How the 1986 Mexico World Cup was almost cancelled after a devastating earthquake

Mexico earthquake, Mexico City, Mexico, September 1985. Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUM/REX Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Mexico earthquake, Mexico City, Mexico, September 1985. Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUM/REX Shutterstock How the 1986 Mexico World Cup was almost cancelled after a devastating earthquake Guardian reports after the disaster told of 5,000 deaths, much of the capital being razed, and doubts about Mexico hosting the finals Mexico last hosted the World Cup in 1986 , but the competition was almost cancelled several months before the start when an earthquake struck the capital, Mexico City, leaving at least 5,000 people dead, 30,000 homeless and much of the city flattened, in one of the worst earthquakes to hit the country. To this day, the death toll remains disputed, with some estimates putting it as high as 40,000 . There were calls for the World Cup to be cancelled or moved to a neighbouring country. But because the football stadiums, including the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, were still standing, the Mexican government, backed by FIFA, were determined to go ahead with the tournament. Mexico had stepped in as hosts in 1983 after Colombia withdrew from staging the tournament for economic and security reasons. Mexico quake toll ‘near 4,000’: second earthquake tremor hits capital By Michael White in Washington and Peter Chapman in Mexico City 21 September 1985 Little extra damage was reported but the tremors hampered the rescue work by 50,000 troops, police and firemen already struggling with dwindling supplies of water and medicine against fire, fear of disease and the cries of the trapped and injured. About 250 buildings, mostly in the city centre, fell down and another 50 were in imminent danger of doing so, said officials. Parts of the city had been sealed by police and the military. At least three hospitals were among buildings either seriously damaged or destroyed with doctors and patients trapped under wreckage. Several churches had caved in only minutes before they would be filling for morning mass. Continue reading View image in fullscreen Mexico earthquake story on the front page of the Guardian, 21 September 1985 Survivors speak of a ‘mighty blow from hell’ By our Foreign staff 21 September 1985 The earthquake hit Mexico like “a mighty blow from hell,” demolishing tower blocks, trapping children in the rubble of their schools, and sending showers of masonry and glass flying across the streets, according to witnesses who survived the disaster. Within three minutes of the earthquake, at 2.18pm (BST) on Thursday, the centre of Mexico City looked like a war zone, a metaphor used by many of the survivors. “It’s like a big monster, like being bombed or in a war,” one volunteer rescue worker said. A survivor, Mr Flavio Bocuccia, aged 21, from Rome, described in a trembling voice how he saved his six-year-old brother from falling out of a hotel window when the earthquake started. “I caught Alexandro as he lurched out of the hot