FIFA controversies
Good things don’t last and the 2026 FIFA World Cup finally comes to an end. Spain aims to add another star to the one they won during the 2010 World Cup, but Argentina will try to be the third nation to win back-to-back titles since Italy (1934, 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962). As practiced, the head of state of the host country will be present to award the champion’s trophy to the winners. Maybe Donald Trump won’t be vocal as to who he’ll be supporting to cut the jinx.
I will miss the nightly highlights with a smattering of Viking rows and clips of Europeans marveling at free soda and coffee refills, huge meal servings and their amazement inside Costco, Walmart and Target that has everything from candies to full sized beds to car tires.
Dissenting opinions were present in this edition and there were allegations, but never substantiated, of biased refereeing. Even heads of state have gotten involved when the self-styled boss of the free world just couldn’t help himself from interfering when he called the patronizing FIFA boss about the red card of a player, which was then promptly overturned.
This was not the first time that a head of state had his way. During the 1938 World Cup, Italian dictator Benito Mossulini pressured the national team to wear an all-black kit which was connected to the Blackshirts, the fascist paramilitary group loyal to him. They were also required to do the Nazi salute during the national anthem. Despite the controversy, the Italians went on to win their second consecutive FIFA star.
Colombia has always been a South American football power, but a sad and dangerous reality is that it could be influenced by the drug cartel. The team went to the 1994 World Cup during a deadly drug war in their country. A first match defeat had the coach and some players receiving death threats from drug cartels. An own goal by Andres Escobar in their second match sealed Colombia’s elimination. Five days later, while coming out from a nightclub, Escobar was shot and killed.
During the Round of 16 last week, Colombian player Jaminton Campaz missed his penalty shot during a shootout against Switzerland, which could have been crucial if he made it. Colombia was eliminated and Campaz received several death threats that he did not board the plane from Vancouver with his teammates and is reportedly in hiding. A chilling revival of that tragedy three decades ago.
At the height of his career, Uruguay’s Luis Suarez was one of football’s best. But he had become infamous because, of all things, his bite. In the 2014 World Cup during the group stages, Suarez bit an Italian player on the shoulder. Uruguay won and eliminated Italy, with Suarez getting banned for four months from any football related activity after the incident.
In a quarterfinal match versus England during the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona leaped and punched the ball over an English defender, tricking the referee. He called that shot “Hand of God” and described the goal as “symbolic revenge” for the Falklands War which, Argentina four years earlier, unsuccessfully invaded the British-held Falkland Islands 300 miles east of the Argentine coast in the South Atlantic Ocean. Led by Maradona, Argentina went on to win their second World Cup title.
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