The World Cup has become a very prestigious and popular event for teams and fans to be involved with, however it has even more implications for the nations participating in the tournament. Even more so than just participating in the tournament, hosting the World Cup is an incredible opportunity to propel many facets of a nation. Due to this fact, playing in and hosting the World Cup can lead to a very politically driven atmosphere.
In the case of the 1986 competition this can be seen through the tensions between Argentina and England, which many placed onto their respective teams play. Despite players such as Diego Maradona refuting these political claims, the tournament remained a politically charged environment. For both nations and even those not involved in the political tensions, winning the Cup is about more than just the team being the best, it brings prestige and influence to their home nation.
This prestige brought about by hosting the World Cup and the desire to do so, can be seen in every nations bid to be the host nation. Soccer is an incredibly important sport in many nations that brings people together regardless of race or other beliefs. During the World Cup, if one’s national team is participating it is an opportunity to join together in support of it. The effects of hosting can be extremely beneficial due to this and other reasons. It is not unheard of for fanbases to grow disinterested with their national team due to a number of reasons or in some cases lack interest in the sport in general.
Hosting the World Cup or signing intriguing or “big name” players are seen as two of the most effective ways to bolster interest in local sport teams. These reasons, in order to build up the sport in the nation and in turn the nation in itself, change these actions from being standard actions in pursuit of making a team better, a more politically charged choice.
In any regards politics have become intrinsically tied to most sports at both a national and local level. These things make it so that almost any action taken by organizations and teams has political implications. They are not just taken in pursuit of creating a better team, but also in creating a more favorable outlook for their team and industry.
Leave a Reply