The FEMEXFUT announces its new administrative restructuring
Yesterday afternoon, the General Assembly of the Mexican Football Federation announced its new administrative structure, with their eyes put on the 2026 World Cup, which they will co-organize along with the US and Canada.
As announced a few weeks back, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Bas will head the new structure of the federation, however, he will do it with a brand new position, namely the office of the President Commissioner, which will oversee the new Executive Director, Ivar Sisniega Campbell.
Rodriguez Bas has been working in professional sports for decades, he was part of the planning committee of the last World Cup Mexico hosted in 1986, although he is best known for restructuring Televisa’s sports portfolio with the creation of Televisa Deportes Network (TDN) and its subsequent merger with Univision to form TUDN.
Sisniega Campbell also has an extensive career in professional sports. He is a former pentathlete and Olympian. He headed Mexico’s National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (CONADE) during the government of Ernesto Zedillo and was president of Club Guadalajara from 2004 to 2006. He was working at the Pan American Sports Organization before joining the FMF.
According to Rodriguez Bas, his job as the brand new commissioner-president of the FMF is to align the various interests surrounding Mexican soccer. He mentions that unlike previous years, the FMF will prioritize sporting decisions over economic interests, this is in order to have a competitive team for the 2026 world cup, which will be played at home. With this, Rodriguez Bas is implicitly saying that up until now, the executives at the Femexfut, have prioritized monetary decisions over sporting matters, and that the various interest of the owners of all clubs playing in the top flight have been misaligned, much to the detriment of the league and the national team.
Historic Precedents
Looking historically at the way Mexico has prepared before hosting a World Cup, it is possible that the Mexican soccer executives will act in favour of the sport for a change. Back in 1970, when Mexico hosted its first World Cup, the team worked independently from their clubs for six months in order to get a good prep for the tournament. According to Nacho Basaguren, who played for Mexico then, since they knew in 1964 that they would host the tournament in 1970, the Mexican Federation started to prepare a competitive team for the World Cup. The team began working together under Nacho Trelles, starting with the 1967 Panamerican games and then in the Olympics in 1968. After a let down in the 1968 Olympics, also hosted in Mexico, coach Trelles gave way to Raul Cardenas, but the team kept working as a whole, still looking towards the 1970 World Cup.
For the 1986 World Cup, all club owners agreed to forfeit their national stars in order for them to concentrate for the World Cup. This support for the national team meant that the local tournament had to be modified, just like in 1970, with a shorter tournament without national stars, in what became the infamous Prode 86 tournament. This time around, all the owners agreed to a long concentration period of three months, which in theory would allow players to arrive to the World Cup in optimal shape.
Let’s see what transpires for this third World Cup on Mexican soil. The past shows that executives do indeed put aside individual interests when it comes to preparing the World Cup as a host nation. Time will tell if –with three years to go– it is too little too late.
