InterLiga irks some of its top players

By Jaime Cardenas

Jan. 2, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

InterLiga, the winter soccer exhibition featuring eight Mexican teams playing two weeks of round-robin matches in the United States, starts its fifth tournament today, but under mounting criticism from players and coaches. InterLiga, scheduled during the winter break of Mexico’s first-division soccer club season, awards two teams a spot in the prestigious Copa Libertadores tournament in South America.

No club has been more critical of InterLiga than Pumas UNAM, which kicks off InterLiga with a match against Monterrey in Frisco, Texas, today.

Pumas is leaving its starters behind in Mexico and instead is fielding a team of mostly younger players. The team’s controversial coach, Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti, at first said he was not coming to InterLiga either but changed his mind last week.

His primary complaint is that InterLiga is a marketing vehicle for the Mexican soccer federation to generate extra cash while denying more deserving teams a chance to play in the Copa Libertadores tournament.

Four Mexican soccer clubs qualify for the Libertadores tournament -- the winners of Mexico’s first-division fall and spring seasons, plus two teams from InterLiga play. Ferretti contends that Libertadores qualifying should depend only on Mexican league play, not from a round of play in the U.S.

“To have to go to the United States, to have to make a big spectacle of playing in InterLiga to select two [teams], I don’t like it,” Ferretti said.

Pumas’ starters, who returned to practice last week, were also sour about InterLiga. “I don’t know if it’s just to make more money, but it certainly does tire out the players,” said Pumas forward Ignacio Scocco.

Defender Israel Castro added that he doesn’t like the tournament because its sole purpose is to create extra money for soccer federations and team owners.

InterLiga is scheduled to continue until 2010, but Castro said there is a movement by players and coaches to end the tournament after that.

Pumas’ sports director, Mario Trejo, acknowledged that some team owners have discussed that possibility. “There’s an initiative to end the InterLiga tournament in the future,” Trejo told ESPNDeportes.com last week. “It’s not about rejecting a tournament . . . but about finding a better way to qualify for Libertadores.”

InterLiga concludes play next week in Carson with the final round of doubleheaders on Jan. 9 and 12 at the Home Depot Center.

Other teams in the tournament are America, Atlas, Toluca, Cruz Azul, San Luis and Morelia.

And even though qualifying for Libertadores in a preseason tournament is not ideal, Morelia’s Coach David Patino hopes to take full advantage of the situation.

“To me, this is an opportunity -- and that’s what I’m communicating to my team,” Patino said last week. “This is an opportunity to win a ticket to a very important tournament.”

jaime.cardenas@latimes.com

Schedule

Winter exhibition season for eight Mexican teams:

Today at Frisco, Texas

1. Group B, Monterrey vs. Pumas

2. Group B, Cruz Azul vs. San Luis

Thursday at Houston

3. Group A, Toluca vs. Atlas

4. Group A, Morelia vs. America

Saturday at Houston

5. Group B, Cruz Azul vs. Monterrey

6. Group B, San Luis vs. Pumas