Soccer in Mexico City

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As in many other cities around the world, soccer was introduced in Mexico City by the English who lived here. Today, the three clubs based in the Mexican capital that play in the Primera División ( America , Cruz Azul and the UNAM Pumas ) are among the four most popular clubs in the country. Each of them has their own home ground. So far there have been 23 World Cup games in Mexico City , more than in any other city and 19 of them in the Aztec Stadium, more than in any other stadium.

The clubs

When a national championship was held for the first time as part of the Primera Fuerza in 1902/03 , it was a purely British affair. Of the five participating teams, three were from Mexico City. These took place under the names of the English clubs Mexico Cricket Club , British Club and Reforma Athletic Club . The MCC footballers were the first to bring the championship title to the capital in 1904, while Reforma AC provided by far the best football team in the country before the First World War . The club won six out of a possible seven championships between 1906 and 1912. Their undisputed supremacy could only be broken once by the British Club, which won the championship in 1908.

At the beginning of 1912, part of the Spanish-speaking population developed the ambition to also want to participate in the Mexican national championship. This project resulted in the establishment of the Club España in the Spanish colony and in the establishment of the Club de Fútbol México among the local population . At the same time, the English clubs withdrew their football teams completely from the league's operations within a few years because they could not compensate for the huge bloodletting that resulted from the drafting of the young English living here into the British army, who play football instead of Mexico to be allowed to fight now in the First World War.

From now on, the Mexican soccer championship was almost completely dominated by Mexican and Spanish clubs. The only notable exception was the FV Germania team founded by German immigrants in 1915 , which was part of the top Mexican league between 1915/16 and 1932/33.

CF Mexico was the first club that - despite the fact that it initially had a few English players in its ranks - pretended to represent the locals and was instant champions in its first season (1912/13). But the club could not repeat this success and increasingly fell back into sporting insignificance. Because other local teams had also been founded in the meantime - such as Club America , which in 1917/18 sent the first team consisting only of Mexicans into the race and won the championship four times in a row between 1925 and 1928, but also the CF Atlante and the Club Necaxa , both of which won championship honors in the 1930s, could hardly mobilize spectators with CF México, who had fallen behind in sport and are less rooted in the people. Therefore, he withdrew his team at the end of the 1933/34 season from play.

The dominant team between the two world wars was undoubtedly Club España, which won the championship nine times between 1914 and 1924 - practically single-handedly. In total, España came 15 times to championship honors before withdrawing from the first division in 1950. Another successful Spanish club was CF Asturias , which won championship honors three times.

In the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s, there was basically the following subdivision between the clubs and their respective supporters: the Spanish clubs (Asturias and España) were considered to be representatives of the upper class, while Club America, which was mainly supported by the middle class, was a cross-class club , while Atlante and Necaxa were considered the classic popular associations with a tendency towards the petty bourgeoisie. Rooted in the electricity and road transport companies, Necaxa was officially a team made up of both blue-collar and white-collar workers. As early as the late 1920s, the club knew how to attract talented footballers who were rewarded with secure employment contracts with the Luz y Fuerza company , while football in Mexico itself was officially an amateur sport at that time. The appearance of Atlante in the capital league attracted new audiences to the stadiums. Now the stands were filled with men in work suits, sandals, and palm hats. It was the common people. Los Proprietos (the dark-skinned), as the chronicler Don Facundo called them, formed a real football clan that formed out of the dusty plains of the capital. Atlante certainly had the most emotional fans, while the Necaxa eleven, which in those years consisted only of Mexican players, due to their successes in the 1930s - they won four championship titles between 1933 and 1938 and also formed the ranks of the Mexican national team , the Central American Championship in 1935 won in El Salvador - América knew how to replace it as the most popular association of the urban population.

The setback for the Rayados (the Striped) came with the introduction of the professional league in the 1943/44 season. Because Necaxa did not take part in the professional league in the early years, they missed the connection and lost a good part of their original fan base. In addition, because America was almost without exception in the lower part of the table in the 1940s, Club Atlante, which was twice champion and three times runner-up in this decade, developed into the new people's club of the capital city.

Although Necaxa started playing in the first division again from 1950, its exhausted fan base remained manageable from now on. With the acquisition of the club by Spanish businessmen in 1971 and the associated renaming to Atlético Español , the attractiveness of Necaxa was finally gone. The renaming in 1982 and three surprising championship titles in the 1990s were of no use. Because since then Necaxa has had only a negligible audience potential.

Ticket to a derby between Cruz Azul and UNAM on December 22, 1989

But even with Atlante, management errors and other omissions caused management errors and other omissions to go downhill permanently in the 1960s. Atlante's fan base shrank and the new clubs - Cruz Azul , which was transplanted from the state of Hidalgo to the capital, and the university club UNAM Pumas - became new crowd pullers, so that the glorious Club Atlante was no longer popular.

This unsatisfactory situation for Necaxa and Atlante ultimately led to the two clubs moving to Aguascalientes and Cancún. The most important clubs in the city for decades are the following three: The Club America , which is now in first place in the public favor of the capital city , is perceived by its enemies as a “bonz club”. Then there is the university club UNAM Pumas, which ranks second in terms of popularity among capital city residents and not only has the most powerful but also the most feared fans of the metropolis. In addition, the original workers' club Cruz Azul, which is in third place in the audience's favor, whose traditional fan base can be classified as politically left-wing.

The venues

The first soccer games in Mexico City were played on the premises of the RAC.

In the early years, the championship games of the Primera Fuerza were mainly played on the grounds of the Reforma Athletic Club , which was then still in the Bosque de Chapultepec ; exactly at the place where the home of the sports and social club Deportivo Chapultepec is today. This venue was a pure football field, which had neither a grandstand nor any steps, so that at that time the audience was still gathered around the field. During the games, many of the spectators - mostly or even without exception English - drank tea or whiskey. Club España later acted as host. In 1915 he acquired a site on the exclusive Paseo de la Reforma in the immediate vicinity of the Independence Monument - only about one kilometer from the then home of Reforma AC. The first grandstands were built on this site in 1917. The economic success encouraged the board to build a larger stadium on Calzada de la Verónica , which was inaugurated on May 2, 1926 and offered 8,000 spectators. On September 14, 1930, Necaxa inaugurated its Parque Necaxa , which could even hold 15,000 spectators. Another tram line, which was also newly built, ran right to the entrance.

The great dispute that had led to the suspension of the championship season in 1931 also ignited the stadium issue. In December 1930, the clubs España, América and Necaxa left the Federación Mexicana because they had heard of a plan that the clubs Asturias , Germania , Marte and México wanted to build a large central stadium, which should belong to the association and henceforth a venue for all official tournaments should be. España and Necaxa, both of which had their own stadiums, saw their interests threatened, especially financially.

The first stadium that could accommodate more than 20,000 visitors was the Parque Asturias, built in 1936 by Club Asturias on Calzada del Chabacano . However, this sports facility was only granted a short life. Like all other stadiums in Mexico City that existed up to that point, this one also had wooden stands. The accident happened on March 29, 1939 during a derby between CF Asturias and the most popular team in Mexico at the time, Necaxa. Three nasty fouls by Asturias players against the Necaxistas let the emotions boil quickly. Nevertheless, Necaxa managed to work out a 2-1 lead. But the referee did not mean well with the red and white striped and awarded Asturias a penalty that was at least controversial, but was viewed by the Necaxistas as totally unjustified. This (wrong) decision so enraged the guest audience that a fire was lit in their stands, which began to spread quickly. Although the fire brigade arrived on the scene very quickly, they could no longer achieve anything. After an hour, the entire stadium was in ruins. This was the end of the era of the wooden stadiums.

In the 1940s, the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes , which was designed for around 40,000 spectators and inaugurated in January 1947, was built. At that time, the stadium that is now home to the CD Cruz Azul and is called the Estadio Azul was the largest stadium in the capital. In this capacity, it was replaced with the opening of the Estadio Ciudad Universitaria in the 1950s. This stadium hosted the 1968 Summer Olympics and serves as the home ground for the UNAM Pumas . In the second half of the 1960s , the Aztec Stadium was finally built - in time for Mexico's application to host the 1970 World Cup - which has since been the country's most important football temple. It serves as the home ground for Club America.

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Panoramic view of the Aztec Stadium , the home ground of Club América . Here the game Club América against UAG Tecos (Guadalajara), bottom left with the number 10 Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo . April 15th, Clausura 2007

See also

More reports on soccer rivalries in Mexico (mostly between clubs from the same city) can be found at:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 17 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  2. ↑ cf. Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 17 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  3. ↑ cf. Carlos Calderón Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 44f ISBN 970-663-023-6
  4. ↑ cf. Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 23 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  5. ↑ cf. Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 34 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  6. ↑ Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 37 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  7. ↑ Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 44 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  8. ^ Corazón Chiva: Cien años (Editorial Planeta Mexicana, Mexico 2006), p. 83 ISBN 970-37-0385-2
  9. ↑ cf. Carlos Calderón Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 12f ISBN 970-663-023-6
  10. ↑ cf. Jorge Gomez Anguas: A history of football in Mexico (Heart Books, Rijmenam Belgium 1995), p. 199
  11. ↑ cf. Javier Bañuelos et al. a .: Los años difíciles (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 56f ISBN 970-663-025-2
  12. ↑ Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 50 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  13. ↑ Javier Bañuelos Rentería: Balón a tierra (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 78 ISBN 970-663-022-8
  14. ^ Carlos Calderón Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 36 ISBN 970-663-023-6
  15. ^ Carlos Calderón Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta (Editorial Clio, Mexico 1998), p. 40f ISBN 970-663-023-6