How the 1986 Mexico World Cup was almost cancelled after a devastating earthquake

Mexico last hosted the World Cup in 1986, but the competition was almost cancelled several months before the start when an earthquake struck the capital, Mexico City, leaving at least 5,000 people dead, 30,000 homeless and much of the city flattened, in one of the worst earthquakes to hit the country.

To this day, the death toll remains disputed, with some estimates putting it as high as 40,000.

There were calls for the World Cup to be cancelled or moved to a neighbouring country. But because the football stadiums, including the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, were still standing, the Mexican government, backed by FIFA, were determined to go ahead with the tournament.

Mexico had stepped in as hosts in 1983 after Colombia withdrew from staging the tournament for economic and security reasons.

Mexico quake toll ‘near 4,000’: second earthquake tremor hits capital

By Michael White in Washington and Peter Chapman in Mexico City

21 September 1985

Little extra damage was reported but the tremors hampered the rescue work by 50,000 troops, police and firemen already struggling with dwindling supplies of water and medicine against fire, fear of disease and the cries of the trapped and injured.

About 250 buildings, mostly in the city centre, fell down and another 50 were in imminent danger of doing so, said officials. Parts of the city had been sealed by police and the military.

At least three hospitals were among buildings either seriously damaged or destroyed with doctors and patients trapped under wreckage. Several churches had caved in only minutes before they would be filling for morning mass.

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Survivors speak of a ‘mighty blow from hell’

By our Foreign staff

21 September 1985

The earthquake hit Mexico like “a mighty blow from hell,” demolishing tower blocks, trapping children in the rubble of their schools, and sending showers of masonry and glass flying across the streets, according to witnesses who survived the disaster.

Within three minutes of the earthquake, at 2.18pm (BST) on Thursday, the centre of Mexico City looked like a war zone, a metaphor used by many of the survivors. “It’s like a big monster, like being bombed or in a war,” one volunteer rescue worker said.

A survivor, Mr Flavio Bocuccia, aged 21, from Rome, described in a trembling voice how he saved his six-year-old brother from falling out of a hotel window when the earthquake started. “I caught Alexandro as he lurched out of the hotel window.

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FIFA play down World Cup fears

By Robert Armstrong

21 September 1985

Fears that a new host nation might have to be found for the 1986 World Cup finals receded when news filtered through from Mexico yesterday that none of the 12 stadiums designated for the tournament was damaged in the earthquake that caused widespread death and destruction. “No immediate emergency measures regarding the World Cup preparations are called for,” said an International Football Federation (FIFA) spokesman.

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Mexican president orders investigation into government popularity following World Cup opening jeers

By Peter Chapman

3 June 1986

Mexico City

President Miguel de la Madrid had ordered a discreet inquiry into how his government’s popularity can be improved after being loudly booed and jeered during the weekend’s opening ceremonies of the World Cup.

With 100,000 people gathered in the Azteca stadium, not a word of the president’s opening speech could be heard as the crowd aired its disapproval of the Mexican authorities. The speech was more audible on television, but so, too, was the crowd’s reaction, which was heard in millions of homes throughout the world.

Most spectators had paid high prices for their seats – in some cases, more than $50 – and were members of the increasingly disenchanted middle classes.

The crowd’s anger was also reserved for the mayor of Mexico City, Mr Ramon Aguirre, who is largely blamed for the government’s failure to tackle the damage left by last year’s earthquakes, and the head of Mexico’s World Cup organisers, Mr Guillermo Canedo, who spoke of the event as symbolising the country’s rise from the ruins. His words did not square with the fate still suffered by many thousands of homeless here.

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(All articles are edited extracts)

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