The Mexico press can be harsh on the national team. The big action, though is reserved for the TV, where Bora Milutinovic was the victim of the battle for network supremacy.
Being a part of the Mexico national team can be stressful, to say the least. This is a country where media coverage of soccer is so intense, sensational headlines like ''Crucified!'' follow Mexico's losses – even when it's just a warmup game.
Moreover, the team is in the midst of a media war between the two television giants – Televisa and TV Azteca – over broadcasting rights, and power over the game in general.
This battle, motivated by the high ratings national team matches get, has left at least one well known victim along the road: former Mexico coach Bora Milutinovic. He was caught in the fray as TV Azteca – which lost national team broadcasting rights before USA '94, when it was still a public company – attacked Televisa, current rights holder, through its criticism of the national squad.
''If there is a victim in this open war it is Bora,'' says Hugo Martinez, reporter for Esto, a prominent Mexican sports daily. ''He was fired because of his style and the campaign that Tele Azteca led to turn the fans against him.''
But this fight is nothing strange in a country where television stations own much of soccer. Televisa owns Club America, Necaxa and Atlante and Mexico City's Azteca Stadium, whose name it changed to Guillermo Canedo Stadium after the former Televisa executive. TV Azteca controls Morelia and Veracruz.
The national team isn't spared in this power struggle, according to Jesus Ortega, sports reporter from Reforma, an influential Mexican newspaper.
''Televisa manages the national team as if it were another of its businesses,'' says Ortega. ''If they are planning to play abroad and Tele Azteca gets the rights for that game, then the team doesn't play there. That happened already in a recent tournament in Morocco.''
Negotiations for broadcasting rights are treated like a state secret. Televisa, according to Martinez, secured national team broadcasting rights just before USA '94 for $5 million, renewed afterward for $8 million, and is already offering $20 million for post-France '98 rights. But TV Azteca plans to fight.
Both networks know that soccer, along with soap operas (telenovelas), promises high ratings. So they are willing to invest heavily in it. Both will broadcast World Cup games and Televisa has hired big-name commentators like Johan Cruyff and Oscar Ruggeri, while TV Azteca nabbed Jorge Valdano and Emilio Butragueno.
Soccer has become a religion among Mexican fans, who are known to shave their heads if their team loses in a league final. And this is no less so with the national team. The Gold Cup final between Mexico and the U.S. last February was the most watched TV program that month, with a 36 percent household rating.
Sports newspapers increase fan fervor, creating a tense atmosphere surrounding almost every game with covers that proclaim, ''We must win!'' Although Martinez and Ortega maintain that the printed press does not pressure the national team as much as television, newspapers across the nation have been hammering Milutinovic's successor, Manuel Lapuente.
After the team's South American tour in April concluded with three straight losses, headlines such as ''Disaster!'' or ''Tri-tanic'' greeted the team, known as the Tricolores.
''The current national team might feel more pressure because this World Cup is more difficult, since it's traveling farther than when it participated in USA '94, where it was like playing at home,'' says Martinez. ''People are nervous and worried that they won't succeed.''
When the team's European warmups yielded more rounds of criticism, particularly after a 5-2 loss to Norway, Lapuente finally fired back.
''The criticism is from people who don't know anything about soccer,'' he said. ''Brazil lost 4-2 to Norway and lost 1-0 to Argentina and it is still a favorite to win the World Cup.''
Pavel Pardo, the youngest player on the Mexico squad, doesn't seem very worried.
''Yes, there's pressure on the team,'' he says. ''But the team lives in peace because we have to respond to outside pressure with results and maintain our composure.''
(by Amparo Sim=n, editor of Mßs F·tbol, a Soccer America-produced bilingual monthly.)