At the beginning of the 2025 Clausura Tournament of Liga MX, the Porto club arrived in Mexico to include Martín Anselmi in their technical team, leaving the Cruz Azul project incomplete and triggering a legal conflict that has yet to be resolved. The departure of the Argentine coach forced the cementers to resort to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to analyze the case and seek a possible sanction against Porto and Martín Anselmi, which has caused a long wait with prospects of a heavy sanction.
An ESPN report indicates that the Cruz Azul environment is confident that the mediating body will rule in their favor and request Porto to pay 7 million dollars. This amount corresponds to 5.8 million for Anselmi's release clause and 1.2 million for the damages caused by his abrupt departure. Although it is estimated that the resolution may take six to eight weeks to be issued, the club's legal team is optimistic about this process.
After two successful seasons with Cruz Azul, Martín Anselmi expressed his desire to leave the club, which led Porto to negotiate for his services just two matches after the start of the Clausura 2025. This sudden change raised suspicions of a possible prior negotiation by the coach with the European team, heightened by the initial offer of two million dollars in payment installments, followed by a proposal of four million, a figure lower than the release clause, and finally by the decision to take Anselmi without paying any amount.
It is worth noting that Anselmi's release clause established a differentiated price for Liga MX teams, category A European teams, and category B European teams, which generated disputes as Porto considered itself belonging to category A.
