Mexico fans blast horns outside Ecuador's hotel to disrupt World Cup sleep

Dozens of Mexican fans besieged Ecuador’s team hotel in Santa Fe, Mexico City, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, blasting horns, loudspeakers and revving motorcycles outside the Westin Hotel to deprive the visiting squad of sleep before their round-of-32 World Cup fixture later that day.

The ambush, organised via social media, ran from midnight into the small hours and added a hostile edge to what had already been a gruelling arrival for Ecuador. The Ecuadorian football federation — known as the FEF — responded by filing a formal complaint with tournament organisers, condemning the incident in pointed terms.

“Such conduct stands in stark contrast to the principles of fair play, equity, and unity that a World Cup should embody,” the FEF said in a statement. “The FEF respectfully calls upon the competent authorities to pay greater attention to these events and to adopt the necessary measures to safeguard the safety of our players, coaching staff, and fans.”

Team hotel serenades are a deeply entrenched and polarising tradition in Latin American football. What began as a show of passionate home support has increasingly evolved into a calculated psychological tactic designed to rob visiting players of rest before a match.

The disruption compounded an already chaotic journey for Ecuador. The squad had deliberately planned a late Monday-night arrival from Columbus, Ohio, to minimise the effects of Mexico City’s altitude of 2,200 metres (7,300 feet) — a strategy sports scientists describe as the “fly-in, fly-out” method, arriving as close to kick-off as possible before acute altitude symptoms take hold.

But the plan unravelled almost immediately. Ecuador head coach Sebastián Beccacece revealed that their flight was delayed by more than three hours, and the team landed at Felipe Ángeles International Airport — 65 kilometres (41 miles) from their hotel — before navigating Mexico City’s notoriously gridlocked traffic, made worse by heavy overnight rain.

“A flight delay, then the transfer to the hotel — it ended up being a nine-hour journey; we took three hours longer than scheduled,” Beccacece said. “But the team is doing well and is excited — obviously facing an opponent that posted good results in the group stage.”