Football Travel by Outside Write
Sep 28, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 13 segments
I welcome Dr Pete Watson from the University of Leeds back onto the podcast to discuss the legacy of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Latin American sides. Why have Mexico and Colombia not progressed? Is…
Pete WatsonGuest
Chris LeeHost
There are eight nations from Mexico and Panama and Central America and six South American conmebol countries.
I kind of mentioned on a different podcast that Mexico had kind of gone under the radar a little bit because of all the potential scandal before the World Cup that was focusing on Donald Trump and the USA with...
You know, ICE and the various visa problems, security, you know, were teams and referees and so on going to be let in? As it turned out, some were, some weren't, and some very unsatisfactorily were, not allowed in enough.
But Mexico kind of went under the radar and there were problems that Mexico potentially had.
There were quite a lot of issues around accessibility to the stadiums, what kind of people were being displaced from certain areas of the city to not be part of the eyes of the public glare.
There were lots of worries about were there going to be any drug cartel related issues, particularly with the capture and death of El Menchil before.
While the environmental thing was an issue, but it kind of remained an issue just within Mexico to a larger extent, or only very specific media that decided to go a little bit away from the football stadiums and look at what some of the outside impacts on the tournament were.
I think that one general issue for World Cup coverage was that they dropped the ball, if you like, by looking at the ball too much, the press and journalists.
I think that there are so many kind of footballing issues and footballing controversies that not enough of the non-football issues remained an issue throughout the tournament.
But Mexico had a good tournament as hosts, kind of pretty much the same as the last two, actually, in 1786, in that their games seemed to go well.
Their president managed not to get involved with influencing the direction of who should play and who should not.
We didn't seem to have any major security issues or crime issues that made the international headlines.
The fan experience, I know this is something you've discussed on other podcasts as well with someone else, seemed to go very positively.
So Mexico once again came across as a welcoming nation that did their end of the bargain particularly well.
There are eight nations from Mexico and Panama and Central America and six South American conmebol countries.
I kind of mentioned on a different podcast that Mexico had kind of gone under the radar a little bit because of all the potential scandal before the World Cup that was focusing on Donald Trump and the USA with...
You know, ICE and the various visa problems, security, you know, were teams and referees and so on going to be let in? As it turned out, some were, some weren't, and some very unsatisfactorily were, not allowed in enough.
But Mexico kind of went under the radar and there were problems that Mexico potentially had.
There were quite a lot of issues around accessibility to the stadiums, what kind of people were being displaced from certain areas of the city to not be part of the eyes of the public glare.
There were lots of worries about were there going to be any drug cartel related issues, particularly with the capture and death of El Menchil before.
While the environmental thing was an issue, but it kind of remained an issue just within Mexico to a larger extent, or only very specific media that decided to go a little bit away from the football stadiums and look at what some of the outside impacts on the tournament were.
I think that one general issue for World Cup coverage was that they dropped the ball, if you like, by looking at the ball too much, the press and journalists.
I think that there are so many kind of footballing issues and footballing controversies that not enough of the non-football issues remained an issue throughout the tournament.
But Mexico had a good tournament as hosts, kind of pretty much the same as the last two, actually, in 1786, in that their games seemed to go well.
Their president managed not to get involved with influencing the direction of who should play and who should not.
We didn't seem to have any major security issues or crime issues that made the international headlines.
The fan experience, I know this is something you've discussed on other podcasts as well with someone else, seemed to go very positively.
So Mexico once again came across as a welcoming nation that did their end of the bargain particularly well.
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