-- We have the soccer wars in Central America. -- Pele also stopped a civil war somewhere in Africa so that the fans can see him. -- The famous game where Dynamo Kyve would rather die than losing to the Germans.
Any time any of the Home Nations play each other. Netherlands v West Germany in 1974. That would have made a lot of people feel better about the war. Wim van Hanegem lost several family members, including a father and a few siblings, to the German gun, and played his head off.
On that note, maybe it's time the Dutch schedule a game vs. Indonesia? I think a lot of Indonesians would feel better about the Independence War against the Dutch (1945-49), in which 150,000 Indonesians were murdered by the Dutch, if they'd get a chance to beat their former colonial masters.
These arguments are pointless, because you have to be pretty blind to think an entire country is to blame for your losses. Understandable, but stupid. We Dutch know we brought slavery to an extreme, the Germans know their people murdered countless Jews and many more. Don't turn history into fuel for a racist engine.
All fair points, I'm tired of hearing about Wim van Hanegem's family history having anything to do with the 1974 World Cup final. Indeed, pointless. But I don't see this thread turning history into a fuel for a racist engine. Let's not overdo it with the political correctness.
Football and politics have always gone hand in hand despite calls from many to separate the two. While FIFA and the upper echelon of world football vehemently deny that football is associated with any political movements, parties or ideologies, we have only history to see that this is not true. Indeed, it is the political facet of football that provides the strong emotions felt in matches. There are too many instances where politics has seeped into football. Some have been mentioned. I'll just briefly address the political influence politics has had on club football. Dictators and football (1) Franco and Real Madrid Since football has always appealed to the masses, those in power or those struggling to gain power have used football as a propaganda tool to bolster their position. It is no secret that Generalissimo Franco used the success of Real Madrid in the 1950s to bolster the image of his regime even though in his personal life, Franco was said to have preferred Atletico Madrid. But since Franco's goal was to rid Spain of regionalism and any form of gravitation to autonomy, Real Madrid was a strong symbol against other clubs such as Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao (or Atletico de Bilbao as they were forced to adopt this name as the Spanish name). Conversely, because of Franco's policies of eradicating local languages such as Catala and Basque, the people of those regions gravitated strongly toward their clubs for a sense of identity. Barça fans could only speak Catala and fly Catalan flags in the Camp Nou without fear of reprisals from the secret police. Only until Franco's death in 1975 and the introduction of the Spanish Constitution in the ensuing years did the political complexion of the game slowly diminish..however it has not by any sense of the imagination escaped the minds of fans in Spain. (2) Soviet Union and Spartak Moscow The clubs we hear of today, such as CSKA and Dinamo Moscow, probably don't stir up much imagination. In fact, when CSKA won the UEFA Cup two seasons ago, no one hardly batted an eye. CSKA today doesn't hold the same meaning as it did back in the Soviet Union. CSKA Moscow was the team of the army... we might be more familiar with the term "The Red Army" as CSKA also has a hockey team which boasts a roster in history of players we are familiar with (Fetisov, Fedorov, Larianov, Kozlov, Homotov, etc). But as the team of the army, CSKA boasted success because unlike the Chelseas of today which can simply outbuy any competitior, CSKA could just simply take another club's best player at the whim of its directors (the upper echelon generals of the army). Dinamo Moscow was the team of the KGB (back then the NKVD) and Lokomotiv Moscow was the team of the Interior Ministry. One team stood apart and that was Spartak Moscow...a club with no affiliation to any ministry or agency owned by the State. Rather, the club was started by the Starotsin brothers who not only looked after the club, but who also played for Spartak. During Stalin's purges of NKVD leaders, Spartak began to play a unique role in Soviet politics. The leaders of the NKVD hated the Starotsin brothers because of the rising success of Spartak. Rather than try and defeat them on the pitch, these men would simply try and benefit Dinamo Moscow by a more simple method: jail and send the Starotsin brothers to the dreaded gulags. Fortunately for the Starotsin brothers, they had a fan in Vasily Stalin, the son of Joseph Stalin. Coupled with Joseph Stalin's paranoia of his NKVD leaders and successive purges of these leaders, Spartak Moscow survived numerous attempts to do away with the club. Spartak has enjoyed the status as the "people's" club. The irony is especially poignant considering that every other major club was backed by agencies that boasted of serving the "people" when Spartak was affiliated with neither.
The 1984 Intercontinental (Toyota) Cup between Independiente and Liverpool was the first match to be played between Argentinian and English teams since the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. Iirc, Indpendiente really took this match as a way of revenge for the war and were talking about it so much that FIFA had to step in and warn both teams that there wasn't to be any type of political setting; I'll have to look at some old clippings I have to make sure. I definately remember after the match seeing the Independiente players holding a big Argentine flag as they received the trophies.
There's a few recent ones that spring to mind: Dominica is getting a stadium funded by China in exchange for kicking the Taiwanese embassy out of Dominica. I also understand China is funding an expansion of Tanzania's national stadium. I'm sure that's just a coincidence tho.
Obviously, because it was national teams involved and it was the World Cup. I hate to think what would've happened had they met in Spain 82! Incidentally, something happened during the '82 World Cup that I've never quite understood. The day of the Opening Ceremony, there was another ceremony at some plaza in Spain - probably Madrid - where the flags of all 24 competing nations were raised individually while their national anthems were played. When the English flag was raised, the local Spaniards jeered mercilessly throughout "God Save The Queen". Yet there was no reaction when the flags of Northern Ireland and Scotland were raised. In fact, generous applause was given after both anthems as well as all the others. I always wondered if the jeering was for the British involvment of the Falklands (Spanish civilians backed Argentina in the war; can't remember the government's official stance) or whether it was towards the English supporters who were rapidly gaining a reputation due to the hooligan element.
The invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR in 1968 prompted UEFA to restage the first round draw for the UEFA club competitions by seperating Western and Eastern European clubs in the matchups. This decision was made after Western European clubs had protested their fears of not being allowed out of Eastern Bloc countries due to the Czechoslovakian conflict. After UEFA conducted the redraw, many Soviet Bloc teams withdrew from the tournaments out of protest. I think only three nations behind the Iron Curtain still allowed their clubs to compete: Yugoslavia, Romania and, ironically enough, Czechoslovakia. Incredibly, it was one of those Czech sides, Slovan Bratislava, that went on to win the Cup Winners Cup by shocking Barcelona in the final.
My guess is that it is to do with England being the most influential or most famous part of the UK. I suppose the hooligan culture had some affect too.
The Iraqi national team right before the 2nd Gulf War switched their home jersey color to black as a protest to UN sanction.
The story was actually inspired by Dynamo Kyve story I mentioned above. back in the 1980s, they would not make a movie portraying the Soviets as heros, esecially it is a Stallone movie.
Pointless eh? "Let's stuff them, they killed my ********ing family in the war" - actual quote by van Hanegem before the game (translated, obviously). He didn't even attend the postgame reception, because he couldn't fraternize with them. It's been a big part of his life. He's cooled off as he got older, but it was most definitely there in '74. Ask any Feyenoord fan of the time - he always took it up a notch when playing a German side. The war was a huge subtext during the final, from Beckenbauer notifying Jack Taylor that he was in fact an Englishman, to the Dutch attempting to humiliate the Germans after scoring, to the Dutch commentator saying "They tricked us again!" when Muller scored.