Football matches postponed in Mexico after drug cartel leader killed

Cancelled games included the seventh round of the Clausura tournament in Mexico’s premier MX professional league.

Four high-level football matches were postponed on Sunday after the Mexican army killed the leader of a powerful drug cartel in a town close to the FIFA World Cup 2026 host city of Guadalajara.

Two top-tier competition fixtures – Queretaro vs Juarez in the men’s tournament and Chivas vs America in the women’s league – were postponed, and two in the second division were called off.

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An international friendly match between Mexico and Iceland, which was scheduled for Wednesday at the Corregidora Stadium in Queretaro, has also been cancelled by the Mexican Football Federation.

Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”, who led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was wounded in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara, and he died while being flown to the national capital, Mexico City.

Following his death, cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states.

Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara, is scheduled to host four World Cup games in June, including two involving South Korea. Mexico, the cohosts of the tournament, as well as Spain, Uruguay and Colombia, will also play at the venue, Akron Stadium.

The Jalisco cartel is considered the most powerful in Mexico, with an estimated 19,000 members and operations spanning 21 of the country’s 32 states. It has been designated a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” by the administration of United States President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the Mexican Open, an ATP tennis tournament, will begin on Monday at the GNP Arena in Acapulco, Guerrero. Organisers issued a statement on Sunday saying “the tournament’s operation continues as normal”.

Akron Stadium, located on the outskirts of Guadalajara in Jalisco state, will host four group-stage matches in June for the FIFA World Cup 2026 [File: Daniel Becerril/Reuters]