Liga MX Owners are Colluding to Keep their Players at Home, and Keep them Underpaid

Professional soccer players hold an unusually large amount of power compared to athletes from other sports. Usually, if a soccer player wants to move to another team in another league in another country, his team will accommodate him for fear that a discontented employee could disrupt an entire organization. Contracts be damned, if a player wants to leave, he can leave.

This is true almost everywhere across the globe, but not in the draconian world of Mexican soccer, where even an out-of-contract player has problems leaving his former team. Liga MX owners have a gentlemen's agreement where they privately acknowledge not to sign each other's free agents. This allows teams to control all player movement and also allows teams to tramp down salaries. Additionally, Liga MX's pre-season draft in Cancun allows owners to personally hash out transfer deals for players with one another—without the players actually being part of the process. Often, a player won't even know he's been sent to another team until the deal is reported by the media.

By definition, these actions are collusionary, and yet players have little to no power to stop them. For years, players have spoken out about these practices but have been unable to force any changes.

But a tipping point may have arrived, and interestingly enough, it has come as a result of Liga MX's and the Mexican soccer federation's success in churning out quality prospects.

More than a decade ago, the Mexican federation set a goal of improving youth development, and for the most part, Mexico has succeeded in that regard. Several of Mexico's youth teams—most notably the U-23 team, which beat the Neymar led Brazil team in the gold medal match of the 2012 Olympics in London—have won international titles, and its young players have gotten worldwide acclaim.

While U.S. players continue to return to their domestic league after failed stints in Europe, more and more Mexican players are heading to teams all over the old continent. And yet it's likely that even more players are talented enough to play in Europe but are held back because of Liga MX's restrictive player policies.

"One glaring example of what I've experienced, and what I've known to happen, was when I first came over here to Europe, when I first debuted here, the criticism was that the Mexican player was simply mediocre, or that they didn't like to challenge themselves so they stay in Mexico because the pay very well there," PSV midfielder Andres Guardado told ESPN Deportes in an interview that aired last week. "But through the years I've noticed after getting to know a lot of players, many players have offers and many players have options to play outside of the country, but it's the club director that doesn't permit it. They still are of the mentality that players should be sold like if we were all like Messi."

Guardado suggests that Liga MX owners are setting exorbitantly high prices for players in order to dissuade interest. At the same time, owners can then still claim they made an effort to give a player an opportunity to play overseas, but that nobody was willing to pay the market price.

Ultimately, it may even be in Liga MX's best interest to appease players who are looking to play out of the country. If restrictive player movement policies continue, Liga MX may see Mexican players decide to play in the more player friendly MLS once they return from a European stint.

"Nobody does anything to fix things," Guardado told ESPN. "Or it's just difficult to find solutions. And us as footballers are also at fault. We allow ourselves to be managed by executives as they please. And that's the most prominent problem in Mexican football."

But players are starting to stand up for themselves—even Guardado's comments were especially candid since players are usually fearful of being blacklisted by Liga MX owners—which may ultimately break the stranglehold teams have on players. It's one thing to restrict a player from moving from one Mexican league team to another, but it's quite another to force a player to stay in Mexico when he has playing opportunities in Europe.

Former Tigres forward Alan Pulido's situation could be the groundbreaking case players have been seeking. For almost a year, the 23-year-old Pulido was restricted from playing while in a contract dispute with the team. Pulido argued that he should be free to sign with a team in Europe because his contract with Tigres had expired. But the team argued that he was still under contract.

In December, not surprisingly, the Mexican federation ruled in favor of the team. But ultimately, a FIFA tribunal overturned the federation's decision, which allowed Pulido to sign with the Greek Superleague team Levadiakos in February. It wasn't necessarily an ideal situation—or the team, really—that Pulido had wanted, but at least he was given his professional freedom. And in doing so he might have set a precedent for other young talented players to follow.

Pulido had won a major victory but it had also come at a big price. He had sacrificed nearly a year of his playing career in the middle of his prime. And that's the biggest weapon Liga MX owners still have over players: the threat of a long court dispute that keeps the player off the field. But Pulido showed it was a worthwhile fight.

"I always kept a positive attitude despite all the problems," Pulido told ESPN in a recent interview. "I had complete faith in my representatives. And now this is the end result. I'm finally starting to live out my dreams out here in Europe. What more could I ask for?"

In the end, Pulido may prove to be a pivotal figure in Mexican soccer history: the rare player who fought for his rights and won. Now Mexican players know that they have FIFA's backing in case they want to play out their contracts and then sign overseas. Because ultimately, players like Pulido aren't asking for anything more than the freedom that is available to most every other player in the world.