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7/14/2015

Do You Think the World Cup Is Just About Soccer? | Dame Magazine

HOME ENTERTAINMENT THE WORLD CUP 2014 DO YOU THINK THE WORLD CUP IS JUST ABOUT SOCCER?

The World Cup 2014

Do You Think the World Cup Is Just About


Soccer?
While the international game plays out on the fields of Brazil,
there are a lot more political, economic, racial, and womens
issues spinning behind the scene.

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In Northern Ireland, opposing pro-England and pro-Ireland flags


have grimly marked territory for decades, showing who is
welcomed and who might be refused serviceor beaten. But this
month, even the hardest of the islands hard men are lifting their
pints in pubs decked out with a We Are the World array of colors, from the familiar
emerald green of Brazil to Bosnia and Herzegovinas stylish gold and blue triangles.
Written by

Robin Kirk

We're into the first full week of the World Cup, the worlds largest single sport event.
Held every four years, the soccer competition includes 32 national teams that have won
qualifying rounds over the past year. Gathering in the host nation, Brazil, are
international phenoms like Ghanas Kevin-Prince Boateng (hot), Spaniard Gerard Pique
(Mr. Shakira), and Portugals Cristiano Ronaldo (the highest paid player in the sports
history), among many others. You can see the full schedule here.
Beyond the mega-stadia, sports commentary, and ad barrage, however, deep politics are
at play. Each game is as much about history and current events as a score. Everyone
always says sport isnt political, so that makes sports a great place to do politics,
especially at the World Cup level, says Laurent Dubois, a historian at Duke and the
author ofSoccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of Francewho happens to
pull for his native country, Belgium.
Well before the first match between Brazil and Croatia (Brazil won 3-1), Brazilians were
marching toprotest the millions in public funds spent on the celebration and not on
desperately needed health, school, and transportation services. At $11 billion, this is the
most expensive World Cup ever. Until just before the opening ceremony, Sao Paulo
metro workers were on strike, their marches brutally repressed by police.
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Brazil President Dilma Rousseff is an unlikely proponent of big-time commercial sports.


Aformer Marxist guerrilla and torture survivor, Rousseff made headlines last year when
she postponed an official visit to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.
Why? She wanted an investigation into reports, based on documents leaked by Edward
Snowden, that the NSA has been snooping on her phone calls and emails along with
communications from the state-controlled oil and gas firm Petrobras.

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Rousseffs one of three powerhouse female presidents in the region, with Argentinas
Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner and Chiles Michelle Bachelet, a physician and Socialist
just elected to her second term. Bachelet and her mother are also torture survivors, and
her army general father was tortured to death by the dictatorship of General Augusto
Pinochet. All three are center-left, yet have to find a way to effectively narrow the gap
between rich and poor.

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That gap is notorious in Brazil. Millions live in favelas that surround the major cities,
some too dangerous for even heavily armed police to enter. According to the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, more people are murdered in Brazil than in almost
any other country and most of those crimes go uninvestigated, let alone solved. Rouseffs
handling of World Cup preparations has been almost universally panned.The
International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) accused Brazil of being behind
on preparations for predictably massive crowds of enthusiasticand sometimes
inebriated and violentfans. Even as the tournament opened, fans sang Brazils anthem
then roundly booed the Jumbotrons when Rousseffs face appeared celebrating a goal. In
the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, security is suffocating, and allegations of
massive corruption are routine.

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Dubois points out that this is nothing new. Soccer and politics have long been
intertwined. The World Cup poses a beautiful question,Dubois says. What is our
nation? There are 11 people on a team and how they perform then determines whether
everyone in that nation celebrates or mourns. If theres an individual who stands out, like
a Maradona, the Argentine star, or a Zidane, theres an incredible merging of the
individual and the state. It seems like a players whole life was aimed at this moment.

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We're seeing another major development play out on the soccer field, with the female
players.FIFA became the first global institution to address the wearing of the veil as a
human-rights issue. The veil was banned by local soccer federations first in Quebec and
then in France, a decision that FIFA upheld. Then Middle Eastern countriesincluding
Iran and Jordanpushed for a revocation of the ban to allow their women to play. Now
FIFA allows women to play while wearing the veil.

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Its a contradiction, to be sure, says Dubois. You have conservative regimes insisting
on the right of women to play sports on an international stage, but they cant be out there
playing without the veil. On another level, you would think that they wouldnt want
women playing at all. Soccer has the capacity to bring people into these interesting
positions. Of course, countries also want their teams to play at these levels, a desire that
can trump other concerns. Iran, a country that still doesnt allow women to attend soccer
games, advocates for the right of women to play soccer.
Unlike the Olympics, the World Cup makes no excuses for featuring professional
athletes only. On the pitch are some of the highest paid athletes in the world, including
Portugals Cristiano Ronaldo, who earns $29 million every year from Real Madrid, a
Spanish team. (The Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant makes $30 million per
year.) Yet both competitions emerged at the same time, in the early 20thcentury. The
World Cup founder, Jules Rimet, insisted that the game be played by professionals since
he considered the Olympics elitist.
Most players dont come through universities, a practice unique to the United States and
its college teams. Stars like Argentinas Lionel Messi, for instance, may join a team as a
young teen, then groom for international play. Messi, whowas diagnosed with growth
hormone deficiency (or idiopathic short stature) as a child, signed with top team FC
Barcelona at 13, and attended their prep school. The team even paid for the costly
HGH, a growth-hormone treatment that allowed him to develop normally.

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Messi is not alone in lacking an action-hero physique. Soccer is unique because theres
no single body type necessary to play well. Unlike basketball (which requires height) or
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Do You Think the World Cup Is Just About Soccer? | Dame Magazine

football (which requires heft), soccer can include anyone. One of Brazils greats, Man
Garrincha, was born with a deformed spine and bowed legs, none of which stopped him
from helping bring Brazil the 1958 and 1962 World Cups.
Even a casual fan like me will notice a fascinating racial diversity on the pitch. Though
old Europe teamsItaly, France, Belgium, Spain, and Germanycontinue to
dominate, many players dont look like stereotypical locals. Increasingly, descendants of
immigrants from Europes former colonies dominate the sides, a bit of history woven
into the game. One of Frances all-time greats, for instance, was Zidane, a child of
Algerian workers. Famously, he head-butted Italys Marco Materazzi during the 2006
World Cup final, after Materazzi allegedly trash-talked Zidanes sister.
This year, all eyes will be on Italys Mario Balotelli, the child of a Ghanian couple who
was abandoned, then fostered by a Jewish family in Brescia. Known as both brilliant on
the field and volatile off it, Balotelli once drove into an Italian women's prison just to
have a look round. Europe is currently undergoing an anti-immigrant backlash, with
new parties like Englands UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and Frances
National Front gaining ground with promises to reintroduce borders and reduce
immigration. Balotelli has been a lightning rod for racism, which hes said he faces every
day as Italys first black player. Hes was the object of racially motivated attacks as
recently as May, while he and his team mates trained for the World Cup outside
Florence.
Theres also a new team competing, Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of the former
Yugoslavia. Their star midfielder is Miralem Pjani, a Muslim who is the child of
Bosnian refugees. One of Pjanis cousins was a rebel killed in 2014 fighting Syrias
government.
Repeatedly, results of World Cup matches can define a generation. Sometimes, it feels
like the fate of a nation rests on the outcome of a game. For instance, when Uruguay
defeated Brazil in 1950, it became a major national trauma. Others simply want a certain
team to lose and lose badly, as if historys moral judgment can still put the necessary spin
on the white ball. As the Three Lions, Englands nickname, geared up to face the
azzurri, Italys blues, friends in predominately pro-Ireland Derry packed the pubs to
root for Englands defeat, as if the trajectory of a ball will help tip the scales of history
ever so slightly in their favor.
Watching soccer at this level is a bit like watching the world, bounded by a football-size
field. Its a window onto where weve all come from, as well as where were headed. One
country celebrates; one country mourns. Then everyone looks forward to the next
tournament in four years, when the world comes together again to watch the beautiful
game anew.
TAGS: THE WORLD CUP 2014

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