World Cup — not quite a mirror of our world
International sporting showdowns can be read as little wars that mobilise a part of the country’s national resources
Soccer fans and intellectuals don’t always see eye to eye. Academics tend to look down at this plebeian passion. And spectators, once a 90-minute match unfolds, have little interest in how the participating countries stack up, for example, in gender-equality rankings. Still, looking at World Cup competitions from an international relations perspective is always enriching. International sporting showdowns, weighed as they are by political symbolism and significance, can been read as little wars that mobilise a part of the country’s national (human) resources. Seen more positively, sports can provide a bridge of dialogue between countries that might otherwise have to process their confrontation on the battlefield. Others have compared systems of government to determine which is better at sports: democracies or dictatorships. Researchers also like to examine a World Cup’s impact on the domestic economy, infrastructure, private consumption and the host government’s popularity.
This year’s Russia-hosted World Cup, in particular, provides a window on the new world (dis) order. At the systemic level, organising the World Cup is in the hands of the game’s “UN,” namely the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa). In 2015, Swiss police arrested
Fifa executives from Brazil, the
Cayman Islands, Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, Uruguay, Venezuela and the UK because of legal action taken by the US Treasury
Department. This intersection and superimposition of (power) players generate risks inside states that are both recurring and accumulative.
At the international level, the
World Cup reveals power shifts.
Economically speaking, 20 emerging or developing countries are taking part alongside
12 advanced or developed countries. Only half the G20 countries set to gather in Argentina later this year are participating.
The World Cup does not include teams from the world’s two largest economies: The United
States and China.
With regard to demographics, the World Cup gathers teams from countries with populations ranging from 200 million (Brazil) to barely 300,000 (Iceland). The tournament also boasts diversity. At a time when divisions, local loyalties and xenophobia are growing worldwide, some teams are reflections of multiculturalism and integration. That is the trend in the world football market. Among the fruits of globalisation are globalised teams. Roughly 60 per cent of Morocco’s players and 40 per cent of Senegal’s were born abroad. For Switzerland, France and Belgium, the numbers are 30 per cent, 10 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. This year’s World Cup in Russia is clearly, more than ever, a global — and thoroughly globalised — competition.
■ Mariano Turzi is an international relations professor at the Universidad Di Tella in Buenos Aires.