Category: Wk06-1950 World Cup

The world cup openly has lots of controversy through proven situations and public gossip stating whether certain things are fair or not fair. Bowman goes into depth on the England world cup in 1966 and the 1978 world cup in Argentina. According to reporters and other recognised people both world cups had bad reputations. 

In 1966 there was lots of political tension with African countries boycotting the competition due to the limit sport the continent had been allowed, lots of latin american countries believed there was a bias towards the europing nations from the referees. Not only latin america but germany who played England in the final felt that they had lost due to ‘shoddy refereeing’. The ‘political and cultural wangling’ led to changes within FIFA with the latin americans feeling aggrieved from the outcomes of the world cup. This ultimately led to Havelange (a Brazilian) becoming the head of FIFA to make latin america, africa and asia feel represented again. 

The 1978 world cup also had political issues with the economic state of the country and the event being pushed on the country hiding violence within the people of Argentina. A long serving observer stated ‘Argentina was the worst. Won by the worst . . . in the worst and most unsatisfactory circumstances. Disfigured by negative football, ill temper, dreadful referee-ing, spiteful players, and the wanton surrender of Peru’.

Chapter 6 of Golazo! and Bowman’s readings focused on the connection between football, politics, and national identity. As the sport grew, governments realized it could help with unity and develop a strong sense of pride among the people. Global tournaments like the World Cup became opportunities for countries to showcase themselves on the world stage. The outcomes of matches and who hosted the cup carried political and emotional significance, shaping public mood and reputation abroad.

“You who I already consider champions…. you take the field as authentic representatives of Brazil who will prove the worth of the Brazilian people to the entire world”

-Eurico Dutra, President of Brazil.

This quote in my opinion encapsulates an important motif of both the Golazo reading and the Bowman reading which is that at the highest level of association football, they are essentially ambassadors to the world stage; a symbol of the country and it’s overall prowess in the eyes of the other countries at the World Cup. Being able to host the World Cup after a brief hiatus because of the Second World War was an extremely high honor for the country of Brazil, who saw this as an opportunity to push the image of Brazil being a flourishing, emerging powerhouse of the (at the time) modern world. This included the building of the Maracana, and extreme financial investment into tournament quality for the World Cup.

The point of these articles is to highlight the extreme relationship between early international soccer and the political sphere of the world, whether that be in the 1950 World Cup or even modern World Cups such as Qatar 2022. The financial lengths that Brazil went to to present themselves to the world stage proves the role that soccer has on the political climate of the globe. It was more than just a tournament to not only them, but a good bit of the world. Even with a loss to Uruguay after dominating the competition and being overtly disappointed with the outcome, the message they sent to the world that soccer in South America is powerful, and that South Americans are powerful resonated.

There was alot of political and economic turmoil between countries after the end of World War II in 1945. Despite issues like the Cold War arising and wars in countries throughout Eastern Europe, Korea, and eventually Vietnam, FIFA was able to host a World Cup every four years without alot of issues. 

The 1950 World Cup took place in Brazil, and the Brazilian government was extremely excited to host the World Cup and prove that they were on the same level, if not better than, their European counterparts. The Brazilian government, in partnership with its football federation, developed elaborate plans for its national team and the competition. One of these plans included a brand new state-of-the-art stadium called Maracana, which hosted several key matches. Maracana was one of the largest stadiums in the world, and it was a testament to the global growth Brazil had been seeing during the time. The 1950 World Cup marked a change in how people viewed soccer because of how fanatacial brazillians were about their national team. The energy and support they showed for their national team were amazing. 

Despite this support, Brazil would not be able to win the 1950 World Cup, as in front of an estimated 200,000 fans, Brazil lost 2-1 to Uruguay for the World Cup title. This disappointing result stunned Brazilians and left the country wondering what had happened. They had invested so much money and time; how could they not have won? Unfortunately, the answer most Brazillians came to was because of the race of some of the players, mostly those of african desecent. Brazil has been battling racial thinking and stereotypes for many years, but it seems that the World Cup only worsened those ideas for some Brazilians. In fact, it would be many years before the Brazilian national team would have another goalkeeper of African descent play for them. Thankfully, legends like Pelé would come to play for the Brazilian national team soon after this defeat, and many players of African descent would become national heroes in Brazil after winning the World Cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970. 

The World Cup bounced around from South America to Europe every four years, and the choice of countries in Europe was mostly based on who had survived World War II without major damage, so countries like Switzerland and Sweden were chosen because they stayed neutral in the conflict years earlier. This eventually leads to the 1966 World Cup, which was hosted by england who is often viewed as the father of modern association rules football and is responsible for spreading the sport as far as it has been spread. England stayed out of the first couple of World Cups because they viewed it as below them, but when they actually started to compete in these global competitions, they started to lose to other countries realize that maybe they weren’t the top footballing country in the world anymore. 

When the World Cup came to British soil, they knew that they had to make a statement and win the World Cup. They prepared meticulously for the competition and composed a team that reflected England’s political and cultural values to a tee. They brought together a team of hardworking and competitive men with enough scoring options to win matches. This World Cup was covered in controversy however, as a lot of African teams chose not to participate in their playoff matches and chose to boycott FIFA because they were only given one representative at the World Cup matches. There was also tension between teams as the Argentines were called animals by the British coach because of their more aggressive style of play, which, coupled with the extreme European bias of this World Cup, made it hard to play as a Latin American. And there was also a claim by a lot of German fans that there was some biased refereeing in the World Cup final they played against England that year. African, Asian, and Latin American teams felt slighted and betrayed by FIFA as an organization after this World Cup. This led to a lot of changes in FIFA as an organization and really helped to push for more representation of teams in the World Cup.