Mexico, May 14. The Spanish LaLiga will take advantage of the atmosphere of the 2026 World Cup to get closer to Mexico and the United States, which will host matches this summer with Atlético de Madrid, Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Betis.
“It is a project that we have started this year, the Liga Summer Tour. The idea is to bring four teams from the Spanish league over the next three seasons to play friendlies and preseason matches,” Alejandro de Gabriel Pérez-assured Efe this Sunday. Sauquillo, delegate of Laliga in Mexico.
On August 2, Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad, two of the four best teams of the current campaign, will face each other at the BBVA stadium in Monterrey and a couple of hours later Akron de Guadalajara will host the Sevilla-Betis duel .
“Two top players from this season will play in Monterrey and the one in Guadalajara will be a historic match; the first time that the Sevillian derby has been played outside of Seville,” explained Pérez-Sauquillo.
The Laliga office in Mexico has been bringing Mexican fans closer to Spanish football for six years, in which Hugo Sánchez, as Real Madrid’s goalscorer at the end of the last century, and Rafa Márquez, defender of Barcelona in the past decade, are the main Mexican players.
“In six years we have met the objectives above expectations, but there is still a lot to do. We have come to stay, the office was inaugurated with one person and now we have a team; the audience has grown, we have four sponsors and eight clubs are looking at Mexico,” he explained.
BBVA and Akron are, together with Azteca in Mexico City, the stadiums in Mexico that will host the 2026 World Cup that will be organized by Mexico, the United States and Canada; After playing in them, the Spanish teams will go to another World Cup stadium, Oracle Park in San Francisco, the scene of Atletico-Sevilla and Real Sociedad-Betis on August 5.
“The matches will be just over a week before the start of the season, when the squads will be defined and the teams rolled, which will allow for good shows,” explained the manager.
Mexico has been the venue for La Liga matches in recent years and the Azteca hosted the premiere of the Spanish team, after being world champion in South Africa in 2010, however the Spanish have been sporadic presentations, something that the office of the Spanish circuit intends to change with the Summer Tour.
“The idea is to repeat it; this year clubs interested in the Mexican market will come and we hope that after three years, the project will be consolidated,” reported Alejandro de Gabriel.
The LaLiga delegate acknowledges that Hugo Sánchez and Rafael Márquez are the benchmarks, but Mexican fans have diversified their attention to other Spanish teams, partly thanks to the presence of soccer players from the Mexican team.
“Interest in other clubs has grown in Mexico and we are working to make a strong leap in the region, in this case in Mexico, a consolidated market, and in the United States, which is growing,” he concluded.
As part of the preparations for the Summer Tour, the League will organize a gathering in a bar in Guadalajara to witness the Laliga Seville derby on May 21, raffle tickets and prepare other activities related to the friendly Sevilla Betis in August.
“It will be a way for the fans to warm up the engines,” said Pérez-Sauquillo.
