Welcome to the World Cup! We’ve all come to think of this soccer extravaganza as one where countries compete in a civilized tournament but let’s face it, the World Cup is the Sunday League of planet Earth. A league where all the unique children of the neighborhood come out to play some footie, and they’re only unique because their mothers said so. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, just about anything! Since its 1930 inception, the international spectacle has reigned supreme in bringing people together for some good old fashioned soccer — and good old-fashioned political hysteria. Here is the countdown of the18’s top three most shocking political moments in World Cup history.
In 1962, Chile hosted the World Cup while in their second year recovery from the strongest earthquake ever recorded in history: the Valdivia earthquake, 9.5 on the Richter scale. When two Italian journalists were assigned the cup’s coverage, their harsh criticisms of Chile and its people would cause one more earthquake on the pitch.
Antonio Ghirelli and Corrado Pizzinelli called Santiago a “backwater dump” and poured more gas to the fire they had ignited by calling Chileans “prostitutes” and a “backwards people.” At one point, the Italian journalists compared Chile’s preparation for the World Cup to Mussolini’s plans for bombing London, the joke being that neither happened.
Chilean journalists retaliated and called the Italians “oversexed fascists.” This name-calling game, unlike a 13-year-old screaming “You’re mom’s a slut!” on Call of Duty, didn’t end at words. Chile and Italy, in a Group 2 match, butted heads, fists and legs which prompted several international reporters to cover the match as if it was a battleground, calling their reports “war dispatches.”
Referee Ken Aston was forced to dismiss two players from the match. Poor Kenny was so traumatized he want back home and invented the yellow and red cards for future nightmares.
The Hand of God goal was aimed as a vengeful slap to England by Argentina. Four years before the match, Argentina and England had gone to war over the Falkland Islands, off the coast of Argentina.
Even though the war lasted just over two months, resentment from both sides echoed throughout the streets as Argentinian and English fans clashed in Mexico City. On the pitch, the roaring turned to one side as Diego Maradona silenced England with two goals. England’s Gary Lineker managed to score one goal and later won the Golden Boot.
The two goals against England in the 1986 World Cup are well cemented in the minds of soccer fans across the globe. Playing in Mexico’s Estadio Azteca, Maradona scored the Hand of God goal on the 51st minute. Four minutes later, he scored the Goal of the Century, in which he dribbled past five England players and finally netted it behind Peter Shilton.
Argentina won the World Cup that year and Maradona won the Golden Ball.
Oh Maradona, you manage to jump right into any list with the words "soccer" and "shocking" so easily. He’s probably the only moth that actually enjoys the flame.
In the 1998 World Cup, Iran and the U.S. were pitted against each other in Group F. Just like the chill running through your spine as you read this, the world felt a cold breeze that night as it gushed past the fans to the French riot police waiting outside. It was a constant fright for organizers but a surprising delight for the players.
FIFA had planned that Iran would be the one to walk up to the US for the initial meet and greet handshakes but when Supreme Leader Khamenei heard of this, he popped a vessel. He demanded that the US team walk to Iran and not the other way around as planned, but he wasn’t that awful as he also demanded Iranian players carry white roses for their American opponents.
This symbol of peace calmed the tensions between the players, alleviating the gloomy mood into quite an exhilarating match.
Iran’s two goals by Hamid Estili and Mahdi Mahdavikia sent the U.S. out of the World Cup despite Brian McBride’s late goal. It was Iran’s first and only match won in a World Cup.
After the match, the two sides exchanged shirts, hugs and even took a group photo together, to which USA defender Jeff Agoos said, “We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years.”
With only a few months until the World Cup, we can’t expect accurate predictions of who wins and who loses. What we can predict is this: politics will definitely be involved. FIFA chose Russia as the 21st World Cup hosts and hopefully they include Ivan Drago as the main commentator.
Following the UK’s nerve-agent-powder attacks and the alleged meddling in the US’s 2016 presidential elections, will this year’s World Cup boil with political mayhem or will it restore our faith in humanity? I can’t wait to read Donald Trump’s tweets this summer.
We can foolishly wait and see, or we can use that fatty lump of neurons in our noggins and consider a few things:
France, England and Germany, three main Western allies, are in the World Cup and we can definitely expect they’ll be upping security measures against any possible Russian sneakiness. The allies will most likely show the most political opposition as boycott efforts are already beginning in Europe and North America.
Economically, Russia wouldn’t try pulling off anything tricky. The World Cup brings in a lot of moolah and the former Soviet motherland wouldn’t compromise such a lucrative venture given all that powers Russia’s economy is selling liquefied natural gas, vodka and how-to-use-social-media-for-political-domination self-help books.
Last but not least, Russia is not stupid. Russia will most likely use the World Cup stage to further try to elevate their global role as a leading power and sadly, the good ole US of A, were knocked out by Trinidad & Tobago.
The Russia 2018 World Cup will commence on June 16th with a dangerously exciting match between Russia and Saudi Arabia. I’ve got my money on the Green Falcons. I just really like birds and felt like sharing.
No seriously, I’m rooting for Germany because they won the last time and that’s the kind of petty fan I am.
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