The president, Claudia Sheinbaum, criticized the blank check that Mexico gave to FIFA and the companies it proposes during the preparation and celebration of the 2026 World Cup. “It was something that we had not decided in our government, it was a contract that had already been in place since 2015, and we could not back out of those agreements and they were modified,” she commented during the presentation of the event. The World Cup will be held in June 2026, and its main venue will be the United States, with 78 matches, in addition to 13 matches in Canada and the same number in Mexico. Of the three countries, only Mexico was granted a full and national exemption, since the tax agreements reached by the United States and Canada are not complete and are concluded at the national, state and local levels.
In the Union Revenue Code 2026, one of its transitional articles includes that companies that “participate in the organization, development and implementation of activities related” to next year’s World Cup are exempt from paying taxes. On Monday, the Ministry of Finance also published a statement about this tax exemption.
“With regard to the tax and customs measures applied to the organization of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, various working groups have been convened with FIFA to limit the tax provisions applicable to participants in the organization and celebration of the aforementioned sporting event,” the text begins, and then does not explain in detail how these “tax provisions” were limited.
The Treasury, like the President, indicates that the responsibility lies with the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), and points out that the new income law provides for “agreed guarantees for the fulfillment of certain official obligations to pay, transfer, withhold and collect, in accordance with the tax provisions applicable only in 2026.”
The exemption emerges in a scenario in which the government seeks to increase tax collection without engaging in tax reform, while the country enters an economic slowdown and increases spending on social programs. In the case of the United States, each city and state negotiated individually, which highlights the case of Santa Clara in California, where six matches will be held, which refused to support FIFA taxes. In Canada, after the publication of the concessions for the cities of Vancouver and Toronto, even the mayor of Toronto criticized the negative terms of these agreements.
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