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World Cup Politics: Fixed Matches, Fascism & FIFA

There is an old tradition in England that sport and politics do not mix. This carried over into FIFA when it was established in 1904, sought to take control of the Olympic soccer competition and then organized its own professional World Cup.

Yet, as Bill Murray, my co-author on The History of Soccer in Australia: A Tale of Two Halves, has pointed out, it was the British home nations (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) who brought politics into soccer when they refused to play Germany, Austria and Hungary in the aftermath of the first world war. They expected everyone in FIFA to follow suit, and when this didn't happen, they temporarily withdrew from the organization.

Since then, politics have regularly intruded into the soccer world, including recently with the controversial selections of Russia and Qatar to host the next two World Cups. As one of the most politically charged World Cups gets set to kick off in Moscow today, we look back at five other moments in history when politics did mix with soccer internationally.

1. Benito Mussolini Predicts Victory On Home Soil


After Uruguay hosted and won the first World Cup in 1930, Mussolini was determined that Italy would do the same four years later. He did everything in his power to make this happen, too. Argentina was denuded of star players who were "persuaded" to play for Italy, while Italy's own players were threatened with immediate conscription into the army if they failed to win.

Il Duce may or may not have entertained match officials on occasion, but the tournament had some very strange refereeing decisions that reinforced Italy's "home ground advantage." The 1934 tournament was so contentious, in fact, the UEFA website's story of the event is entitled "1934: Mussolini Pulls The Levers. Mussolini got his victory, albeit a tainted one.

ItalyWorldCup.jpgItaly's 1934 World Cup-winning team/Wikimedia Commons


2. Hungary Fails To Show, Soviets Claim Gold

At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and '60s, the Soviet Union was determined to make its mark through the game as well.

Winning a World Cup against full-time professionals was beyond their capacity at the time, so the Soviets set their sights a bit lower: the nominally amateur Olympic Games. They came up short at the Helsinki Games in 1952, however, when Yugoslavia knocked them out and Hungary's "Golden Team" won the tournament.

HungaryWorldCup.jpgHungary's 'Golden Team' didn't have a chance for gold in 1956/Wikimedia Commons

The Soviets were determined not to fail again. At the next Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, the Hungarians were conspicuously absent. There is strong circumstantial evidence that the Soviet Union pressured the dominant Hungarian team to stay home, clearing the way for it to win gold. The Soviets did just that, getting revenge on Yugoslavia in the final.

3. A Stadium Filled With Political Prisoners



The second match was never played. Following the coup, thousands of Allende supporters were rounded up and taken to Estadio Nacional in Santiago, where they were imprisoned and tortured. According to official estimates, 41 people were killed.


4. Peru Throws A Match In A Deal With Argentina


There were many bizarre elements to the World Cup that year. First, the Netherlands tried to organize a boycott in protest of the Argentine junta, to no avail. The world's greatest player at the time, the Dutchman Johan Cruyff, did refuse to go, though it wasn't clear at the time if this had to do with the junta or the Dutch coach. (Cruyff later claimed a kidnapping attempt in Spain influenced his decision.)




5. Charlie Dempsey Skips Out On The Vote

While political interference affected the results of matches and tournaments in FIFA's early days, the greatest political scandals in recent times have occurred over the bidding to host the World Cup.

One of the biggest scandals was in 2000, the year FIFA's executive committee met to decide the host for the 2006 tournament. FIFA President Sepp Blatter believed at the time that if post-apartheid South Africa were to win, he or FIFA would be in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize. (He was still trying to win the prize right up to his dismissal from the organization.)

The executive committee was expected to be deadlocked at 12-all when it voted in Zurich, with Blatter then casting the deciding vote in favor of South Africa. But Charles Dempsey, the president of the New Zealand Federation, mysteriously disappeared before the vote took place, giving Germany a shock 12-11 victory.



So, politics has always been part of the World Cup - sometimes overtly, more often covertly - and yet FIFA still insists that there shall be no political interference in the game under its auspices. Those who misinterpret this notion can find their country suspended from competition, but the FIFA ship will sail on.


Roy Hay is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. This post was originally published on The Conversation.


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Posted on Oct 11, 2021