Bilal Lafta came to Monterrey in March expecting a qualifying match. He left with a different memory: Mexican spectators embracing Iraq’s team, learning Arabic chants and even letting Iraqi fans climb onto a police car to dance and wave their flag.
That is why has mexico ever won a world cup is getting searched again now. The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City, and Mexico is about to share the tournament with the United States and Canada, turning one fan experience into a test case for how the country may present itself to millions of visitors.
Lafta, 27, traveled from Iraq with his father and brother to watch Iraq play Bolivia, and he said the crowd in Monterrey made the night feel more like a celebration than a qualifier. Mexican fans asked him about life in Iraq, repeated chants in Arabic and, in his words, told him the two countries had similar cultures. He said he could not imagine that same scene today in the United States.
Iraq won that game and secured a World Cup spot for the first time in 40 years, giving the match a significance that went far beyond the scoreline. For Mexico, the moment offered a glimpse of the soft power gain experts think the 2026 tournament could deliver: a welcoming, multicultural atmosphere shaped by soccer tradition, public festivals and relatively low prices for tourists. Arturo Sarukhán floated a version of that argument back in 2009, when he suggested the United States and Mexico could co-host the World Cup to show they could be partners in success.
But the promise is not automatic. Foreign-policy and sports history experts say travel bans and aggressive immigration raids in the United States could make that country feel less open to international fans, while Mexico and Canada are emphasizing diversity as they prepare for the event. Even so, analysts say Mexico still has plenty of ways to miss expectations, from the basic logistics of a global tournament to the harder task of turning one warm night in Monterrey into a broader national image that lasts beyond the final whistle.
For now, the clearest measure of what Mexico might gain is not a policy paper or a campaign slogan. It is Lafta’s memory of a policewoman who let Iraqi supporters stand on her car and celebrate, and the idea that the first match of the 2026 tournament in Mexico City could be judged against that same standard.
