Deportiva Venados

Los Venados go into this season carrying the weight of a title nobody let them cash in. In 2025-26 the club won the Liga Premier Serie A, beating Alacranes de Durango 2-1 on aggregate in the final, and by rights that should have meant promotion to the Liga de Expansión MX. It didn't happen: the Estadio Alonso Diego Molina, their 2,500-seat home in the Tamanché neighbourhood of Mérida, failed the infrastructure certification the higher division requires, and the club's request to use the larger Estadio Carlos Iturralde Rivero was turned down by the very rival that plays there.

That rival is Venados F.C., a separate organisation despite the shared name and shared home city, and the two meet in what is known locally as the Clásico Yucateco. Deportiva Venados grew out of the CF Mérida franchise, bought and rebranded in 2014 under owner and president David Lago Ancona, entering the Tercera División that same season before the current name was formally adopted in 2015. The Copa Promesas MX followed in 2025, won on penalties against Tigres de Álica after a 1-1 draw, and before that the club had already taken the Liga TDP's Zona A in 2021-22, only to lose the national "Campeón de Campeones" final to Mazorqueros "B".

The colours are yellow with green trim, the crest gives the club its nickname, Los Venados — the deer.