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WHAT HAPPENED?
Ahead of Mexico’s 2-0 victory over the U.S. men’s national team in an international friendly earlier this week, Mexican Football Federation executive president Ivar Sisniega told reporters that the FMF is doing “detailed planning” to prepare for the 2026 World Cup.
Mexico are hosting the tournament along with the United States and Canada, with the international windows serving as important tests for the teams – but also the federations. The FMF is using the next two years to prepare their stadiums, fans and cities for the global event.
One important piece of that is scheduling matches against opponents outside CONCACAF – and they’re going about it in a unique way, too.
“We’re doing detailed planning with each of the FIFA dates, and some dates are certainly getting complicated,” Sisniega said. “We’ve even talked with the U.S. to do the double-headers we sometimes do, where we will both play the same two teams, and that means it’s more attractive for those teams to come and play for us, because they’re playing against both of our teams.
“We’re going to continue looking at clubs. Some people maybe didn’t believe in the Valencia option, in the end, it turned out to be a very solid team that is playing in La Liga, and they play together. So there’s different conditions. We’re looking at and going to South America, possibly in January. We’re looking at that option, you just have to find the best option possible.”
And the hope is that the efforts will benefit all of North America.
“We think a lot of teams will want to come and play here before the World Cup,” he said. “And I think that’s maybe a good thing for Canada, USA and Mexico.”
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@GettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE
As a host country, Mexico has three stadiums that will hold matches – Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Estadio Akron in Guadalajara and Estadio BBVA in Monterrey.
Preparations at all three grounds are already underway, including different transportation and safety safeguards, with FIFA-appointed groups handling all the specifics in each three cities.
“We’re proud, ” Sisniega said. “We’re happy with the three stadiums…. FIFA is working on it, but there are local organizing committees in each of these cities to make sure that everything runs smoothly. All three cities have hosted major events, perhaps events with much larger attendance than the World Cup game, so we’re confident that they have the capacity and the people with sufficient experience and knowledge to do a great job. We’re sure of that.”
WHAT’S MORE?
In addition to scheduling matches and preparing their venues for the forthcoming tournament, the FMF is hoping that the World Cup will bring more to the country off the pitch, too.
Improvement of the domestic game in LIGA MX and further extending their reach to the youth levels and the women’s game is a priority, as well.
“Perhaps differently in the U.S., football is very popular in Mexico.,” he said. “I don’t think we need to promote this sport more, but we are using the World Cup as a way to, one, revitalize the LIGA MX and do some improvements with the LIGA MX. And more importantly, something we haven’t done before is we’re going to be focusing on some grassroots efforts to get more kids to play football in the schools, to get the youth leagues more developed, and even use it to grow the women’s game or women’s participation.
“So really, we want to use these events as a platform so that more children, more young people want to play in the very beautiful sport of football.”
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GettyWHAT NEXT FOR MEXICO?
El Tri are back in action this November in the Nations League quarterfinals, where they will take on Honduras in a two-legged affair. They will travel to Honduras on Nov. 15 and then return home on Nov. 19. The matches will be their final of the calendar year.
