Owners of luxury boxes at Azteca Stadium, Banorte Stadium, or Mexico City Stadium (whatever the real name is) are being threatened with being kept out of their own property by FIFA.
FIFA’s voracious appetite and the subservience of businesses and the government are writing horror stories that surpass those of past World Cups.
The box owners bought their spaces decades ago with 99-year contracts, and some even in perpetuity. The contract gives them full access to their parking spaces and boxes with the maximum number of people stipulated in the contract. The typical number is 12 to 16 people.
They can bring their beers, sodas, sandwiches, chanpagne, duck à l’orange, caviar, or tacos. Whatever they want. They can even rent out the box or sell individual tickets to the box without exceeding the maximum capacity.
This has been happening since the Azteca Stadium was founded back in 1966. World Cup finals, Liga MX finals, friendly matches, or concerts.
But… they weren’t going to be allowed in for this World Cup. They fought, they won respect for their right to enter, but they were restricted from selling tickets and using the parking spaces in their box. They kept fighting and won, but now they’re being prevented from restocking their kitchenettes and refrigerators.
Water, beer, food, and even peanuts have to be bought from the food service provider for the World Cup games, which is FIFA, of course. Packages cost at least 1000 pesos for a combo meal of a Torta and a Coke, a gelatin for dessert, and a Mexican Duvalín candy per person. (For box seats.)
They obtained an injunction from a judge, but FIFA already controls access and doesn’t allow them to restock. Mexican laws and contracts that grant rights to private entities don’t matter to them.
In Mexico, FIFA won’t pay a single peso in taxes and has the right to provide a “VIP list” so that companies or individuals that FIFA designates can be tax-exempt.
It costs Mexico 61 billion pesos to be ready with all of FIFA’s requirements. But in return, they didn’t even accept the purple axolotl that Mexico City had ordered as a “folkloric” decoration.
They even started confiscating merchandise in the “Clean Zones” designated by FIFA. Any counterfeit or original World Cup-related item in the “Clean Zones” is confiscated or impounded. This applies to the stadium, the surrounding esplanade, and even key avenues and public parks outside the stadium. Everything sold must be from the “FIFA” operator: water, food, keychains, clothing, everything. And if food is sold outside the stadium, they require takeout orders to be wrapped in white bags and served on white plates.
The World Cup atmosphere has barely begun, and for many experts, the greed of FIFA is already targeting the street vendors selling tortas and ice cream, restaurants, and bars located outside the stadiums, all devoured by the insatiable jaws of the governing body of football.
