As the FIFA World Cup 2026 starts on Thursday, Mexico are up against South Africa in the opener at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Ahead of that, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a decree on Tuesday suspending all school classes in the capital on June 11 and ordering federal employees to work from home, as authorities scramble to ease massive traffic expected for the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening events at Estadio Azteca.
The measures aim "at improving conditions for mobility, road safety and accessibility, both for Mexico City inhabitants and visiting tourists, on the occasion of the inauguration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to government slides presented during a press conference.
Schools from preschool through university
level - both public and private - will close for the day. Federal agencies in Mexico City must implement remote work for staff, with exceptions only for essential services such as healthcare, security, critical infrastructure, and World Cup operations. The government also urged private companies to adopt similar teleworking arrangements.
Mexico will host the tournament's opening match on June 11, with the host nation facing South Africa at the iconic 87,000-seat Estadio Azteca. The event, along with accompanying festivities, is expected to draw large crowds of locals and international visitors to the city.
Luisa Maria Alcalde Lujan, legal counsel of the federal executive, emphasized the need for flexibility during the briefing: "All the essential activities will carry on but everything which is office work, in the public sector, do it remotely. The same thing for the private and social sector for Mexico City. For all non-essential administrative tasks, schemes for remote working should be implemented.
This one-day shutdown comes after an earlier, more controversial proposal to end the entire 2025-2026 school year in early June was scrapped following backlash from parents and educators over lost instructional time. That plan, tied to the World Cup and a heat wave, was reversed in May.
