The World Cup and the Dirty War

By | March 16, 2015

In 1978, Argentina hosted the World Cup in the midst of a period of tremendous political repression. Grant Farred’s book Long Distance Love tells this story, and reflects on what it means for the way we think about politics and football. More recently, this 2014 piece by Wright Thompson offers a remarkable account of the co-existence of the World Cup & torture, with a number of testimonies by victims.

 

Category: Argentina World Cup

About Laurent Dubois

I am Professor of Romance Studies and History and the Director of the Forum for Scholars & Publics at Duke University. I founded the Soccer Politics blog in 2009 as part of a course on "World Cup and World Politics" taught at Duke University. I'm currently teaching the course under the title "Soccer Politics" here at Duke. My books include Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (University of California Press, 2010) and The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer (Basic Books, 2018)

2 thoughts on “The World Cup and the Dirty War

  1. Ben Scharf

    Cet article par Wright Thompson est vraiment incroyable en révélant merveilleusement les extrêmes injustices de la « Guerre Sale » et leurs connections avec le football et la Coupe du Monde. La première chose qui m’a frappé dans cet article extrêmement frappant était la légende de la première photo à droite qui dit que Kempes et ses coéquipiers argentines ne connaissaient pas les atrocités du régime dictatorial pendant la Coupe du Monde en 1978 en Argentine. Selon l’auteur et les gens qui sont interviewé, les disparitions étaient assez évidentes et il a cité un joueur qui a décidé de ne pas jouer pour l’équipe national d’Argentine à cause de cela, donc ces mots de Kempes me semble comme les joueurs ont fermés les yeux. Pour moi pendant toute ma vie, les sports ont fonctionné comme une façon d’échapper certaines choses qui sont me tracasse. Pour ces gens qui ont vécu la torture et la douleur des disparitions et de cette période noire dans l’histoire Argentine, le football, et la Coupe du Monde en particulier, a une fonctionne différente ; il les hante avec ces souvenirs du régime dictatorial. Pour eux, le beau jeu n’est pas beau ce qui est triste. Il faut absolument lire cet article !

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  2. Harrison Kalt

    Never before in soccer has there been a sporting event or tournament in which the sport and national politics were so closely intertwined as during the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Held during a period of social, economic, and political instability, the Cup coincided with the advent of the military juntas in Argentina, a campaign constructed around the destruction of any opposition to general Jorge Rafael Videla. Conscious of the worldwide reach of the World Cup, Videla believed that, by deliberately structuring the World Cup as an ideological struggle between his nation and there competition, he could in turn instill a great deal of patriotism, jingoism, and unity over his fractured populace. A World Cup win, in his eyes, could unite the country once again. Constantly, Videla would urge his nation to come together, all 25 million of his people (although hundreds of thousands of those 25 million had been abducted, brutalized, and labeled as desaparecidos. Using soccer as a political tool, Videla was able to temporarily find some of the unity and singularity that he sought once Argentina won the home tournament. Nonetheless, he was not able to ultimately bring together a fractured or dissolved nation despite his best efforts to kill, abduct, and rid the nation of all dissidents to his rule.

    Ultimately,I believe that the 1978 World Cup is a prime example of the intertwinement between soccer and politics.

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