Some French Posters against The World Cup in Argentina 1978 April 15, 2013
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Human Rights, International Politics.trackback
Some French Posters against The World Cup in Argentina 1978. The first one translates ‘roughly’ as “…..when you applaud the French team , cheers cover the sounds of people being tortured…”
I was 8 going on 9 at the time and wasn’t that aware of the Human Rights issues in Argentina back then. Looking now at the squads of the various teams its striking to see how few players played their trade abroad compared to nowadays.
Strangely I loved that Argentina team that won it, especially Mario Kempes (my sons middle name is ‘Kempes’).
Anyway powerful posters
via IISH
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Amazing posters – and very chilling. Thanks for posting them.
Mario Kempes was a special player in fairness. And Fillol was a superb ‘keeper. Not a huge fan of Passarella, alas!
Also, I’m still one of those naive fools who believe Johan Cruyff boycotted that tournament for political reasons, rather than it being for the sole reasonof the kidnap attempt on his family. I stand, as ever, to be corrected.
I think Paul Breitner might have been another player to have boycotted the tournament.
In any event, that tournament, which had been granted to Argentina way back in 1966, should have been withdrawn from them once it became clear the generals were going to attempt to milk it Berlin 1936-style.
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Ciaran, It did not do Cruyff much good back in Holland where he was more or less frozen out by the Dutch Football Mandarins. He accepted an offer to play for Barcelona in Newly Democratic Spain. At his first Press Conference he was asked by a reporter whether he had recieved an offer from Real Madrid, he replied that he had, but that he could never play for a team associated with Facism.This relates of course to the political rivalry between the two teams which has it’s origins in the Civil War. He went on to be considered as the co-founder of the ‘ Dream Team ‘, you can see the results every weekend, A hero in Catalonia who brought his children up in Spain and gave them Catalan names. I think he was for real. I live in Spain and last year during the Miners Strike on the so called ‘ Black March ‘ into Madrid, the last leg was led by David Villa, also of Barcelona FC.So they are not all overpaid Wankers.
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I’m a great admirer of Cruyff but he actually transferred to Barcelona in 1973, two years before Franco’s death led to the beginning of a newly democratic Spain. Paul Breitner had fallen out with the German team management a couple of years before the 1978 World Cup so I don’t think he can be considered as having boycotted the tournament, he didn’t come back to international football. Interestingly Breitner moved to Real Madrid in 1974, a somewhat odd choice for a player who is regarded as a left wing figure and, if I remember correctly, spoke approvingly of the Red Army Faction.
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I meant to say that Breitner didn’t come back to international football until 1981.
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Funny how different places do things. This anti Argentina 78 was probably the high point of a radical French critique of professional sport. Around 150,00 people signed the petition agains this World Cup. It included such thinkers as Foucault, Sartre and Aragon. It aso included a former PE teacher turned sociologist Jean Marie Brohm.
It is almost impossible to hear any dissident comments on sport in this country.Sport can include all the excesses of unbridled capitalism, but not a word from the Left. China can organise the Olympics and polish up its international reputations In the meantime France had the World Cup in 98….a far cry from Argentina.
The Olympics website openly boasts of its influence on world marketing. People spend hours jogging and in the gym, high on sport and forgetting about reality . Billions are made on runners, MP3s and sportswear to help people in their quest to be fit.
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Fergal, Eamonncork, a guy I know runs an online magazine Zani which looks at sport from a more radical perspective. Zani covered the Cruyff 1978 story in some detail a few years ago. I have just tried a number of times to copy the link but without luck, but well worth a read. Hope they have the Cruyff story archived.
My own sense of the story is that Cruyff went into a kind of self imposed exile after these events, of course it was only 30 something years after the NAZI occupation of Holland.
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‘during the Miners Strike on the so called ‘ Black March ‘ into Madrid, the last leg was led by David Villa, also of Barcelona FC.’
Villa is from Austurias and his father is a miner.
I think Didier Six of the mid-1980s French team was a Trotskyist.
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