Wednesday, May 13th 2026
Challenges of passion, tradition and security for the expected football superevent
The biggest World Cup in history is only a month away, but the real football fever has not yet been felt everywhere. What is the atmosphere in one of the host countries, Mexico?
In Mexico City, there are more soccer fields (with small sides) than parks. Almost every neighborhood has at least one, and soccer is played everywhere. The love of the game in this Latin American country is strong even without the World Cup.
“Welcome to Mexico! We welcome you with open arms,” says Edgar Uribe, a recreational soccer player who organizes a small tournament every Saturday between teams of masons and potters.
Typical of Mexico, everyone participates, soccer unites. Uribe’s football colleague and friend, Jonathan Masías, considers Mexicans the best fans in the world: “Football is everything here! We absorb it, we sweat it. Foreigners will adore it!”
The opening match of the tournament will be played in the Mexican capital on June 11, at the famous Azteca Stadium, the construction of which in the 1960s was overseen by the now 86-year-old architect Luis Martínez del Campo.
“Our stadium is a real source of pride, a symbol of stability. This fills me with joy,” he says.
The Azteca Stadium is the record holder and the only stadium to host the opening match of the World Cup for the third time. It also has a great historical weight: here in 1970 the Brazilian Pelé lifted the winner’s cup, and also here in 1986 Diego Armando Maradona was declared world champion with his Argentina.
The architect believes that it was the special culture of the fans that contributed to those football legends. After a two-year renovation, the stadium still meets World Cup standards, which he says he is particularly proud of.
But not everyone is as enthusiastic as he is. Prolonged construction, water shortages and numerous traffic jams have angered people living in the stadium’s neighborhood.
On the other hand, drug cartel violence marks the daily lives of many Mexicans, with an estimated 120,000 people missing. In late February, the Mexican military killed a cartel leader, after which the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel retaliated with roadblocks, shootings and robberies.
The situation has calmed down since then. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum emphasizes that all services are coordinating security. So far, there have been no new waves of violence. Two weeks ago, special forces arrested another cartel leader, without further escalation.
Architect Martínez del Campo fears the security situation could discourage visitors from coming to Mexico during the World Cup. “The Mexican crowd is warm and passionate, they show spontaneous emotions. They can celebrate and cheer furiously, but also whistle aggressively when the team makes a mistake. Such emotions are not found anywhere else in the world,” he says.
However, international interest remains weak at the moment. As in the US, demand for hotels and airfare is below last year’s level, albeit for different reasons. The Mexican government expects 5.5 million tourists during the World Cup, but actual bookings are still far from those numbers.
Edgar and Jonathan, local recreational soccer players, don’t want to hear about all the doubts about the lack of foreign fans. Their playground in downtown Mexico City is already festively decorated. Across the city, mini-soccer pitches have been refurbished and strips of the national colors – green, white and red – say: “We are ready”. /tesheshi
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Source: prizrenpost
Etiketa: Brief
