Does FIFA owe Argentina an appology for 1978?

Discussion in 'FIFA and Tournaments' started by The Germans are coming, Sep 2, 2014.

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  1. The Germans are coming

    Aug 13, 2014
    Nat'l Team:
    Burkina Faso
    During the weekend I got to watch two documentaries on the Argentine fascist junta and the dirty war again. One of these was a Dutch documentary that specificaly focused on the 1978 world cup and how the then regime under the military president Videla used the event to portrait a different image of their regime to the world. Under the Argentine military junta an estimated 30 000 people disapeard and were torchured and murderd. Although there was some condemnation out of Europe, most ignored taking serious actions against that regime. A pattern of behavior continued during the world cup as everyone in Europe talked of boycott, but in the end everyone went anyway. One thing the junta became notorious for was it`s way of executing prisoners by loading them on cargo planes, flying over the atlantic ocean and dropping the prisoners into the ocean. Only a few weeks before the world cup started, the corpses of people who were murderd that way, were washed ashore on the coastline of neighboring Uruguay. The documentary included images of the opening ceremony, of Videla holding a speech in a harrowing scene that reminded me of footage from the 1936 olympics. It also showed how a concentrationcamp was set up in a Naval mechanical school, from where the prisoners could actualy hear the roars from the nearby studios. It showed interviews with representatives of the famous mothers of the disapeard, who during the world cup were threatend not to protest, and most grotesk of all are reported scenes of people who the regime had march down the main streets of Buenos Aires chanting "Viva Videla", after Argentina won the world cup.

    I know that there is some controversy surrounding the Argentine victory, and I am not going to dive into that. In my opinion Argentina well deserved the 1978 victory. I want to focuse on FIFA`s failure to take notice of the brutality of the regime. In light of recent scandals concerning the two countries who might host the next 2 world cups, I think it is apropriate to reopen a conversation on the 1978 world cup, which in my opinion was FIFA`s greates failure so far, as they overlooked the crimes and brutality of the Argentine junta. I think FIFA does owe an appology to the Argentine people for overlooking the crimes of the military junta. And I hope that we might see a world cup hosted in what is now a free and democratic Argentina in the near future.

    Your thoughts?
     
  2. Chicago76

    Chicago76 Member+

    Jun 9, 2002
    It really depends upon whether or not FIFA giving Argentina hosting privileges either 1) emboldened the regime to commit more crimes/act with even more authority, 2) legitimized or facilitated the regime's ability to hold power for as long as they did post-WC.

    There are two schools of thought here:
    The first is that granting Argentina hosting rights works in the regime's favor, whether as a propaganda tool or as an excuse to step up oppression. The second is that by bringing WC-level media exposure to Argentina, outsiders learn of the problems and outsider pressure is placed upon ARG to change. I don't know enough about how the WC and Argentina's pre- and post-WC politics to have an opinion, but I think that if the WC benefitted the regime in terms of oppression of the Argentine people, then, yes, FIFA owes the people of Argentina an apology.
     
  3. Nico Limmat

    Nico Limmat Member+

    Oct 24, 1999
    Dubai, UAE
    Club:
    Grasshopper Club Zürich
    Nat'l Team:
    Switzerland
    Closed. You know why.

    This isn't a forum for politics.
     

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