The canceled games included the seventh round of the Clausura tournament in Mexico’s premier MX Pro League.
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Published February 23, 2026
Four high-level soccer matches were postponed on Sunday after Mexican troops killed the leader of a powerful drug cartel in a town near the 2026 FIFA World Cup host city of Guadalajara.
Two games in the top league, Queretaro vs. Juarez in the men’s league and Chivas vs. America in the women’s league, have been postponed, and two games in the second division have been cancelled.
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The international friendly match between Mexico and Iceland scheduled for Wednesday at Corregidora Stadium in Queretaro has also been canceled by the Mexican Football Federation.
Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” who led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was injured in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara, and died while being transported to the capital, Mexico City.
After his death, cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states.
Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, is scheduled to host four World Cup matches in June, two of which will be played by South Korea. In addition to co-host Mexico, matches will also be played at Akron Stadium, the venue for the tournament, as well as Spain, Uruguay, and Colombia.
The Jalisco cartel is considered the most powerful in Mexico, with an estimated 19,000 members and operations across 21 of Mexico’s 32 states. It has been designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the ATP tennis tournament Mexico Open begins on Monday at the GNP Arena in Acapulco, Guerrero. Organizers issued a statement on Sunday saying “tournament operations will continue as normal.”
