After Liga MX and its second division, Ascenso MX, approved a number of structural changes designed at promoting more stability within the Mexican league system, Santos Laguna and Atlas owner Alejandro Irarragori has released a statement praising MLS' model and the idea of a merger between the two North American top flights.
"It's probably that the possible creation of a North American super league is best for MLS in the short term and Liga MX in the medium term, but over the long term it is best for both and the potential to add value and create jobs is immense," Irarragori wrote in comments translated by ESPN's Tom Marshall. "Without a doubt, it is an alternative that should be explored and analyzed."
Among the structural changes are the suspension of promotion and relegation between the top two Mexican divisions and a yet-to-be-detailed focus on using Ascenso MX as a league to develop younger players. That system more closely parallels MLS' relationship with the USL, and Irarragori's comments suggest a deliberate attempt to model Mexican football after the steady club growth that has occurred north of the border, particularly in the last decade.
"Their league [MLS] has been growing in an ordered, slow, but consistent way in all senses: commercially, infrastructure, financial structure, diffusion and on the field," Irarragori said in his statement.
