Two weeks before kickoff, and the country that bleeds football is struggling to care. Mexico — one of three co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup — has seen a chunk of its fanbase go from excited to deeply cynical, and the reasons aren't hard to find.
The word being thrown around is "money-grabbing." For a country where football is genuinely woven into daily life, the sense that the World Cup has been handed to corporate interests rather than actual fans is doing real damage to the atmosphere a home tournament is supposed to generate.
When the Host Nation Feels Like a Spectator
There's something particularly deflating about this. Mexico lobbied hard for co-hosting rights alongside the US and Canada. When the bid was awarded, the reaction was euphoric. Now, less than a fortnight from the opening match, that goodwill has eroded.
The shift matters beyond the cultural optics. A flat home crowd affects the experience on the pitch — and neutrals tend to back hosts who actually show up emotionally. If Mexican venues feel half-engaged, the tournament loses one of its most reliable storylines: the host nation riding a wave of national fervour deep into the knockout rounds. El Tri's odds in group-stage markets have always carried a home advantage premium. That premium looks shakier if the stands aren't behind them.
Co-hosting also dilutes the effect. Matches are spread across three countries, which means Mexico only gets a slice of the atmosphere rather than owning it outright. That's always been the structural weakness of this setup — and the commercial grievances are making it worse.
The Resentment Is Real
Fans who were first in line for this moment now feel priced out of it. That's not a minor PR problem for FIFA — it's a symptom of how the tournament's commercial machinery consistently alienates the people it's supposedly celebrating.
Mexico's supporters have shown up through decades of quarter-final heartbreaks and group-stage shocks. The fact that a home World Cup is struggling to win them back says plenty about who this tournament is actually being run for.
