पोलिटिक्स इन थे वर्ल्ड कप

While watching and discussing the World Cup recently, I have found it fascinating how intertwined politics and sports can be. People praise soccer, FIFA, and the World Cup for uniting the world with a common love in sport, and bringing athletes and fans of every race, ethnicity, and nationality together - even more, in South Africa, a nation still recovering from the wounds of Apartheid and years of racial injustice. It is really an idealistic picture of a happy world community.

Still - is it not fascinating how much politics play a role in the World Cup and international soccer? On one level, team politics are huge. E.g. - France. One manager (apparently not popular in France, and as we have seen, not popular with the team) may or may not be blamed for France's embarrassing retreat from the tournament, and the entire team - especially the influential team captain - is arguably the laughingstock of European sports.

One level higher, FIFA politics have also made headlines during the 2010 World Cup. It is no secret that the officiating was less than perfect during the tournament; there were plenty of calls being made or missed that could have changed the face of the knockout round. But on top of that, FIFA has stubbornly refused to even entertain the idea of instant replay technology. Regardless of how one feels about the use of cameras in soccer (or baseball, or basketball, or even football), given the state of officiating in the world's most prestigious tournament, the idea is at least worth some time for discussion.

Even higher, national politics have played a role in the tournament! As a self-proclaimed political scientist, I find this fascinating. There are two examples that stick out to illustrate my point. First, the Nigerian president banned the country's team from international play for TWO YEARS as punishment for performing so poorly on the world stage. To dissect that a little, we have what boils down to a national recreational team being punished by the head of government in front of the world. Crazy! Since when does a soccer team represent anything official about a country? Could a weak soccer team represent a weak government? I understand that the team represents the country in front of the world, but let's put this in the bigger picture: every four years a selected number of teams compete in an international spotlight. It's a huge deal for roughly one month (one twelfth of a year, and one forty-eighth of the span between World Cups), then it's not really a huge deal anymore. Is a two year ban really necessary? Is it really that big of a deal? And even more shocking about the Nigerian situation is that FIFA, for all intents and purposes, vetoed President Goodluck Jonathan's decree to ban his team. So first the political leader puts the kibosh on international soccer, then the soccer organization puts the kibosh on the political leader...Who is in control?
The second example is France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy spent his time as head of state to scold the star forward Nicolas Anelka for not apologizing for critical remarks towards his coach. And the French Sports Minister (whose very position I find remarkable) was sent down to South Africa before one of France's final matches to shame the players into a victory, telling them that their behavior has embarrassed the French people and state, and something along the lines of - their kids won't think of them as heroes anymore. That seems a little drastic to me, no matter how truthful the statement may or may not have been. Needless to say, even forcibly tucking the team's tail between its legs didn't get a berth into the tournament. Like the Boston police may soon find out, shaming people into things doesn't often work.

All negative connotations with "politics" aside, there was one facet of this phenomenon that I thought was particularly interesting. That is the paradox between a global unifying factor in soccer, the clear divisions between fans and country lines, and the overall camaraderie among soccer fans. We've all heard how great the World Cup is because it brings the world together, but it also breaks the world apart, redefining country lines in an athletic sphere. What I mean by this is that national pride skyrockets during the World Cup. It is almost a rendition of the "Rally Around the Flag" phenomenon that occurs around national disasters, but through a more positive light. I've heard stories of people waving American flags after our victories, ESPN was broadcasting scenes of enormous crowds of people crammed into tiny spaces to watch the game with their compatriots on a big screen, and even stories of grand celebrations in the Basque-lands of Spain after their championship victory on Sunday! Since when are the Basques so proud to be Spanish?

Still, despite this heightened sense of national pride, there is certainly an amiable undercurrent of "world citizenship" at the World Cup - a fascinating way to interpret the politics of the World Cup and to give homage to the significance of the sport around the world.