The Politics of the World Cup

Yesterday I walked into the locker-room of my gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn and immediately looked for an update on the NBA finals -which I expected to be displayed on the off-color TV. Instead, I was greeted with the image of a bunch of hazy figures running up and down a massive field accompanied by a cacophony of otherworldly sounds.

Why, I thought, was this and not the sports I grew up with, basketball, playing?

With all due respect to my many foreign friends and my fellow -however recent- citizens, I just don't get all the hype.
So the whole world is going berserk. So South African merchants ran out of ear-plugs- and not jerseys or other sports apparel. So vuvuzelas, the noise-making horns, were actually going to be banned because their use was being abused. So?

Yes, some in and outside America would like us Americans to be more like the rest of world. But I don't want America to be like the rest of the world. That doesn't mean we should automatically oppose the world. Neither should we ban the viewing of the world cup by once a year fans who are just looking for an excuse to get wasted at the recently bedecked -with an array of national flags- soccer showing pub on the corner. There are many other global trends, like Israel bashing, civil rights depriving, and populism that America should continue to avoid. If the world cup is forced down our throats what’s next? Just joking.

The point is that America has good reason to maintain its unique culture, whether it be NFL football or a pragmatic approach to international-affairs.

Domestic/nativist perspectives aside, I find the international politics of the world cup fascinating.


For example, most of the sane and free world was rooting for Brazil to defeat North Korea, even though historically, I am told, Brazil is one of the most successful teams. As if North Korea as a country, is defeated when its sports team is defeated. The reasons why most of the free world rooted against North Korea, probably has to do with North Korea's abysmal domestic and regional behavior. In other words politics trumped the fans desire to win!
Of Course there were over a thousand red-uniformed Chinese "volunteers" directed by an maestro (no I'm not joking, a maestro) at the game cheering on North Korea. When asked if they were following the game, they responded that they were not, just there to support their brothers (http://www.newser.com/story/92710/north-korean-fans-actually-chinese-actors.html). Talk about politics.

Let us hope that the despotic, Kim Jung-Il does not mimic deposed dictator, Saddam Hussein, who was known to torture Iraqi Olympians and their families if they failed to win.

Then let us not forget the unusual brouhaha between America, under the left wing Obama administration, and Cameron’s, now conservative Britain. On the world-cup front it centers on the unexpected 1-1 tie. But the name-calling by fans was fanned by British Petroleum’s (BP) failures, and the Obama administration's ineptness. Why Obama, is Anglicizing BP's failures, and why the English are interpreting the predictable left-wing/environmentalist backlash (except, of course, for Al Gore’s conspicuous silence on the matter) as personal, probably has more to do with our stressed economies and scapegoat-hunting leaders, then anything else.

On to the usual and frustrating -to many live-and-let-live Muslims- Islamic component. Why, I ask, must Somalia execute two fans for the inexcusable sin of watching the world-cup? And why is the Muslim street, which of course jumped on the recent "flotilla provocation with a bad ending episode", not demanding justice for their entertainment-hungry brothers?


Soccer/football, holds no significance for me and many Americans. At the same time you simply can’t deny or be surprised that this international sports affair has an intriguing political side. It is interesting enough for me, and for many disinterested Americans, to know that the Anglo-American match resulted in a 1-1 tie.