In the Santa Úrsula Coapa neighborhood in the south of Mexico City, everything that makes Mexico such a special country comes together. Colored houses, churches from colonial times with squares in front of them where retirees chat in the shade, noisy taco sellers on the street corners, markets where fresh fruit and vegetables are sold and murals that try to capture the turbulent history of the country.
They are all located around the absolute attraction of this neighborhood: the Estadio Azteca, the largest stadium in Latin America, where some of the most iconic football matches ever were played. The stadium is affectionately called here the ‘colossus of Santa Úrsula’. The upcoming FIFA World Cup, which starts this Thursday, will feature five matches, including the opening match between Mexico and South Africa.
The stadium is hard to miss. An imposing concrete structure, with high pillars that hug the stands like a chandelier. The top ring is red, with the letters Banorte on it. The prominent Mexican bank bought the naming rights to the stadium last year, so people will talk about the Estadio Banorte on official channels during the World Cup. But for Mexicans, and indeed anyone who loves football, it will always be the Estadio Azteca.
In May 2024, the sixty-year-old stadium closed its doors for a major renovation, to meet the strict requirements that the world football association FIFA now imposes on football stadiums, especially for prestigious tournaments such as the World Cup. The stadium’s capacity was expanded from 87,000 to 90,000 seats. New changing rooms and VIP areas were built to provide the FIFA bosses with luxurious accommodation.
New video screens, new lighting and improved WiFi systems were also installed to ensure that the international press can report on the matches without problems. This is how the Estadio Azteca has become a modern stadium. A stadium of the future. But for now, people who think of the Estadio Azteca are mainly about history.
‘Shrine of Mexican Football’
“When you talk about Estadio Azteca, you are talking about the sanctuary of Mexican football,” said Brazilian Pelé, one of the best football players of all time. “There’s just something very special about it. You have to be there to understand that. It’s unique.”
Four years after its opening in 1966, the 1970 World Cup was held in this stadium, among other places. Sixteen countries, including then world champion England, Franz Beckenbauer’s West Germany and Brazil, featuring world stars such as Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Jairzinho, participated in the tournament. Older football fans remember the way Brazil humiliated Italy 4-1 in the final in front of more than 107,000 spectators in the packed Azteca Stadium (safety rules were observed to a lesser extent at the time).
Pélé stands on the shoulders of his teammates after Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in the 1970 World Cup final
Photo Mirrorpix via Getty Images
Sixteen years later, in 1986, Mexico was allowed to organize another World Cup, after Colombia canceled the organization at the last minute due to security reasons. And once again the Estadio Azteca was the place where legendary matches were played. Especially the quarter-final between Argentina and England, in which Diego Maradona scored two goals: one with the ‘Hand of God’, by hitting a cross with his hand over the goalkeeper, and a phenomenal dribble, where he ran from the halfway line past five English players and slid the ball into the goal.
Thirty years after this tournament, Mexico hopes to make history again with the Estadio Azteca as the stage. Getting the stadium ready on time has been a huge job, which, according to some involved, has still not been fully completed.
Diego Maradona celebrates the victory over Germany (3-2) in the 1986 World Cup final.
Photo Getty Images
The festive reopening took place on March 28 with a friendly match between Mexico and Portugal. However, the parking spaces around the stadium were still full of construction debris, prompting fans to use public transport. Hundreds of visitors with a valid ticket missed the match due to problems in Mexico City’s infamous public transport system. Spectators who had bought an expensive ticket in one of the first five rows, close to the field, complained that they barely had a view of the match due to the high billboards. FIFA responded by promising to lower the signs for the World Cup.
‘Nothing positive’
Residents of Santa Úrsula Coapa, who grew up with the stadium as a neighbor and are used to crowds on match days, are tired of the World Cup before it has even started. “There is nothing positive about this for us. It is a celebration of commercialization and expropriation,” says Natalia Jara, resident of Santa Úrsula and spokesperson for a collective of local residents who are opposing the burden they experience from the upcoming World Cup.
Santa Úrsula is one of many neighborhoods in Mexico City with water supply problems, meaning residents often rely on trucks that deliver water once a week. “Normally we only have water problems during the dry season. But due to the enormous amount of water used during the renovation, some households have barely had water for months. And the trucks with water cannot get to their houses because of the broken roads,” says Natalia. According to her, many families also suffer from power outages. “And then there are the enormous traffic problems. All roads are open and there is hardly any progress.”
An anti-World Cup activist writes protest slogans on a canvas outside the Aztec Stadium
Photo AFP
Since it was announced that Mexico would host the World Cup, authorities promised better roads, pedestrian bridges and cycle paths for Santa Úrsula. Investments that not all residents of the middle-class neighborhood are looking forward to, says Natalia. “Rent prices are already rising. And after the World Cup, we expect that because this neighborhood is being renovated, it will no longer be possible for people with a lower income to stay here. We see this everywhere in Mexico City: gentrification means that people who have lived here all their lives have to leave. This neighborhood is going to lose its face.”
She and other residents of the neighborhood have planned several events for the coming weeks. Protestas antimundialista, or anti-World Cup protests, she calls them. On the day of the opening match, among other things, she will be at the Estadio Azteca with her collective to draw attention to what she calls “the true face of the World Cup”.
No local tacos
Entrepreneurs from the neighborhood, especially from the informal sector, were initially eagerly looking forward to the tournament because of the large numbers of fans who travel to Mexico City from all over the world. But due to FIFA’s rules, which state that around football stadiums so-called ‘clean zones’ have to come, there is little left of their initial enthusiasm.
FIFA rules state that within a radius of two kilometers around the stadium, all commercial activities not carried out by official partners of FIFA are prohibited. A slap in the face for the taco vendors of Santa Úrsula, who sell their dishes, famous worldwide as part of the Mexican street food culture, would have loved to sell to football fans.
“We are talking about people who stand along the road every day of the week, from six o’clock in the morning, selling their food,” says Jair Torruco, a union leader representing many taco vendors. “They support their families with that. Now they have to leave street corners where they have been for years a month before the World Cup starts.”
The sellers were assigned another location, outside the “prohibited area”, in a residential area through which, according to him, hardly any traffic passes. Torruco: “The Mexican government presents this tournament as a people’s event, from which everyone benefits. But they are giving the country away to FIFA.”
Street vendors hoped to benefit from the arrival of World Cup supporters, but are not allowed to sell anything in the vicinity of the stadium around matches
Photo Getty Images
Torruco thinks that not only the Mexican vendors and residents of the stadium are victims of the strict rules of the world football association. “If you come to Mexico as a football fan, you don’t just go for the football, do you? Then you want to enjoy the local traditions, don’t you?” Like Natalia Jara, Torruco and other taco sellers have plans to demonstrate around the Estadio Azteca on the day of the opening match. Torruco laughs. “They say that football is a sport of the people, right? Then we will show the rest of the world that day what the people want!”