World Cup activism? Whateva, but…
By David Smith
December 2022
When you see the navel-gazing, and then the lame excuses, about how footballers might be activists at this World Cup, some of us remember a moment when a government and the football hierarchy dared to outlaw a murderous, illegitimate military dictatorship. And they came within a goal-post of succeeding, so changing the rules of who can do what to humiliate those who have our tournament, and the priceless propaganda window to sell themselves that goes with it.
I say this, because it’s all coming back right now, as Holland play Argentina in the quarter-finals of this World Cup, Qatar 2022, so stained with the deaths of thousands of immigrant workers building the stadiums, let alone the extraordinary measures taken to avoid a Harry Kane, or a Leo Messi, wearing a “one love” armband in protest against Qatar’s ban on homosexuality.
Why? Well, because in 1978, Holland met Argentina in the final of the World Cup in Buenos Aires, then run by a vicious military junta that was known to imprison, torture, even hurl opponents out to their deaths from a helicopter over the River Plate. The number of such “disappeared” remains debatable, but for sure there were as many of them as have died while building the stadiums of Qatar 2022.
Yet come the 1978 final, at the magnificent Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, the innately liberal Dutch government laid out a very clear strategy for activism back in the day. Their team was told that, on no account, could it receive on victory the trophy from the Generals waiting to lead the medal-ceremony at the stadium. They were to leave the pitch and Monumental with no such event.
Instead, the Dutch government insisted that FIFA deliver the trophy and medals to the Dutch embassy in Buenos Aires, where the team and the Dutch ambassador would be waiting. (Full disclosure: my late father-in-law, a longtime Shell Oil executive, a Dutchman indelibly, was then head of the Argentina-Dutch community, and so an invitee to the Embassy “victory” party.)
“Activism requires action, and confrontation, not just symbols, words, armbands, bending the knee but finally genuflecting before the powers that be.”
It never happened, sadly. A terrific Dutch team hit the post in the last minute of normal time, a lad named Robbie Rensenbrink, and in overtime Argentina won their first World Cup. Oh, how the Generals made political capital out of that moment. But how close they came to being humiliated so, in the eyes of the world, by a culture abroad recognising activism requires action, and confrontation, not just symbols, words, armbands, bending the knee but finally genuflecting before the powers that be.
Yet. As we see Holland face off against Argentina this week, I’m hoping that the past helps us somehow handle the present. Much as we football fans can feel dismay, even indifference, about staging our Olympics in a filthy rich, highly abusive oil kingdom… well, the sight of those two football titans going at it again… well, it so quickens the pulse. And the memory bank.
How many times have we seen a great Dutch side, bejewelled with names like Johann Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Dennis Bergkamp, Arjen Robben, fall just short ? Forever the perennial runners-up, the sad bridesmaid, never the bride, cheated in our mind’s eye not by better teams but by fate, the Gods, or whatever.
And then consider this Argentina, so much more likeable than the teams of its chequered past. Led by a truly endearing man called Leo Messi. Living in Argentina, you hear the endless debate: “Who’s better, Messi or Maradona?” And you know there’s a fan or three, or thousand, who has lambasted Messi for not winning it like Maradona before him.
You want to scream out loud, especially in a country that has it all, from oil, to minerals, to wine, above all to farmland that can feed a billion people across our world with its agriculture if it gets its act together. (BTW, 45 million Argentines, do the math when it comes to feeding a billion.)
You want to say: “You have it all, both Messi and Maradona were the best ever, so shut up about who was best, then look at how much, and what riches, you’ve got too.”
I’m cherishing a wee hope as the next two weeks play out. Holland, or Argentina, whoever come out on top of their epic encounter, I hope one goes on, to win it all. How can we not celebrate Qatar 2022 as the year that finally the Dutch, of Cruyff, and Gullit, and Bergkamp, won the Cup their forebears so richly deserved?
And if it’s Messi, and Argentina (FYI, in my Argentine-Dutch house, there’s no doubt who my wife wants to win, even the dog has a Messi shirt), well, maybe we can just savour the triumph of the world’s best player bringing it home to the land he loves.
You know, with such an outcome, we might even come to forget the corrupt madness of holding the World Cup in the desert, in November, in a place that said “one love” was unacceptable, and just celebrate the winners. Fingers crossed.
