How the Estadio Azteca became the World Cup’s greatest home |
In the world of football, only a handful of stadiums have reached mythical status. The Maracana, Wembley or La Bombonera are all recognized internationally as hallowed turf for fans. However, none of those come even close to México’s Estadio Azteca when it comes to World Cup history.
On June 11, when the ball rolls for the first time in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it’ll set the record as the only ground to host the tournament’s opening game for a third time: 1970, 1986 and 2026.
Having recently celebrated its 60th birthday, let’s take a look at how the Estadio Azteca — literally, Aztec Stadium — came to be, how it got its iconic name and how it’s evolved through the ages.
A dream of Mexican football
The most famous stadium in all of México is the brainchild of two men, Emilio Azcárraga Milmo and Guillermo Cañedo.
Azcárraga, son of Televisa media network founder Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, was a businessman who bought Club América in 1959.
The purchase of one of Mexico’s most successful and well-supported teams put him on the path of Cañedo, president of Club Deportivo Zacatepec, the leading Mexican team at the time.
Backed by Azcárraga, Cañedo reached the presidency of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF, for its Spanish initials) and started working on the dream of hosting the FIFA World Cup by 1970.
A key step in that was the construction of a massive, brand-new stadium that could rival the world’s biggest and most important football grounds.
Riding the wave of a flourishing era in the country’s economy known........