Rather than come as a surprise, it qualified as infinitely predictable that the saber-rattling between the United States and Iran involved not just the real-life casualties of war, but that it eventually spilled into the World Cup.
Try as it might to bill itself as a sporting event whose only political interest is promoting peace, the World Cup has a long history of finding itself in the crosshairs of opportunistic world leaders intent on sending their own message globally.
After sharing mixed signals over whether it would participate in the event earlier this year, Iran’s attempt at clarification involved saying that it wasn’t boycotting the World Cup, it was boycotting the United States. A head-scratcher of a thought, that, since all three of Iran’s matches are scheduled to be in the United States and FIFA showed no interest in rescheduling. Iran’s apparent explanation is that the Iranians hope to spend as little time as possible in the U.S.
Shop for tickets for World Cup games in Miami
With the World Cup starting this week, and the war in the Mideast continuing amid ceasefires, Iran’s soccer team landed in Tijuana, Mexico, on June 7. But there remains ongoing issues over visas and access to the stadiums in the U.S. where they will play. The players and support staff have been told they will have to fly in and out of the country on match days. Iran said 15 officials and support staff have been denied visas.
Also, the Iranian players wore pins that read “#168,” commemorating the number of children killed in an attack on the first day of the Iran-U.S. conflict, while traveling to their hotel in Mexico. Whether they will be allowed to wear those pins during matches is another matter.
All this folds seamlessly into a quadrennial sporting event that brings together a world that often is telling us it wouldn’t mind keeping its distance. As author and television pundit Roger Bennett told Reuters, the World Cup is “a mirror to the world that surrounds it.”
It’s a tradition that extends to the earliest World Cup tournaments. After host Uruguay won the first World Cup in 1930, one publication in that country boasted that its team proved it hailed from a “civilized” country while a newspaper wrote that the success brought more fame to Uruguay “than thousands of dollars spent on propaganda.”
With such a start, it was inevitable that the World Cup would become a propaganda tool for Adolf Hitler, who truthfully didn’t have much appetite for the sport, and Benito Mussolini, who unfortunately did. It extended through a 12-year gap in which no World Cup was held because of World War II and into to modern times in which matches pitting Argentina vs. England and the Unites States against, yes, Iran, were contested under political clouds.
“Sports has never been free of politics,” author/professor Stanislao Pugliese said, according to history.com. “We have this idealistic fantasy that it would be nice to separate them, but it will never happen.”
Believe it or not, the use of strong-arm tactics to affect match results actually ranks among the more benign consequences. The most severe? Lives have been threatened, and lives have been lost.
Adolf Hitler added seven Austrians onto a German World Cup team
It wasn’t enough for Hitler in 1938 to annex Austria as a country. He also did it as a team, incorporating seven Austrians onto a German World Cup squad that predictably ran into bonding issues and was quickly eliminated.
Germany’s coach had sought an annexation of his own, wishing to add Walter Nausch to his team. Nausch’s wife was Jewish. Faced with a choice, he opted not to divorce her to satisfy the Nazis. He instead remained Switzerland’s captain.
Coldly, through it all, FIFA classified Austria as a tournament “no-show.”
Multiple accounts from that era also credit the skills of Matthias Sindelar, who was born in the current Czech Republic and begged off representing Germany in the ’38 World Cup, saying at 35 he was too old. Historians question that claim, pointing out that Sindelar had been nicknamed “The Paper Man” because of a thin frame that never seemed to stop him on the field, such were his skills. Sindelar may have made his loyalties clear when he purchased a bar from one of his Jewish friends to prevent the Nazis from seizing it.
Sindelar and his girlfriend were found dead a year later in what officially was blamed as carbon monoxide poisoning due to a blocked chimney. Another version of the story attributes it to suicide, a claim many also reject. The unarguable scope of the tragedy is that 20,000 attended a state funeral in which he was remembered as a hero.
The failure of the German team in ’38 came two years after Jesse Owens stung Hitler in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Hitler still left his mark on the World Cup, planting swastikas on the team jerseys (one player refused to wear it, although it’s unclear whether he still represented Germany). FIFA gave players from occupied countries the option of giving the Nazi salute during national anthems or standing firm, with some teams choosing the former, some, the latter.
The Trump administration is making it difficult, if not impossible, for supporters of some teams, including Iran, to attend this summer’s World Cup, again borrowing a page from history. Hitler decreed no groups exceeding more than 30 Germans could travel more than 200 kilometers from Germany to attend France ’38, resulting in 10,000 trip cancellations by German fans.
Benito Mussolini accused of bribing referees during World Cup ’38
Italy won its second consecutive World Cup in ’38, much to the delight of Mussolini if not the relief of the coaches and players. Outwardly, Mussolini tried to project himself as a “man of the people” by standing in line to purchase his own ticket. Behind the scenes? Different story. There are accusations Mussolini bribed referees. He told coach Vittorio Pozzo, “You are solely responsible for the success, but God help you if you fail.”
Before the ’38 final against Hungary, he may or may not have sent the Italian team a telegram saying “Vincere o morire” — win or die. Some say the tone was more on the level of “win or bust.” At least one player said it simply wished the team success.
Antal Szabo, the Hungarian goalkeeper, was skeptical, to say the least.
“Never in my life have I felt so happy after a defeat,” he said. “I may have let in four goals, but at least I saved the lives of 11 men.”
With the last kick of the ball that day, the world would have to wait a dozen war-torn years before another World Cup would be held. Politics, it turned out, were lying in wait the entire time.
Hero of US upset of England in 1950 World Cup murdered
The 1950 World Cup included one of the biggest upsets ever, a 1-0 win by the United States over England. The result was so unfathomable, some media outlets assumed the wire services committed a typographical error, which wasn’t uncommon, for what had to be a 10-1 England win. The only goal was scored by Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian nonetheless playing for the Americans, but that’s only the beginning of the story.
Years later, Gaetjens returned to Haiti where, friends and relatives say, he was arrested and murdered by the country’s secret police. Gaetjens wasn’t interested in politics. His brother was. This was seen as revenge because of his brother.
At one point, purchasing a ticket to the World Cup came with a unique perk: automatic insurance coverage against harm. This was the 1974 tournament in West Germany, taking place two years after 11 Israelis were murdered by terrorists at the Munich Olympics.
The ‘80s brought little in the way of relief, both on the battlefield and on the pitch. Argentina invaded the Falklands, a British territory, triggering a war that left 900 dead. Before the World Cup kicked off, Argentina had surrendered, but harsh feelings were made clear when Argentina and England both refused to air the other’s opening matches on TV.
Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal helps Argentina beat England
Those were mere minor blows compared to what occurred four years later in Mexico, where England and Argentina were matched against one another. In one of the most memorable World Cup matches in history, Argentina won 2-1 on goals by Diego Maradona, the first being the “Hand of God” goal in which he used his hand to knock the ball into the net, the second a daring dash through half of the English defense that may be the best goal in tournament history.
“This was revenge,” Maradona said, according to some accounts of that day, although there appears to be little agreement over his precise phrasing.
A similar stage was set for the 1998 World Cup in France, matching the United States vs. Iran two decades after the hostage crisis in Iran.
Bennett said the Americans’ 2-1 defeat that day “probably set football back 20 years.”
Iraq’s participation in this World Cup came after a waiting period twice as long, 40 years. The agony of defeat hardly begins to tell the story of what players experienced during the down years. The late Uday Hussein, Saddam’s son, ran the sporting interests of the country, brutally treating teams and players who underperformed in his eyes. His torture methods involved forced labor, 12-hour practices in 130-degree heat, whipping players, dragging them through excrement and forcing them to kick cement soccer balls.
On the final day of playoff qualifying for this World Cup, Iraq earned its place by edging Bolivia 2-1. Following the final whistle, Ali Al-Hamadi phoned his father from the field to share tears of joy.
“I don’t think people understand how much we’ve been through as a country and people,” Al-Hamadi, who scored Iraq’s first goal, told The Athletic. “There’s a reason we all live abroad because our families had to leave to give us a better future. To come back and give joy to millions of people … this is why we love football.”
Paolo Zampolli is an Italian-American who loves football, too. Zampolli also is an envoy for global partnerships who told friend Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino that Italy should replace Iran in this year’s World Cup.
“I’m an Italian native and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a U.S.-hosted tournament,” Zampolli told the Financial Times. “With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion.”
By losing a playoff qualifier to Bosnia and Herzegovina, they do not.
Even Italians called the idea shameful.
“I’d feel offended,” Luciano Buonfiglio, president of the Italian Olympic Committee, told Reuters. “In order to go to the World Cup, you have to earn it.”
(Editor’s note: An invaluable source for this story was the entertaining book “Incredible World Cup Stories / Wildest Tales and Most Dramatic Moments from Uruguay 1930 to Qatar 2022,” written by Luciano Wernicke and available via Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and more.)
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: World Cup has long history of politics finding its way onto the pitch
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
