If you go to a World Cup match during the upcoming 23rd edition of the tournament, you’ll buy your beer, hot dogs, tacos or whatever takes your fancy from a FIFA-accredited vendor.

If the stadium bathrooms you use qualify for three or more stars under Sarah DeVries’ rating system for Mexican baños, you can thank FIFA-accredited cleaning staff for keeping them in order.

And if you read a media report filed from one of the 16 stadiums across Mexico, the United States and Canada that will host the 104 World Cup matches this summer, you’ll be reading the work of a FIFA-accredited journalist. (Keep an eye on MND’s ongoing World Cup coverage!)

All of this came into sharp focus for me last Sunday while I was waiting in line outside FIFA’s Mexico City accreditation center, a temporary structure set up in the parking lot of Mexico City Stadium (aka Azteca Stadium), the cavernous arena that will host the opening match of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa next Thursday.

That’s right. FIFA — which took control of Estadio Azteca last month — is accrediting most, if not all, people who will be working at World Cup stadiums on match days.

Standing next to me in the line was a young man who, during a long wait on a warm Mexico City day, intermittently spoke to himself in perfect American-accented English. We got talking. “Where are you from? Who are you working for?” I asked him, thinking that he was perhaps covering the World Cup for a U.S. media outlet.

Not an exaggeration. Waited in line for four hours — no shade, no bathroom — for press accreditation. Feels like this could have been organized better. https://t.co/35mQnZSy8A

— Emily Green (@emilytgreen) June 3, 2026

“Born and raised in Mexico City, but my dad is from Miami,” he told me before revealing that on match days at el Azteca he would be working for “a friend of a friend” at a chicken wing stand.

From what I could gather, almost all of the other people lining up to get their FIFA accreditation passes in Mexico City last Sunday were vendors of one type or another. “Vendedora de pizza,” one woman told me when I asked her what she would be doing on match days. “Vendo bebidas,” (“I sell drinks”), said her smiling friend.

Given that literally thousands of people will be working at Azteca Stadium on match days, FIFA’s accreditation task in Mexico City is a mammoth one, and many people, myself included, have faced long waits to pick up their passes from football’s global governing body.

In recognition of the enormity of the job — and the long wait times — FIFA decided this week to open a second accreditation center in Mexico City to issue passes solely to approved members of the press.

The issuance of these accreditation passes — by friendly and helpful FIFA volunteers, I might add — is the culmination of a long process that I personally began several months ago.

Those approved for passes, whether they are journalists, vendors or anyone else who will be working in the stadium on World Cup match days, have had to provide detailed personal information to FIFA and, in some cases, undergo background checks. That data collection — and FIFA’s sharing of it with authorities for the purpose of background checks — has led to concerns in the United States, particularly in California, that stadium workers without legal residency could be targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on match days.

In Mexico, as in the United States and Canada, FIFA-accredited stadium workers will play an essential role in ensuring that the millions of spectators who attend World Cup matches this summer have a safe, smooth and satisfying experience. The football players will be on the pitch, but there will also be stars in the stands, pouring cerveza, selling pizza and wings and even bringing bebidas to fans’ seats so they don’t miss a second of the action.