After Chile routed Mexico in last year’s Copa America, Mexican teams began to turn their eye towards the South American soccer hotbed, in search of players that could perform at the highest level of Mexican soccer. Due to an influx of Chilean players in the league, there has been growing interest in their home country for Liga MX matches; since last summer’s historic 7-0 victory, the number of Chileans in Mexico has climbed from single digits to 22, where it stands now.
It’s therefore not surprising that reports emerged from Chile this week, revealing that the main public television broadcaster in the country, TVN, has reached an agreement to broadcast Liga MX “free-to-air,” starting with the Apertura 2017 season. It’s not clear how many games a week will be shown or which teams will be focused on, but it’s an interesting step, considering you can’t even catch Chilean Primera División games for free on TV in Chile (you have to pay for a separate channel package to watch the country’s top flight).
According to the network, “the Mexican competition is getting more and more Chilean, which is why we want to follow up with the players.” The upcoming Apertura tournament will feature various players from Chile, including the likes of Eduardo Vargas (Tigres), Edson Puch (Pachuca), Nicolas Castillo (Pumas), Felipe Mora and Martín Rodríguez (Cruz Azul), Rodrigo Millar (Morelia), Osvaldo González Manuel Iturra (Necaxa), Alvaro Ramos (León), among others.
In the coming weeks, the network will announce an official schedule for televised games so that fans can tune in to follow their favorite Roja players.