The final preparation phase of the Mexican National Team has stirred significant unrest within Mexican football, due to the opaque nature of a plan approved months ago that disrupts the league right in the middle of the playoffs.
Forty years ago, legendary coach Bora Milutinovic assembled the Mexican squad four months before the 1986 World Cup, which was to be held at home. Among the Serbian’s final list was Javier Aguirre. Unlike many of his teammates, “El Vasco” saw great benefits in this approach.
When Aguirre took charge of El Tri for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he opted for an extended pre-tournament training camp to build team synergy and performance on the pitch. Now, 16 years later, Aguirre is implementing the same process again, amid widespread complaints.
**A Controversial Plan**
Despite poor results, Aguirre remains convinced that the methodology he experienced with Milutinovic is best for Mexico’s third home World Cup. He has closely followed the Serbian icon’s blueprint, starting by requesting Liga MX players more than a month early, even though it interferes with the league’s final phase.
To pull this off, Aguirre visited every Liga MX club owner and detailed his nearly 40-day training camp plan, explaining the need to leave domestic players out of the Clausura 2026 postseason. All owners agreed. “I told Amaury Vergara, owner of Chivas, that he would be the most affected,” Aguirre said. Guadalajara has contributed five starters.
Criticism immediately surfaced, causing significant frustration among fans whose passionate interests were impacted. “This is a project, not a whim—a project to aim for a great World Cup,” Aguirre defended at a press conference a month ago, before the FIFA international break.
**Confusion and Chaos**
But despite everything being set, faithful to a chaotic idiosyncrasy, the announcement of the much-discussed preliminary roster turned into a stormy mess that sparked even greater discontent than initially generated.
After a lengthy delay in releasing the list, subsequent messages from executives lacked the transparency shown at the start of the process, souring the atmosphere. With Marcel Ruiz left off the list and still recovering from injury, the higher-ups announced that the called-up players did not have guaranteed spots in the World Cup, contrary to earlier statements, and that anything could happen.
This announcement triggered an emotional earthquake among the call-ups and the clubs that lost key players for the playoffs. Suddenly, the preliminary list lost its purpose, and to make matters worse, first-division clubs in the postseason questioned whether it was worth releasing their players. This is a common chaos in Mexican football, which has been navigating uncertainty since the failure in Qatar 2022. A first episode that marks the start of another chapter in Mexico’s bizarre World Cup history.