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Oscar Perez dreams of a day when the Fundidores of Monterrey, in their black and yellow jerseys, clash with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in black and gold — the gritty gridiron representatives of two steel towns doing their best to grow the game.

Perez, the CEO of Mexico’s Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional (LFA), the country’s only professional gridiron loop, thinks as big as his Canadian Football League counterpart, commissioner Randy Ambrosie. The two dreamers have been collaborating on a multi-phase partnership.

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“We have dreamt a lot of things but in order to win a football game you first have to score a touchdown and we are starting to work on that,” Perez said Monday night through a translator. “If both leagues work hard and smart and with a sincere and positive spirit, we can achieve great things.”

To start that journey, the two leagues are working on an exchange of players.

Perez said it is his preference to place at least nine and hopefully 18 Mexican players with the nine CFL teams for the 2019 season. That plan may also involve Canadian players, perhaps juniors or undrafted kids out of CIS, suiting up in Mexico.