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Switzerland: The Ultimate “Neutral Ground” You have to remember the headspace of Europe in 1954. Most of the continent was still a total mess. People in the UK were literally still using ration books for food until that July. Then you look at Switzerland: no bomb damage, fully functioning trains, and zero food shortages. It was this “Island of Peace” in a sea of reconstruction. For FIFA, picking Switzerland wasn’t just about their HQ being in Zurich; it was a strategic move. With the Cold War heating up, Switzerland was the only place where teams from…

I have always been in love with soccer and especially when it comes to Mexico. I grew up watching the games with my family and cheering for Mexico no matter what. It’s a sport that unites all of us and makes us feel the most patriotic ever. That is why I decided to base my research on the 1986 World Cup based in Mexico with it also being their second time as hosts. Prior to the 1986 World Cup kick off Mexico was surprised by a deadly 8.1 magnitude earthquake on the morning of September 19,…

For my project I chose to look into the controversies behind the 2018 and the 2022 world cups and make a video, I mainly focused on the bidding process but also touched on the human right an ethical concerns. Russias corruptions was mainly due to power after they had been given the world cup not bribery or any thing to that extreme. Qatars bidding process was the opposite, lots of accounts showed vote trading and illegal corruption yet due to the rules back and the lack of transparency FIFA could not be held responsible. I was…

For my project, I looked at the U.S.A’s and Mexico’s men’s national teams and the reasons as to why they have been so dominant in North American football. The two nations have a significant amount of economic and structural leverage over the rest of the region which is why they have been able to sustain dominance for many years. Mexico’s love for football on a very large scale has allowed them to produce lots of competitive young players year after year, while the United States has by far the largest economy in North America and some…

This is a link to the map that I created using Google Maps in order to provide an argument for why Middle Eastern football is innately more political than in other regions of the world (South America for example). A lot of the focus of this map project is on Iran but I have also decided to include pins and stories for Turkey, Armenia, Israel, and Palestine as well in order to not have the focus solely be on Iran. This was a fun and interesting topic to research as it has helped me to better…

I chose for my topic to focus on soccer fans from the countries of Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. For this project I wanted to showcase how the tensions between fans in these nations give a look into the political and religious hostilities in the region. For Scotland, I primarily focused on Sectarianism that is shown in how fans of teams interact, primarily between the Irish-Catholic descendent fans of Celtic FC, and the Protestant fans of Rangers FC. For Ireland, and Northern Ireland, I also focused on Catholic and Protestant tensions, but with the addition of…

I chose my topic for my digital project as an analysis on racism and the treatment of black soccer players around the county in “statistically non-black countries.” I define this for the sake of my project as a country that, quantitatively, has black people as a minority in their population, or a country that historically and culturally has seen and treated black people as a minority. With the tool I used, StoryMapJS, I used the value of showcasing location aswell as placing my points in a chronological point to showcase the evolution of the treatment and…

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Working on this project about women’s influence in FIFA soccer definitely changed my perspective of the history of the sport, and soccer in general. Before starting, I knew soccer was a male-dominated sport, but I didn’t fully understand how much that inequality was woven into the game’s history. Learning about things like the 1921 ban on women’s soccer and the long-standing lack of funding and media coverage made it clear that these barriers weren’t accidental, they were part of a larger system that limited women’s roles for decades. At the same time, what stood out most…

This multimedia project really helped me to present my entire thesis on how immigration has affected international football and national identity in a fun and entertaining way. I chose to make a Google map with points on different countries across the globe that have a history of immigration in relation to international football, and how having a higher number of immigrant players on a team affects a country’s national identity.  I was able to incorporate links to relevant articles that expanded information on my topics and provided a great overview of some of my topics, like…