Trump has put World Cup into list of shame

In 1934 and 1978, Fifa's big event was given over to authoritarian aims-no doubt 2026 will be the same

- Leander Schaerlaeckens

By 1934, it was entirely evident what Benito Mussolini was up to.

Italy’s dictator had already consolidated power, colonised Libya and annexed the city of Rijeka. He nevertheless got to stage the second World Cup, managing it with a heavy hand and even supplanting the Jules Rimet trophy with a far larger one. Winning that World Cup didn’t sate his appetite. By the end of the decade, Mussolini would take Ethiopia, annex Albania and back Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war.

It was equally well established in 1978 in Argentina that General Jorge Rafaél Videla’s military junta, which had taken over two years earlier, was maintaining its grip on power through systematic detention, torture and murder. Still, protestations from other nations were ignored and the World Cup kicked off.

“At last, the world can see the true face of Argentina,” said Fifa’s president, João Havelange, newly decorated with a medal from Videla. Argentina spared no expense in hosting, even though the total cost was a state secret. But the rightwing government also didn’t bother to slow the pace at which it disappeared opponents. Germany’s captain Berti Vogts proclaimed that “Argentina is a country where order reigns. I haven’t seen a single political prisoner,” though, so no matter.

When Vladimir Putin presided over the opening ceremony of the 2018 World Cup, it had been four years since his forces annexed Crimea from Ukraine and he backed pro-Russian rebels in the Donbas region. Fifa didn’t mind.