The beautiful game has an ugly side. This is what soccer fans quickly learn as they grow as fans. They learn about match-fixing, violence, seedy characters and political manipulation. It is the latter that gets all the attention as November’s first World Cup takes place in Qatar. Just four years earlier, riots broke out when the World Cup was held in Russia.
As long as the game has had fans, it has been used by people in power for their own benefit. Famous cases include the Argentine military government using the games to cover up atrocities. Italy established itself as a powerhouse in the sport to raise Mussolini’s profile. Franco helped build some of the biggest clubs in the game in an effort to bring more glory to Spain.
In fact, Qatar is not an outlier. Rather, it is the continuation of a long-standing trend of manipulation. The faster this is understood, the faster world football will be understood.
In the book Dark Goals: How History’s Worst Tyrants Have Used and Abused the Game of Soccer, Luciano Wernicke writes an in-depth review of the most prominent cases of political abuse in soccer. Beginning with the first World Cup in Uruguay, Wernicke dives into the most notorious personalities and why they thought football would help them stay in power. The book is a frank look at the politics that would intrigue Machiavelli.
Wernicke’s Dark Goals book review
Wernicke begins with the most famous cases of Mussolini and Hitler, two monsters in history who had very different views of sport. Historians often see Mussolini as a driving force behind Italy’s unprecedented back-to-back World Cups. He not only invested in the project, but his threats justified the pressure for it to succeed.
One interesting example from the book is that Italy probably rigged the 1934 World Cup qualification by trying to trade Mexico for the United States. Wernicke argues that Italy preferred the Americans because it would create closer economic ties. Plus, it pleased the large Italian-American contingent. Also, he gave Italy a weaker starting opponent. The Mexico-USA qualifier moved to Rome, further tiring both teams.
The book spreads throughout the world, but is strongest in Europe and Argentina. Although Hitler had little interest and success with football, his chapter on it is one of his longest. Wernicke includes a few chapters on Argentina, including one on the Perons. An interesting inclusion, but not on the same level of cynical manipulation as others. The book ends with some quick links to various short stories of political manipulation. Interestingly, he misses modern Russia.
This book brings an important story in a World Cup year. This reminds fans that failures in the present are nothing new. The book has some great stories and goes into some of them very deeply while discussing others. The book is relatively short. Therefore, it is a good introduction to the subject. Fans interested in more can turn to David Goldblatt, whose perspective is more comprehensive, but Wernicke’s book is fine. I wish he had given me more information about other examples around the world.
