FIFA gave a ticket to the World Cup opening to the president of the host country. Claudia Sheinbaum took it, looked at it, and decided to give it to someone else.
On June 11, 2026, while Estadio Azteca became the first venue in the world to host three World Cup openings —1970, 1986, and now 2026— and Shakira sang the tournament’s official anthem in front of thousands of people, Sheinbaum followed the match from a Fan Fest. Her gesture had a name: protest. The president had stated months earlier that she would not attend any World Cup match played in Mexico, in rejection of the high ticket prices, which left millions of Mexicans out of the stands of their own tournament. The ticket FIFA had given her she handed over to a young Mexican woman passionate about soccer.
The contrast is hard to ignore: the country that opened the biggest tournament in the world did not have its president in the stands. Sheinbaum had planned to watch the matches with the public on the giant screens in the Zócalo, although the social protests complicated that option. What she did do was meet with Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, at the tournament’s ceremonial events. Can a symbolic gesture change something as structural as ticket prices at a World Cup?