By Beth Williamson
The 1978 World Cup held in Argentina and was the first time that the nation we now consider stellar opponents won the tournament. Argentina became the fifth team (after Uruguay, Italy, England and West Germany) to be hosting the tournament whilst also being crowned as champions of the world.
However, this 1978 edition of the tournament was marred by controversy, hostile domestic and international politics and alleged interference and match-fixing. Argentina was chosen to host the 1978 edition of the tournament in London in 1966, when the hosts for 1974 and 1982 were also chosen. Unfortunately, two years before the tournament came to Argentina for the first time, the nation had undergone a military coup of its democratic government.
The dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation Process took power and planned to use the 1978 World Cup as an opportunity for nationalistic propaganda and, largely, to seek legitimacy on the world stage. We are very lucky to have an extremely powerful poster calling for the boycott of the tournament on loan to us as part of the Players Foundation collection.
Off the pitch, in the months leading up to the World Cup the Argentinian regime launched a campaign to silence any disapproval of the government from citizens. Over the course of the tournament, the regime somewhat ceased this operation, but only to avoid receiving further judgement from the rest of the world, as international newspapers and human rights organizations already went into the tournament having criticized the host nation.
Repression did continue, however, and some countries, most notably the Netherlands and Sweden, considered publicly whether they should take part in the tournament. All teams eventually took part without restrictions, yet Dutch star Johan Cruyff, who won the Golden Ball in the previous 1974 FIFA World Cup, refused to take part, even though he earlier participated in the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification. Allegations that Cruyff refused to participate because of political convictions were denied by him 30 years later, with the real reason being that he and his family had been the victims of a kidnapping attempt a few months prior to the start of the tournament.
Suspicions of match fixing were rife before the tournament even started, with opponents understanding that the regime would do anything to advance the Argentinian team due to the eye-watering monetary costs of hosting the tournament and legitimising the regime. Three new stadiums were built and three others were redeveloped, along with five press centres and a complete new communications system. Along with investing in improvements for the public transport system, this came to an estimated $700 million.
When the tournament kicked off, further controversy emerged on the pitch almost immediately as all the host nation’s games in the first round kicked off at night, giving the Argentines the advantage of knowing where they stood in the group. This issue would arise again in Spain 1982, which prompted FIFA to change the rules so that the final two group games in subsequent tournaments, as well as in every other international tournament, starting with the UEFA Euro 1984, would be played simultaneously.
People wondered why FIFA would allow the World Cup to go on under these circumstances, and why the 15 other countries would participate. Given the participation as normal from the competing nations, Amnesty International realised that urging people away from the World Cup may not work, so they instead launched a campaign that would teach journalists to write about the tournament with factual evidence about the cruelty and illegitimacy of the regime.
The slogan “Football yes, torture no” was coined and it was hoped that journalists would turn their eyes away from the matches and look at what was going on in society to educate their readers on the reality of life in Argentina. A boycott campaign was initiated in Paris, which then became a centre of solidarity for the victims of the dictatorship. The Committee for the Boycott of the World Cup in Argentina (COBA) was formed, bringing together human rights activists with ordinary civilians, and immediately the members of the committee got to work by spreading the word.
They organised press conferences, meetings and public talks and it wasn’t long before COBA had established a strong base of unity and protest throughout the rest of France, with more than 200 local COBA committees being created in major cities and provinces. Similar campaigns were also promoted by solidarity organisations in the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, West Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the United States.
The striking nature of the logo of COBA that we can see on the poster proved to be very popular, as it was an adapted version of the official tournament logo incorporated into the barbed wire fence of a concentration camp. The text we can see at the top of poster translates to ‘Against the dictatorship in Argentina, boycott the World Cup 1978’ and the text below translates to ‘no football between the concentration camps’ which reiterates the “Football yes, torture no” slogan of Amnesty International.
The slogan is even more interesting given that the logo is based on former President Juan Perón’s signature gesture – a salute to the crowd with both arms extended above his head. It is one of the most famous, populist images of Perón and the design was created in 1974, two years prior to the military coup that forcibly removed Perón from power in 1976. The military leadership were aware that the World Cup’s logo symbolised Peron and the old democratic regime, and tried to change it. However, at this point it was already broadly commercialised and merchandise with the logo on had already been made. To change it would have triggered countless lawsuits against the country, so the military had no option but to leave it.
Embed from Getty ImagesAs the protests continued around Europe and the United States, so did the tournament. Argentina sailed through their ‘group of death’ beating Hungary, France and Italy, being the beneficiaries of multiple favourable calls in every game. The hosts beat the Netherlands 3-1 in the final to become world champions for the first time, and the military generals were able to celebrate both a sporting and political victory. Many observers considered the protests to be a complete failure as despite the widespread support for COBA, none of the fifteen foreign teams withdrew from the competition and ultimately the Argentinian regime won.
However, it is possible to see the longer-term effects of the protests were more significant. The transnational nature of the solidarity campaign created a sense that Argentinian political exiles were not alone, and this set a precedent that we can still see today. Activists who participated in the boycott were involved in calls for a boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. In more recent years, there have been calls for boycotts of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Above all, what this poster can remind us of is the rich social history of football that we can all learn from, and, most importantly, the power of the beautiful game to bring our international community of fans together and keep hope alive.