With the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada, just months away, preparations in the Mexican capital are raising concerns among some of the most vulnerable workers. While the Mexican Football Federation estimates that the event could generate nearly $3 billion for the national economy, some residents are already reporting a sharp drop in their income and the risk of forced displacement.
Montserrat Fuentes, a 42-year-old sex worker, has been working for twenty years on Calzada de Tlalpan Avenue, near the legendary Estadio Azteca, where the opening ceremony will be held. But since the start of construction work, including the building of a bike lane and nighttime closures of metro stations, she says she has lost more than half of her income. The barriers installed along the road prevent cars from stopping, drastically reducing the number of clients.
According to the advocacy organization Street Brigade, approximately 15,000 people in the capital make a living from sex work, where the activity is not criminalized. Its president, Elvira Madrid Romero, believes that the aid promised by local authorities—small monthly allowances and food deliveries—is woefully inadequate. Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada announced the creation of 58 official meeting points along the avenue, but sex workers say they have yet to see any concrete results.
The situation is also affecting street vendors. In the underpasses leading to the metro stations serving the stadium, hundreds of vendors have set up their stalls for decades. Esperanza Toribio Rojas, 68, sells smoothies in one of these tunnels. She fears being displaced as part of the city's "Steps to Utopia" program, which aims to transform the area into cultural and sporting spaces before the competition. Representatives of the vendors say that several dozen have already been evicted, despite ongoing negotiations with the city.
These tensions are part of a broader context. In a country where more than half of the working population is employed in the informal economy, many fear being left out of the promised economic benefits. Critics point out that major sporting events have often been accompanied by expulsions and displacements, such as the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In Mexico City, where rising rents due to the influx of tourists and expatriates are already fueling frustrations, the World Cup is reigniting anxieties. For workers like Montserrat Fuentes and shopkeepers like Esperanza Toribio, the stakes go beyond sports: it's about preserving their livelihoods. "We just hope that when the World Cup is over, things will go back to normal," says Fuentes, fearing she'll be displaced once again in the name of the city's image.
