Mexico: More Than Three Venues
By Francisco Javier González @fjg_td
ROAD TO THE WORLD CUP
The 2026 World Cup holds the rare power to deliver two formidable messages. One aimed at the world at large. The other directed inward — toward Mexico itself.
Football is a sport with superpowers. It is difficult to find any corner of the earth where it is not celebrated, played, watched, or at the very least known.
That Mexico will host a World Cup for the third time is more than a distinction — it is an opportunity to be admired.
The first message, sent to the planet, is one of raising a hand and reminding the world not only that we are alive, but that we constitute a country that is rich and exemplary in countless ways. A place that lives with its problems yet refuses to surrender in the search for solutions. A nation with far more good than bad. One that polarizes, yet comes together. And one that extends an open invitation to all — to visit, to discover, to savor, and to share in a World Cup that will also be celebrated far beyond the three stadiums hosting fourteen matches.
The second message is directed at ourselves — a reaffirmation of who we are. Contradictory yet united. Distrustful yet warm. Skeptical yet hopeful.
Just as we evoke Pelé, Maradona and their legendary feats at the Azteca, Platini or Negrete‘s stunning goal against Bulgaria, tomorrow we will speak of the geniuses of the game who will arrive in Mexico in 2026. Stories that will pass through the Estadio Azteca, the modern stadium of Monterrey, and the arena in Guadalajara — three host cities that will once again place the country on the map of world football. Tickets will be limited and each stadium holds a finite number of seats, but a World Cup is not experienced solely from the stands. It unfolds in the streets, on shared screens, and in the collective emotion that courses through an entire nation.
Discover more in the latest edition of Elite Business — a journey that reveals why the 2026 World Cup may mean far more than matches and stadiums: a story that connects memories, cities, and even that small forgotten pitch deep in the Amazon jungle, where a child chases a ball with the same unbridled hope that will illuminate the grandest stages of world football.
More in the latest edition of Elite Business
Read what matters.
'