“The 1986 World Cup finals will not be held in Colombia. The golden rule whereby the championship would serve Colombia and not a group of multi-national companies was not observed. Here we have many other things to do and there is no time to attend to the extravagances of FIFA” – Belisario Bentacur. Without getting too deep into the technicalities/reasons behind the 1986 Fifa World Cup Finals (WC) being hosted in Mexico instead of Colombia, I believe that this quote is a good analysis of the power, both politically and monetarily that the WC holds. This was evident 16 years earlier with the 1970 World Cup in Mexico – and the way it was displaying Mexican Identity.
The 30 years after 1940 Mexico experienced a period of economic growth and relative political stability – a period dubbed “Mexican Miracle.” During this time the government exhibited this progress through different mediums, most notably sports and television. One of the main ways that the Mexican Government thought to present themselves to the world was through hosting of large-scale, international sporting events. The Mexican government wanted to hose The Olympics & World Cup, amazing opportunities to present “an image of a modern Mexico”. The Mexican government applied to host the 1956, 1960, and 1968 Olympics, eventually hosting the 1968 edition.
Although there was interest from the Mexican Government as early as 1958 to host the World Cup, the actual 1970 bid was posed from a a group of businessmen. Emilio Azcárraga Milmo and Guillermo Cañedo being two of the most prominent. Azcáarrga, who was the heir to his families media empire controlling lots of the Mexican TV stations and later becoming owner of Club America. His family had broadcasting rights to the Mexican Football League which gave him a foothold into the world of Mexican Sports. Cañedo, on the other hand, rose through the ranks of soccer administration via his success with ‘Club Zacatepec’ winning 2nd and then 1st division titles. He became President of the Mexican Football Federation and director of Club America in 1961. It is at Club America where these two men met, a partnership that saw Cañedo get involved with Azcárraga’s media company. This created a bond where soccer and media grew off of one another, and later became influential in the World Cup organizing commitee (OCMX70)
Connecting this back into the theme for the week, this partnership became an important stakeholder in the 1970 World Cup. Although they were approaching the same task as the Mexican Government had been with the Olympics, that is displaying the modernity and culture of their Nation, they were also doing so in a way that consolidated both their power/wealth and that of their friends. But hey no one ever said FIFA wasnt corrupt.
Bowman, William D. The World Cup as World History. Available from: Appalachian State University, Bloomsbury USA, 2019.
[CT] Bunk, Brian D. “Colleen Bawns and Bonnie Lassies: Women’s Soccer and Sporting Culture in Late Nineteenth-Century San Francisco.” In Soccer Frontiers.
Leave a Reply