Mexico City will put 6,000 police officers on Paseo de la Reforma for Sunday's Mexico-England last-16 tie, double the number on duty during the 30 June victory celebration that killed four fans . A further 7,500 officers will ring the Estadio Azteca and 3,300 will hold the central Zocalo square, the city government said. 1
A new two-stage restricted-access perimeter branded Ultima Milla, Spanish for Last Mile, will meter the flow of fans near the Angel of Independence. Street vendors and delivery riders are barred from the zone, metro and Metrobus lines near Reforma face closures on matchday, and alcohol sales stop citywide from dawn on 5 July. The plan targets the walk to the ground rather than the ground itself, because the four deaths came on an open boulevard, not inside a stadium. 2
The alcohol ban and vendor exclusion sit alongside the raw officer count because the rate at which fans arrive, not the number already inside, is what turns a crowd into a crush. Sunday is the last match the Azteca will host this tournament, kicking off at 18:00 local. The record 3,605,357 crowd the 48-team expansion drew through the group stage is now the operational problem Mexico City has to police.
