When fans tune in to the opening game of the FIFA World Cup on Thursday between host nation Mexico and South Africa, they may notice a key figure missing from the stands: President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico.
Taking her seat at the V.I.P. section of the Banorte Stadium, the venue in Mexico City hosting the game, will be Yolett Cervantes Cuaquehua, a young Indigenous woman who won a national contest held by the Mexican government to claim Ms. Sheinbaum’s ticket.
“I’m not going to any game — not the opener or any other game,” Ms. Sheinbaum told reporters last month, adding that she would instead watch the first match among thousands of her supporters in the Zócalo, the main square in Mexico City, the capital. This week, however, she said she might change plans if protests erupt in the area.
Still, the move carries symbolic significance, as the leaders of host nations typically preside over their country’s opening match. The World Cup, the planet’s most-watched sporting event, has after all served as an influential platform and an instrument of soft power for leaders to affirm their global presence and improve their reputation.
But Ms. Sheinbaum has said that her absence is a show of solidarity with the many regular Mexicans who were not able to afford a seat at the event — which has drawn criticism for its excessively high ticket prices and access restrictions.
She has also framed the act of giving Ms. Cervantes her ticket as a way to empower young women in a sport that continues to be heavily dominated by men.
“For many years, doors were closed to us — preventing us from becoming referees, soccer players, commentators or sports hosts,” Ms. Sheinbaum said at a news conference earlier this year. “Today, we want to open those doors to women and their rights, so they can be whatever they want to be and have every opportunity to achieve it.”
Ms. Cervantes, a Nahua athlete from the mist-covered highlands of Veracruz State, in eastern Mexico, beat out 1,000 other young finalists from across the country by submitting a viral video in which she juggled a soccer ball with her feet and body while barefoot and wearing her traditional Indigenous attire.
In an interview, Ms. Cervantes, 21, said that she never had a formal trainer, but she fell in love with soccer as a child after watching a match between Real Madrid and Juventus in Spain — a prize trip for winning a public speaking contest in her state.
“This is a historic moment in my life,” she said, adding that she found out she had won the World Cup ticket while working in the fields with her mother. “I don’t think any other president has ever given up their ticket so that a young person could go represent them.”
Ms. Sheinbaum has so far been the only leader from this year’s host nations to confirm that she will not attend any World Cup game. But her counterparts in Canada and the United States are likely to also skip the opening games in their respective countries.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada is flying to Europe on Thursday for diplomatic meetings and the annual Group of 7 — just a day before his country plays against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto. And President Trump, despite years of personal courting by FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, has criticized the high cost of tickets.
“I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you,” Mr. Trump told The New York Post in a telephone interview last month, despite Mr. Infantino having gifted him a ceremonial ticket during the World Cup draw.
Whether Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump are planning to attend other games during the six-week tournament remains unclear. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
But Ms. Sheinbaum’s decision not to attend might also stem from a calculated political maneuver, analysts say, at a moment in which her administration faces a convergence of domestic crises.
She and her governing party, Morena, have come under fire for shielding Mexican officials accused by U.S. prosecutors of colluding with the cartels. Protesting teachers have paralyzed parts of the country, demanding higher wages and pension changes. Other groups — federal judges, anti-corruption activists and an anti-World Cup movement — are also planning to stage protests outside stadiums during the World Cup to voice their frustrations.
“It’s a very good way of saying, ‘If the eyes of the world are on us, we want the things that actually matter to be brought to light,’” Mónica de la Vega, a sports anthropologist in San Luis Potosí State, said about the protesters planning to seize the moment.
By giving away her seat, Ms. Sheinbaum might dodge an uncomfortable moment. Mexican stadiums, history shows, are notoriously hostile territory for sitting presidents.
“In this particular case, the Mexican attendees will be part of an economic elite that largely disapproves of Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration,” said Sergio Varela, a Mexico City-based sports sociologist. “I have no doubt that if she goes, she will be booed.”
