Ecuador fans – A rush for Ecuador’s World Cup tickets for the June 30 match against Mexico at Estadio Azteca turned chaotic after fans accused the Mexican Football Federation of blocking their requests. The dispute was later undermined by a simpler explanation: World Cup tic
When Ecuador fans tried to buy tickets to back La Tri at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday, June 30, the excitement quickly curdled into anger—then into confusion.
The uproar began Sunday after it was discovered that several supporters were unsuccessful in attempts to purchase tickets for the round-of-32 clash versus Mexico. Ecuadorian fans and media initially placed blame on the Mexican Football Federation (FMF). But that accusation did not hold up for long.
The spark came from journalist José Alberto Molestina, whose post on X—formerly Twitter—gained traction with more than 1.1 million views. Molestina said the situation was rooted in ticket access Ecuador was meant to receive from the Mexican federation.
“The Mexican Federation isn’t responding, isn’t taking orders and isn’t selling us tickets,” Molestina said in Spanish. “At this time. there are a lot of Ecuadorians who want to buy tickets to watch the match against Mexico but it’s going to be very difficult. The Mexican Federation isn’t responding, and it appears that they don’t want Ecuadorians in the stadium.”.
Molestina’s argument depended on the idea that Ecuador was supposed to get 8% of available tickets from the FMF, but that the federation had refused—an apparent attempt, as he framed it, to limit Ecuadorian support in the stands.
The problem for that narrative was that it did not match how World Cup ticketing works. All ticketing for the World Cup is handled by FIFA regardless of host country.
Another journalist stepped in directly to rebut the claim. Alejandro Orvañanos of Claro Sports said FIFA offered the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) tickets back in February, and that the federation declined to buy them.
“Every team has a right to a percentage of tickets, regardless of where you play and how far you go,” Orvañanos said. “Investigate it.”
The FIFA website provides the mechanism for how those allocations work. Up to 16% of available World Cup tickets are set aside for each of the 48 teams competing. called Participating Member Associations or PMAs. Supporters who meet the criteria defined by their national teams can then buy tickets directly from their PMA rather than through the general public ticket draw.
Other voices reinforced the point that ticket distribution for a given country sits with its federation, not the host federation. As RÉCORD and TV Azteca’s Carlos Ponce de León noted, “Said tickets are distributed by each federation. It has nothing to do with the FMF in the Ecuadorians’ case.”
The sequence of events left a clear contrast between what fans believed was happening and what the ticketing system actually looks like. First came the complaint that the FMF was refusing to sell. Then came the correction that FIFA controls the process and allocations run through each team’s PMA.
Even after the debunking, Molestina didn’t leave the story hanging. Four hours after the original rant was challenged, he updated his position, saying the FEF now had “direct communication” (presumably with FIFA) and that the corresponding tickets were being delivered to the Ecuadorian Federation.
The World Cup itself has also been drawing record-breaking attention for another reason: the tournament surpassed the previous attendance record set during the FIFA World Cup USA 1994, with 3,605,357 fans reported at the 2026 World Cup.
But for Ecuador’s supporters aiming for a specific seat at a specific stadium on June 30, the record attendance statistic didn’t matter as much as the one thing they couldn’t get: a ticket, on time, to be counted among their own.
Ecuador fans Mexico vs Ecuador World Cup tickets Estadio Azteca FIFA ticketing FMF FEF José Alberto Molestina Alejandro Orvañanos Claro Sports Carlos Ponce de León RÉCORD