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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
City Gives Soccer Match Ok
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
Mexico City – It's hard to say which would make the bigger sensation arriving in Mexico City: Italy's powerhouse Inter Milan soccer team or Chiapas' masked Zapatista rebels.
A senior official for Mexico City's government said Friday he'd see no problem with hosting both at once in what would be one of the stranger soccer matches of all time.
"I think that covering all of the requirements in terms of civil protection, of security, there would be no inconvenience," the city's government secretary, Alejandro Encinas, told reporters.
Inter Milan President Massimo Moratti and the Zapatistas have agreed in principle to play a charity match, though Inter officials said this week they have yet to start preparations.
Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos issued a May 25 letter to Moratti suggesting a game at the stadium of the capital's National Autonomous University, or UNAM, a stronghold of pro-Zapatista sentiment.
He also proposed six other matches, including at least one in Italy an idea that would create intriguing immigration issues since the Zapatistas wear ski masks in public, use noms de guerre rather than their real names and rarely have passports in any case.
Marcos, who said he had been named the Zapatistas' coach as well as the team's "director of intergalactic relations," suggested Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona as match referee.
On Friday, the La Jornada newspaper reported that Mexican female soccer star Maribel Domínguez had expressed willingness to join the Zapatista team.
The Zapatistas have not actively battled government troops since 1994. They drew hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets of Mexico City when they staged a peaceful caravan in 2001 to support an Indian rights bill. They have not returned since.
University officials said they had not received a formal request for use of the stadium. |
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