those with fewest point after the first stage met and their final standings were:
1. Santos Laguna 11 points after 6 games
2. Salamanca 10
3. Zamora 8
4. Yucatan 2
Zamora and Yucatan went down. Nuevo Necaxa was directly relegated already.
Second stage of the battle for promotion.
Grupo de Campeonato A
1. Pachuca 13 points after 6 games.
2. Union de Curtidores 9
3. UA Queretaro 7
4. Roza Rica 2 They did not score even one goal at this stage.
Grupo de Campeonato B
1.Irapuato 12
2. Cobras Queretaro 7
3. Jalisco 6
4. UA Tamaulipas 5
Thus Pachuca and Irapuato went to the final. Pachuca seemingly had better chance – they were stronger during the season – but it turned out othwerwise. Irapuato won the first leg at home 2-1 and then won the second leg in Pachuca 3-2.
Irapuato became Second Division champion for a second time and was promoted to First Division. Like Pachuca, they wanted to return to top flight and they did. Good for them.