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Soccer and war: the World Cups that were played in the shadow of war conflicts

2022-11-18T20:47:32.126Z


These are some Soccer World Cups that, like the one in Qatar 2022 that will begin this Sunday, occurred in the midst of great wars.


FIFA president calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine 0:50

(CNN Spanish) --

When the referee blows the whistle this Sunday and the Qatar and Ecuador teams formally kick off the 2022 Soccer World Cup, there will be people living poorly, fighting and dying in trenches in Ukraine, waiting for a winter between war and extreme cold.

When England and Iran play the second game of the World Cup on Monday, Syrian families will be under shelling and caught up in fighting between rebels and government forces.

  • Russia-Ukraine War: "The situation is bogged down and NATO is in the best interest of it"

And when Argentina and Saudi Arabia meet in the first match of Group C, there will be death and destruction in Yemen and Tigray as well, and in so many other places around the world affected by armed conflict.

This World Cup will take place at an extremely difficult time for world peace.

The longstanding conflicts in Syria and Yemen and the recent clashes in Africa have been compounded by the largest and most destructive war in Europe since 1945. Russia and Ukraine have been fighting a conventional conflict between large armies since February 24, with tens of thousands of dead, millions of refugees and cities destroyed, and there are, at the moment, no prospects for peace in the short term.

Ukrainian servicemen play soccer on a highway in Svitlodarsk, approaching Debaltseve on February 15, 2015, after a ceasefire in fighting with separatists.

(Credit: VOLODYMYR SHUVAYEV/AFP via Getty Images)

The FIFA Soccer World Cup was suspended precisely only twice in its history and this had to do with World War II, which turned Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia into huge killing fields.

Neither the 1942 World Cup, in the midst of the conflict, nor the 1946 World Cup, just after its conclusion, could be held.

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The World Cup was not always the massive, global phenomenon it has become, and its popularity and reach have grown over the decades.

Wars were also not reported with as much precision and in real time as they are now, and they could seem, in the past, events more distant than now.

But soccer, the most popular sport in the world, closely followed the violent 20th century: these are some of the World Cups that took place in the midst of great wars, such as the current one in Qatar 2022.

France 1938, between the Spanish Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War

The third World Cup in history took place at one of the most tense moments in contemporary history.

Between June 4 and 19, 1938, 15 teams competed in France and the Italian team won the final against Hungary.

They find a common grave from the Spanish Civil War, the largest in the Basque Country 1:17

Meanwhile, the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936, continued its course and was fought hard in Lérida, 800 kilometers from Paris: at the end of the conflict, in 1939, some 500,000 people would have died.

On the other side of the world, the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937, was entering its second year and at the time of the World Cup it was being brutally fought in Wuhan, a battle that would leave hundreds of thousands of dead.

These two conflicts are considered as the prelude to World War II.

Brazil 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War

The 1950 World Cup in Brazil meant the return of the competition after the break due to World War II.

Thirteen teams competed between June 24 and July 16, with Uruguay being the champion after defeating the host in the famous

maracanazo

.

The World Cup matches coincided with the start of the Korean War, on June 25, and specifically with the North Korean offensive to take control of the peninsula.

An American soldier during the Korean War.

The Korean War would eventually engulf the United States, China, the Soviet Union, along with many other countries, and by the time of the 1953 armistice there had been almost three million casualties (between dead and missing, and between civilians and military).

The United States was the only direct participant in the conflict to participate in the World Cup.

Three World Cups, on par with Vietnam

Although the conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam began in 1954, the Vietnam War reached greater global notoriety from 1964, when the United States went from supporting the South and sending advisers to actively participating in the fighting. with hundreds of thousands of troops in the country.

It was also one of the first wars with extensive press coverage on television.

The long conflict coincided, from the escalation of 1964, with three World Cups: England 1966, Mexico 1970 and Germany 1974.

Pelé lifts the world cup that Brazil won in 1970. (AP Photo)

Between July 11 and 30, 1966, 16 teams competed in England for the World Cup.

The host won, after defeating the Federal Republic of Germany.

During that same period, the US Army conducted several operations against Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam, while its Air Force relentlessly bombed North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder.

Between May 31 and July 21, Mexico organized the 1970 World Cup, in which Brazil won, leaving Italy behind in the final (16 teams participated).

The matches coincided with the US and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in an attempt to defeat North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops operating there.

When Germany hosted the 1974 World Cup with 16 teams between June 13 and July 7, the Vietnam War was nearing its end and US troops had withdrawn from the country a year earlier.

The host won the cup after defeating the Netherlands, while South and North Vietnam continued to fight: on April 30, 1975, the South finally surrendered, the war ended, and the entire country was unified under Northern rule.

The United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam did not participate in any of these three World Cups.

Although France, a former colonial power that controlled Vietnam until 1954, did participate in the 1966 World Cup.

North Vietnamese troops entering Saigon, at the end of the war.

Spain 1982: Malvinas and Lebanon

The 1982 World Cup in Spain, played by 24 teams between June 13 and July 11 (Italy won the final against the Federal Republic of Germany), coincided with two wars in opposite corners of the world.

A week before the start of the tournament, Israel invaded southern Lebanon in response to a series of attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), starting a conflict that ended in its first phase in 1985, with Israel's withdrawal, but which continues to generate tensions to this day.

In addition, the inauguration and the first match took place one day before the end of the Malvinas War, between Argentina and the United Kingdom for control of the archipelago of the same name.

Between June 13 and 14, the day of the Argentine surrender, two of the toughest battles of the war took place around the hills of Wireless Ridge and Tumbledown in the Falkland Islands.

40 years of the Falklands War are celebrated 1:44

And that same day Argentina lost 0-1 the opening match against Belgium.

England also participated in the World Cup, reaching the second phase.

Mexico 1986 and the Iran-Iraq War

Mexico organized a World Cup again in 1986, between May 31 and June 29, and once again it did so in the shadow of a war.

All 24 countries played in the tournament, with Argentina winning the final against England, while Iran and Iraq fought a brutal conflict that left hundreds of thousands dead on both sides.

After an increase in tensions between these two countries after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which established a theocracy under the command of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the war began in 1980 when Iraqi troops invaded Iranian territory.

In 1988, without a clear winner and after eight years of bloody fighting, the countries agreed to a ceasefire, and signed the final peace in 1990.

Iraq qualified and participated in the World Cup in group B, losing all their matches.

Iran did not qualify.

The teams from Mexico and Germany prior to the start of the quarterfinal match of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. (Photo: Mike King/Getty Images)

United States 1994 and the dissolution of Yugoslavia

The first World Cup held in the United States coincided with a profound reconfiguration of the borders in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The Soviet Union had collapsed in 1991, giving rise to a series of conflicts between its former republics and its satellite countries.

On the other hand, the Yugoslavia that had promoted the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War also began to disintegrate in 1991.

Between June 17 and July 17, when 24 teams played the 1994 World Cup matches (Brazil won the final against Italy), the wars in Bosnia and Croatia were being fought in the territories of the former Yugoslavia.

And the United States, the host, was still leading a NATO mission to establish a no-fly zone over Bosnia while the World Cup was taking place.

In fact, in April 1994, American fighters had shot down four Serbian aircraft, in what was the first NATO combat.

War

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-11-18

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