England Obsesses Over Mexico City's Altitude & Thunderstorms Ahead of World Cup Match with Mexico

Speaking to Rosie Wright for Times Radio, Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio reports from Mexico City ahead of the highly anticipated World Cup Match between Mexico and England. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

And uh it's worth noting thunderstorms are a daily occurrence in Mexico City at this time of year. But there is a higher risk of them of these storms, and they could be severe on Sunday. And so that was was seemingly the motivation for these discussions. Whatever has happened, they've settled on keeping it at its original kickoff time.

Rosie Wright 0:17

Because you may have seen that news update with glee and thought, oh right, I have to stay at one o'clock in the morning. And then you realize the implications, not only for the other fans, exactly as Les has just said, well, you know, they've spent a fortune getting there and they'll miss the game, but also for the players' preparation, which has been so finely tuned, particularly because the game is taking place at altitude. Well, let's go live to uh Mexico City, where the match will take place at 6 p.m. local time, kickoff 1am here Monday morning. Jon Bonfiglio is a correspondent based in the city and joins us now. Jon, hello. Morning. So, how did yesterday all play out for you?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:54

Um, well, you know, much in the same way as I was saying completely chaotic. Uh one thing was happening and another thing's happening. But absolutely remarkable that the FA actually found out from Mexican media sources before they had any official communiques from uh from FIFA uh themselves, but absolute chaos. And not just, I mean, you were saying about logistics for for fans, of course, and for the for the teams, but also the logistics for uh for the policing of this event. I mean, Mexico City has had a one-mile exclusion zone around the Azteca Stadium for all games, and that involves tens of thousands of police officers. And so that that the shift like that just changes absolutely uh everything in a way that I would say it's almost impossible to do with just 48 hours' notice.

Rosie Wright 1:36

What was the official reason given, or was there one given for why there would be uh the the justification to move the game forward by so many hours?

Jon Bonfiglio 1:45

Yeah, thunderstorms, so thunderstorms in around Mexico City, of course, FIFA protocols, which took place with a delay in the last Mexico-Ecuador uh match, which we saw a few days ago, was that uh uh the the start had to be delayed because of the because of the lightning strike. So that was the reason given. But you know, that's no great surprise at this time of year. There are lightning storms in in Mexico City, and also um by very uh by uh just by definition, thunderstorms are impossible to predict. So you know there is an increased likelihood of storms given a particular forecast, which is not two days out. You can see that you know, weeks ahead of time these days with today's technology, but also the thunderstorms are innately localized. So, you know, I've lived in Mexico for a long time, and if the thunderstorms are coming in, you've got no idea if it's gonna bucket down or if you're gonna stay dry and everything's gonna just kind of carry on as normal. It it it now is pretty clear that it was a thinly veiled sort of reason given to try and bring forward the start time for the game in order to avoid the um the difficulty. Well, the that's a huge congregation of people that we saw in and around Reforma, Mexico City's main sort of emblematic avenue after the Mexico-Ecuador game, we saw um an estimated one and a half million people gather in a small area, which led to four deaths. And if you look at that statistically, that's in and around 7% of the entire population of the capital, which is huge. It's you know, it's an enormous city um anyway. So that they were sort of trying to offset that. But if um if FIFA thinks that changing that that that capacity for Mexican fans to congregate um depends on what time you you actually have the game, then you've got another thing coming. If Mexico wins that game at midday or at 6 pm, you're gonna have millions of people gathering in that area for an extended period of time whenever it happens.

Rosie Wright 3:27

Tell us what the atmosphere is like, John. I I can't really think of something comparable apart from maybe when London hosted the 2012 Olympics and there was this sort of electrifying excitement wherever you went. It's and there's a bit of sort of muted enthusiasm, I would say, um, here in the UK, because there's it sort of obviously excitement where we are, but realizing sort of the weight of the the task ahead to try and defeat Mexico at home. What's it like at home for you right now?

Jon Bonfiglio 3:55

It's it's definitely feverish. I mean, um, and also which is it's been a thing today, the change of the of the match time didn't just affect people in and around Mexico City and all of the logistics that are involved. It's in it's affected absolutely anything that might be taking place this weekend. So, do you change your plans for what you're doing? Where are you gonna be? How are you gonna how are you gonna organize yourself um uh around that? I I would also say that it's normally when Mexico play international matches, there's a real kind of uh and a knot in the stomach, a trepidation because uh the worry is that Mexico's not gonna do too well, they're gonna um sort of uh uh perform, underperform if you like. But the fact that they've broken the so-called curse, um, their fourth game curse, which has been running since 1986, which was the last time they got to a fifth game, has sort of generated uh a whole new level of expectation uh here. And there is the perception that given Mexico's uh record at um at the Aztec Stadium, and also there's a lot of sort of um uh uh I guess osmosis that's being received here at the moment about the UK media's obsession with altitude. Uh and that um there's a perception here that maybe the UK media is saying something which is you know which might be relevant and that the that the English side might be affected. So it's um there's it's sweaty palms moment, but uh yeah, there's nobody in Mexico who doesn't know that this this uh this thing on Sunday is happening and it's going to be huge whichever way, whichever way you cut that cake.

Rosie Wright 5:20

And then how significant are the efforts really underway to stop Mexico fans keeping the English team from sleeping?

Jon Bonfiglio 5:28

Yeah, that was it was a really big thing with the Ecuador side, but I think it is important to contextualize that there is a niggle between Mexico and Ecuador. It's not just like two normal sides. So um uh Ecuador a couple of years back um stormed, uh forcibly entered the Mexican embassy in Quito to take out uh a figure, an Ecuadorian politician, Jorge Glass, who'd been given asylum there, and that generated a whole sort of cascade of issues between the two countries to the extent that they they don't have relations, they don't have formal ambassadorial international relations at the moment. So they're about as um uh as as as uh divorced as any two Latin American countries uh are at the moment. And I think that fed through to a lot of the reaction and even the booing of the Ecuadorian anthem when it when it took place. I think that the the Mexican uh the average Mexican fan's view of England and the England team is is very distinct. And um, and I would I would argue that we're not gonna see uh sort of a facsimile of those of those actions as regards uh as regards England. And if they do happen, I think it's gonna be in in good humour uh rather than it being a sort of a um a sort of a cynical attempt to harm the England side.

Rosie Wright 6:41

I think they want a good game, don't they? Uh John, that has been so fascinating. Thank you very much. John Bompilier.