President Trump hilariously interjected himself into the Chelsea soccer team’s celebrations after winning the Club World Cup soccer tournament at MetLife stadium last Sunday. This quick clip captures the raucous joy. Though unconventional, he was absolutely determined to immerse himself in the presentations and dancing, and it will go down in soccer folklore. However, I think I finally found something he may be wrong about, albeit for the right reasons.
In an interview with the DAZN network the president said, “The game is about unity, it is about everyone getting together, it is about a lot of love between different international countries… this is the most international sport on the planet, so it can really bring the world together.” He’s right about it being the most international sport but I humbly proffer he’s wrong about it bringing everyone together, and instilling love. Just look at the deplorable sportsmanship from PSG (the team that Chelsea demolished) immediately after the match, but it gets worse….
In 1969 there was a war between El Salvador and Honduras over soccer, of all things. Okay, there were a few other contentious factors, such as disputes over land and immigration, but soccer rivalry was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
While the 1969 “Football War” may be the epitome of sports engendering hate, not love, it is not isolated. Hooliganism has been a blight on the sport as punks and thugs pretending to be fans are really out to mimic the vandals and goths of late antiquity. In a 1985 European Cup Final match between Liverpool FC and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Belgium, hooliganism was largely blamed for panicked crushes that led to 39 deaths.
Hooliganism was so rampant that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exposed football hooligans as a societal ill plaguing the country. Nowadays, in the vaunted English Premier League, hooliganism has been curtailed, partly by greater surveillance, more heavy-handed policing, and replacing old-fashioned terraces in stadia with family-friendly seats. Nevertheless, soccer violence is actually on the rise again in continental Europe.
In South America it may be worse. Instead of overwrought drunken mobs getting into punch-ups (with occasional drastic consequences), they can be intentionally barbaric. Here’s one example of a Brazilian soccer referee being murdered in horrific fashion.
Prompting much fanfare, the U.S. beat Columbia in the 1994 World Cup, which was hosted in the U.S. During the match, a hapless Columbian defender named Andres Escobar scored an own goal (not a good thing) for which he paid with his life back in Columbia.
Mr. President, you are right most of the time, but here’s further evidence that soccer does not bring unity or “love between different international countries.” Brazil and Argentina are soccer stalwarts who are generally ranked very highly in the world rankings. I think it’s fair to characterize their soccer relationship as fraught, at a minimum. Indeed, when the teams met a couple years ago, violence in the stands delayed the start of the match.
Sometimes it’s not just fans fighting amongst themselves. In this infamous case, Uruguayan players — players— displayed their pugilistic skills against Columbian fans in the stands.
Even local matches (referred to as a derby game) provoke intense emotions between neighbors, rather than brotherly love. Indeed, the tribalistic rivalry between proximal teams can go ballistic — on and off the field.
I almost can’t believe it — I may have found something that President Trump is wrong about: soccer fandom is intimately linked to violence, not unity and love. In the end, the stark contrast is just a reminder that he gets just about everything else right, including the important stuff. Whether quixotic or not, his statement that “it can really bring the world together,” reveals much about his peace-loving character. Even when Trump is wrong, it’s for the right reasons.
Image from Grok.