Association football came to South America via Europeans, probably through the port of Buenos Aires. Since then, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have all hosted the FIFA World Cup, and have between them won nine of the 19 World Cup Finals. With Brazil hosting in 2014, there are high hopes for further success.
Football is a religion in the region, with local and national pride at stake. After Argentina were humbled 6-1 in La Paz on 1 April 2009, coach Diego Maradona said that each Bolivian goal was like a stab through the heart. Even in Venezuela, a comparatively less football-mad country, Henrique Capriles wore his national team’s shirt, a symbol of rising Venezuelan status, in the final rally before last October’s presidential election.
Football though, can draw populations apart. This is by no means unique to the region, but a clásico or derbí in South America is a highly-charged affair: severe unrest in Buenos Aires’ 1968 superclásico between Boca Juniors and River Plate resulted in 71 Boca fans losing their lives in ‘The Tragedy of Door 12’.
Sadly, the region’s football is often mixed with politics, and as with many sporting rivalries, they can be reflections of social difference. Boca regard themselves as the club of the people, calling their near-neighbours gallinas, or chickens. Meanwhile River Plate, traditionally associated with the wealthy, refer to Boca fans as dirty, or unwashed (puercos).
Another saddening incident is of course the murder of Andres Escobar, shot in Medellín following the own goal that knocked out a highly fancied Colombia from USA 1994. Colombia’s domestic league was strong, and Escobar’s Atlético Nacional had won the Copa Libertadores in 1989, and the Interamericana a year later.
The league was rife with corruption however, and a sign of things to come was the murder of referee-linesman Álvaro Ortega in 1989. Ortega ruled out a Deportivo Independiente Medellín effort for offside against América de Cali, angering drug baron Pablo Escobar (no relation to the player), who ordered his killing.
Club football was awash with laundered money, and América were placed on the so-called ‘Clinton List’; forbidden from undertaking financial dealings with the US. Such are their image problems that discussions took place earlier this year concerning changing the club’s name.
Brazil 2014 is a year and a half away, but the country that has more World Cup wins than any other has its own difficulties to resolve. One concerns former Flamengo goalkeeper and captain Bruno Fernandes, awaiting trial for murdering a former lover.
In addition, the country has been involved in two high profile controversies with FIFA this year. Brazilians were unhappy at the mascot name shortlist FIFA provided, and that FIFA refused to expand the options. In addition, despite legislation prohibiting the sale of alcohol within football stadia, FIFA have demanded that it be readily available for fans at the tournament, with President Rousseff coerced into signing a bill to that effect.
On the field there is also turmoil. A poor run of form led to the sacking of coach Mano Menezes, replaced by Luis Felipe Scolari, who oversaw Brazil’s last triumph, in 2002. It has been a difficult year for the hosts, but there is much to ponder and celebrate, with everyone hoping the host nation delivers a carnival in 2014.