Event took place in La Paz municipality, State of Mexico, on eve of tournament curtain-raiser at Mexico City Stadium
First of eight FIFA Arena mini-pitches to be installed as part of partnership between FIFA, Inter-American Development Bank and Mexican Football Association (FMF)
FIFA and FMF to build two more facilities under standard FIFA Arena framework
With the FIFA World Cup 2026™ just hours away, the first FIFA Arena mini-pitch in Mexico was officially opened yesterday. The event took place at the Octavio Paz School in the municipality of La Paz, located around 30 kilometres from Mexico City Stadium, where the 23rd edition of the FIFA World Cup™ is set to kick off today.
This is the first of eight FIFA Arena mini-pitch facilities to be built as a result of the partnership between FIFA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Mexican Football Association (FMF). FIFA and the FMF plan to build two further mini-pitch facilities in accordance with the standard FIFA Arena framework.
This will mean that Mexico benefits from a total of ten accessible, community-focused football facilities, designed to serve as hubs for sports-based social programmes in disadvantaged areas across the country.
Among those in attendance at the inauguration were Elkhan Mammadov, FIFA’s Chief Member Associations Officer; Jair Bertoni, FIFA’s Regional Director for the Americas; Ivar Sisniega Campbell, Executive President of the FMF; André Soares, Chief of Staff to the President of the IDB; and FIFA Legends Hristo Stoichkov and Fernando Hierro.
“Today marks another important milestone in FIFA’s commitment to making football a truly global sport that is accessible to all. The opening of the FIFA Arena in La Paz is more than just the launch of a football pitch: it represents the creation of a safe environment where children, young people and the whole community can come together through the power of football,” said Mammadov.
“We’re proud to see this project come to fruition in Mexico, and we know it will have a lasting positive impact on future generations. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the FMF and the IDB for their valuable collaboration and their shared commitment to expanding opportunities through football,” he added.
Around 200 children took part in the launch and got a kick out of playing football with Stoichkov and Hierro, who happily signed autographs for them.
Sisniega Campbell framed the opening of the mini-pitch within the wider context of the FIFA World Cup: “This is a historic moment for our country and for Mexican football, but the true success of this World Cup will not just be measured by what happens out on the pitch or at the stadiums: the most important thing will be the legacy we leave behind in the form of the impact on schools, neighbourhoods and local communities across the country. This FIFA Arena is part of that legacy,” he explained.
“This new initiative in La Paz offers just a glimpse of what we hope to achieve in the future. With more pitches, more schools and communities will be brought together through football. In short, we want sport to be a tool for education, inclusion and unity for Mexican families,” he continued.
The three-way partnership between FIFA, the IDB and the FMF came about following a meeting between FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his IDB counterpart Ilan Goldfajn, during which they identified an opportunity for their organisations to cooperate and use football as a vehicle for social development in the region.
The FIFA Foundation and the IDB are also collaborating on a complementary initiative focused on training programmes for coaches and community leaders, as well as social campaigns that harness the power of the beautiful game to promote inclusion.
The launch of the first FIFA Arena mini-pitch in Mexico brings both initiatives together under one umbrella, with the aim of supporting the social legacy of the FIFA World Cup in the country and demonstrating how sport can be a driving force for the sustainable development of communities.