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Makoto’s WC Diary
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Soccer World Cup
Makoto Asahara
Published 23.50
MEXICO CITY. Yesterday I thought American afternoon traffic was a scourge.
Today I am a much wiser person.
The Dutch car navigation manufacturer TomTom releases annually a list of the cities in the world with the worst traffic. Based on all possible parameters, such as the number of traffic jams, average speed, average distance per 15 minutes of driving and the number of hours road users lose per year by being stuck in traffic queues.
Can you guess which city topped both 2024 and 2025? Where motorists apparently wasted 184 hours of their lives a year sitting in traffic jams?
In this way, I should not be surprised that I am currently sitting on a completely stationary Fifa bus somewhere in the city center Mexico City.
How I generally got to the media bus, stationary at the time of writing, is a story and an adventure in itself.
Should have guessed something already then
Before I got to know the Mexican traffic for the first time, I chose to get to know the surrounding area of the city in peace and quiet – more specifically, go and take a look at the “Angel de la Independiencia”, the angel of independence. One of the city’s most famous landmarks and monuments.
And even there you should have guessed what was approaching.
Because there were already protest banners there. There had already been a mass of people gathered around the enormous roundabout. To say the least, protests were also present before the premiere last week.
But I was busy haggling with street vendors (because if there’s one thing I’m weak for, it’s souvenirs and trinkets, Japanese that I am anyway).
The bus that never showed up
But enough about that.
With light steps I bounced towards the stop of the media bus that would take me to the evening’s press activities at the Azteca Stadium, or Estadio Ciudad de Mexico as it is called in the official Fifa parlance.
When I stood there, however, the bus was not there at the specified time, 2 p.m.
I am in conversation with some British photographers with far more Mexican experience than the undersigned.
– It’s the protests that locked everything down, notes the more senior of the two.
A quarter of an hour after the indicated bus time (without a bus nearby) it is decided to walk away from the half-closed Paseo de Reforma to find an Uber instead. I of course gratefully follow.
After a brisk walk straight through a market street (with surprisingly well-made replica national team jerseys, among many other things) we find a place that makes sense to order an Uber.
The time given as estimated arrival time is frighteningly late.
And then it suddenly comes rolling on the horizon.
The media bus.
Straight into the chaos
Wildly waving our accreditation badges, we actually manage to get the bus to pull in, stop and pick us up. Something that would have felt unthinkable in most other places.
As soon as we step on it, we realize that it actually hasn’t yet gotten to where it was supposed to go. Because it is completely empty.
But we sit on the bus. And it turns out after being stuck in more traffic that the bus simply decides to skip trying to pick up more journalists.
Whether that means we are a lucky trio who actually make it to a Colombian press conference, however, must be left very much unsaid.
Most indications are that we do not.
How on earth…?
For now, the world’s worst traffic is combined with ongoing protests and blockades in the city.
Of course, it also raises questions for tomorrow.
Because if this is the case on a completely normal Mexico City Tuesday the day before Uzbekistan-Colombia – how will a completely normal Mexico City Wednesday be when Uzbekistan-Colombia is actually to be played?
Then it is still Uzbekistan–Colombia we are talking about. With all due respect, not the brightest highlight and crowd puller on the WC schedule.
I wonder how on earth they managed to pull together a World Cup opener with Mexico a week ago? Probably because that match started significantly earlier and thus allowed buses to leave significantly earlier, but still.
I wonder how on earth a city with this traffic actually managed to pull together a workable WC event in general?
It’s actually impressive on some weird left.
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