The Leagues Cup will undergo drastic changes in 2025, abandoning the previous format where it was played during a month-long midseason break for both MLS and Mexican teams, Liga MX president Mikel Arriola told reporters on Sunday.
Arriola said that the competition would remain in a summer slot on the calendar, but insisted ahead of the Liga MX final’s second leg that next season’s Leagues Cup matches would be held during weekdays, with Mexican teams fulfilling their regular domestic schedule on weekends. While MLS media communications did not immediately respond to requests for comment, a similar situation appears likely in regard to the MLS schedule.
“We just approved the new Leagues Cup format,” Arriola said. “We’re no longer going to hold camps there.”
Mikel Arriola and Club America’s Luis Malagon on Sunday (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
During the fully-expanded 2023 and 2024 tournaments all matches were played in the U.S. or Canada, while some Liga MX teams set up base camp hubs at various U.S. sites.
“We’ll play midweek so Mexican teams don’t struggle, and Liga MX games will be played on the weekends,” Arriola continued.
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami won in 2023, and the competition provided a memorable backdrop to the Argentinean’s first on-field appearance since moving to Florida, a superb injury-time free-kick clinching victory over Cruz Azul in the group stage. Miami would go on to beat Nashville SC in the final, while the Columbus Crew beat LAFC in 2024 decider.
ESPN reported that only 18 MLS teams plus the 18 Liga MX teams will take part in 2025. For the past two years, all MLS clubs participated. MLS increases from 29 to 30 members in 2025, with the addition of San Diego FC.
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A streamlined field would align with comments made by MLS commissioner Don Garber in his annual state of the league address earlier this month.
“We need more MLS versus Liga MX matches,” Garber said. “That was really the point of the Leagues Cup in the beginning … And we’re looking at modifications that will, I think, make it more focused on what it is that we’re trying to achieve, which is this great rivalry between our two leagues.”
(Top photo: Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images)
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