Liga MX officially cancels season over coronavirus concerns
The top Mexican professional soccer league officially canceled its season on Friday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Liga MX, after finishing 10 of its 17 regular-season dates, announced that it was canceling the season completely and will not declare a winner, according to the Associated Press. It also canceled the rest of the women’s professional season.
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The league suspended play on March 15, just days after the NBA did in the United States.
“It’s indisputable that we live in an unprecedented situation in this country that obliges the soccer industry in Mexico to act with absolute sensitivity and respond with unity to the demands that have presented themselves,” the league said in a statement, via the Associated Press.
Teams had increased testing in recent weeks and started gearing up for a possible return. However 12 players from Santos, a team located in Torreon, tested positive for the coronavirus this week, per the Associated Press, which almost certainly swayed the league against restarting.
The new goal, per the report, is to start the new season in July. If that happens, games will likely be held without fans in attendance.
Cruz Azul in Mexico City sat in first place in the league when play was suspended, just ahead of Leon, Santos and America.
There were nearly 60,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Mexico as of Friday night, per The New York Times, and more than 6,500 deaths attributed to it. Those figures, however, are likely much higher. According to the Times, more than three times as many people have likely died in Mexico City alone due to the coronavirus than what is being reported.
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