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When Mexico’s national teams were sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Mexican Football Association (FMF) took the opportunity to renovate its High-Performance Centre (CAR).
With the support of the FIFA Forward Development Programme, some of the CAR’s facilities have undergone a ground-breaking transformation that has focused in particular on design, the inclusion of persons with reduced mobility, and financial and environmental sustainability.
Opened in 2003, the CAR is the home of Mexico’s national team and its success is founded on the facilities it offers. Located south of Mexico City, it hosts more than 80 training camps a year and provides accommodation for all the country’s women’s and men’s national teams, from Under-15 to senior level.
The lowdown on Mexico’s CAR
- Can accommodate up to three national teams at the same time.
- The centre has three football pitches, two half pitches, a beach soccer pitch, a gym, auditorium, press room, two hotels, and a physiotherapy and rehabilitation unit.
- The centre’s facilities cover an area of 57,000 square meters and are home to the national teams’ administrative and operations offices.
The FIFA Forward Development Programme provided funding that has been used to adapt and create facilities across the centre. These include the following:
- Construction of dressing rooms for national youth teams and coaching staff.
- Creation of a sports science lab for testing player fitness.
- Remodelling of admin offices to improve spaces and interaction between the administration and finance departments, national team operations and coaching staff.
- Construction of a kit room to improve sports-equipment organisation and logistics.
- Expansion and redesign of the centre’s multi-purpose hall to enable its use by different areas and enhance interaction.
- Creation of an exhibition room for displaying exhibits and enabling interaction with national team players.
“There is no doubt that the support provided by the FIFA Forward Programme has been immensely beneficial for the FMF,” said FMF President Yon de Luisa. “This remodelling project will enable us to continue developing Mexican football by offering the best equipment and work spaces to our players and to everyone who forms part of the Mexican national team community. I must express my gratitude and recognition to FIFA for the tremendous contribution it is making through this programme, which is leveraging the development of football around the world.”
The contribution made by the FIFA Forward Programme to this global improvement reflects a desire to help member associations achieve professional standards through the work they carry out. It is also a response to the need to help high-performance centres operate better so that they can accommodate more and more women’s and men’s national teams across all age groups, by providing them with settings in which elite athletes can improve their performance.
