The president and commissioner of Mexican soccer’s top-tier Liga MX, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, resigned last Friday amid the league considering a potential $1.25 billion investment offer from Apollo Global Management.
Following a meeting of the 18 Liga MX owners, Rodriguez – who has been at the helm of the competition since May 2023 – has stepped down.
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Rodriguez has also been the head of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for the last 18 months, and it has now been reported that he was heavily pushing the Apollo deal (initially reported earlier this month), and had wanted a vote to be held at the Friday meeting.
However, there was no vote, and the FMF subsequently released a statement saying that Rodriguez was resigning for personal reasons, with Mikel Arriola now stepping in as interim commissioner.
Rodriguez had previously sent a letter to owners stating that an agreement with Apollo could represent the “largest transformation project” in Mexican soccer's history.
A deal would have concluded months of negotiations between the respective parties, which started with Apollo's $1.25 billion cash injection.
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By GlobalDataThe letter stated that an agreement would give Liga MX more capital, stronger corporate governance, and a reorganization of the soccer pyramid in the country. It would also include the creation of a new entity, ‘La Comercializadora’, to manage commercial rights such as sponsorships and media rights deals.
Moelis, the global investment bank, has been advising Liga MX in its talks with prospective investors.
Rodriguez held a senior position at the Grupo Televisa Mexican broadcast heavyweight before joining the FMF, at which point he replaced Yon De Luisa as president.
During his time in charge of Mexican soccer, he has been tasked with leading a restructuring process, including the potential centralization of TV and commercial rights.
Unlike most major US and European leagues, Liga MX currently allows individual teams to negotiate their own commercial partnerships.
That has allowed bigger clubs like Chivas and Club America to sign lucrative broadcast deals in the US, where the Mexican league is the most-watched competition. As such, getting the top Liga MX sides to agree to centralize their broadcast rights has typically proven to be a challenge.
In the US, Liga MX games are spread across several networks, including Fox Sports, Univision, Telemundo, Estrella TV, Vix, Peacock, and Tubi.
On the subject of the potential Apollo deal, the FMF said: “The assembly requested the interim commissioner to form a committee of 10 teams in January to continue negotiations with the investment fund, with a special emphasis on strengthening the corporate governance of the institution, and move forward with the all-important transformation project for our soccer.”
Founded in 1990, Apollo has around $500 billion of assets under management and 17 offices around the world.
The firm’s sports work includes financing for some of European soccer’s biggest teams, and major US leagues like the NFL, basketball’s NBA, and ice hockey’s NHL.
