Progress has stalled for Mexican football in the last few years, with the third-place finish at the CONCACAF Nations League last week, which led to the sacking of Diego Cocca as coach being the latest setback.

Mexico was knocked out of the group stage at the Qatar 2022 World Cup and has one title in all competitions since 2016.

Their Under-20 squad failed to qualify for the 2023 U20 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics.

Adding to that, the women's team also missed the Paris 2024 ticket and will not be seen at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Jaime Lozano has been appointed to replace Cocca on an interim basis and former secretary general of Panam Sports Ivar Sisniega, who was appointed as Executive President of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), believes Lozano "understands" the assignment.

"It is a critical moment and time to take a hard look at what has been going on and we are restructuring the MFF and that will be a big part of my role," Sisniega told insidethegames.

"The Gold Cup is the most important tournament for CONCACAF.

"We have an interim coach for that.

"Lozano is a relatively young coach.

"He won bronze at Tokyo 2020 with players we have in the team now.

"There is no condition that if he is successful, he will stay on.

"He understands that and is coming to help us at this crucial time."

New teams such as St. Kitts and Nevis will be joining regulars like Canada and Costa Rica in the tournament co-hosted by US and Canada.

Qatar, the 2021 semi-finalists, have been invited again as part of the tie up between Qatar Football Federation and CONCACAF.

USA - who are in Group A with Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago - defeated Mexico 1-0 in the 2021 Gold Cup.

Mexico, the most successful team in the history of the tournament with eight titles, are in Group B with Haiti, Honduras and Qatar.

Group C features Costa Rica, El Salvador, Martinique and Panama.

Costa Rica and Panama are expected to qualify from the group as the teams with most experience in the tournament.

However, form does not favour Costa Rica while El Salvador could be the dark horses in the group and will be hoping to take inspiration from head coach Hugo Perez, who helped them reach the final stages of FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Canada are the favourites to top Group D and will face Cuba, Guadeloupe, Guatemala.

They will be hoping to win their 3rd time Gold Cup title and are in good form having reached the CONCACAF Nations League final, where they lost to US 2-0.