The World Cup & The Irony of Eurocentricity

[00:00:00]The violent extraction of physical and human resources has made it so that much of the world has not been able to build their own infrastructure for sports and that violent extraction has created the diaspora because people are leaving their homelands in search of refuge and opportunity and that has made European sports teams full of black talent. We're living in a political moment where the same diaspora that has made the sport better is vilified in real life.

[00:00:35]Why is it called the World Cup if only eight out of 195 countries in the world have been able to win in almost 100 years? And did you know that five out of those eight countries are concentrated in the second smallest continent that represents only 9% of the world's population. 9% of the world's population has this much representation in the World Cup. While the two largest continents that make up 77% of the world's population have only this much representation. The FIFA World Cup is one of the most exciting and unifying global sporting events, bringing together people from all over the world, transcending language and cultural barriers. A showcase of a beautiful sport that has given platform to calls for peace and liberation on several occasions. But it also sheds light on an undeniable truth that we are living and probably will continue to live in the shadows of imperialism. that we are living in a euroentric world that's attempting to make us look away from the scars that its predecessors have left on the majority of the face of the earth.

[00:01:44]The reason why the best teams in the world are predominantly European but look like this and the reason why it took almost a century for an African nation to get into the semifinals. All comes back to the shadows of imperialism. By no means am I discrediting the talent and grit that European teams have displayed in order to perform at such a high level. All I'm saying is that they make it seem like all nations have an equal shot and only the most talented, most hardworking ones will make it far. But the playing field has never been equal. When the World Cup started in 1930, virtually the entire continent of Africa, the richest continent in both human and physical resources, was still under colonial rule. [snorts] Millions of people denied the right of dignified human existence and relegated to being objects that belong to some entity far away. Now, before someone tries to be like, >> "It's just soccer." And >> nothing is ever that simple. And please understand what a privilege it is to even be able to say that. For footballers coming out of Africa, Asia, Latin America, yes, it has always been about the simple love for the game. But simultaneously, for many of them, it's been about defeating all the odds stacked against them and hoping their passion can carry them and their families out of cyclic structural poverty. And at times hoping it can carry their entire nation out of violence and war. And before someone tries to be like, >> "It's sports, not politics."

[00:03:20]>> The moment that money became the supreme leader of governments, of our world, anything that can make money became political, the moment that our bodies became monetizable is the moment that our bodies became political. With that being said, let's get into it. Global sporting events have always presented a big opportunity for nations to make a statement about who they are and what they stand for at a rare moment when billions are watching. In the years leading up to the first World Cup in 1930, Uruguay, a small and at the time not very well-known nation in South America was building up their football team. According to this article by the Guardian, after winning the gold medal in the 1924 Olympic Games, Uruguayan newspaper Elia wrote, "The performance of the Uruguay team has done more for the fame of Uruguay than thousands of dollars spent on propaganda." Another publication, Mundo Uruguayo, claimed that the team's performance proved that Uruguay was a civilized nation. Not only did the success make clear to the rest of the world that Uruguay was a state in and of itself, not some province of Argentina, but it seemed an endorsement for the prevailing ideology of Batisimo and the values of modernity, liberalism, rationality, and Uruguayan exceptionalism it represented. But sports aren't political, right? With their newfound fame and global status, Uruguay got the privilege of hosting the first ever World Cup tournament. After the Uruguayan president at the time, Juan Campist met with the head of FIFA at the presidential palace. From its origins, the World Cup was a political event. Uruguay beat Argentina 4 to2 on their home turf to claim the first ever World Cup trophy. The same article goes on to explain how the next tournament in 1934 in Italy served as a stage for the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. This article wrote, "It was obvious from the beginning that Mussolini intended to turn the World Cup into a major advertisement for fascist Italy and himself as leader.

[00:05:19]>> This is your peace prize everywhere you want to go."

[00:05:24]Other notable examples of the World Cup being a blatantly political event, include the 1998 match between US and Iran, which was happening in the wake of decades of hostility between the two.

[00:05:37]Due to several factors, a US backed coup d'eta of Iranian Prime Minister Mosadic, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the anti-western Iranian revolution. US President Clinton regarded the match as another step toward ending the estrangement between the two nations.

[00:05:53]Iran defeated the US 2 to1 and the match served as a unifying event for all Iranians. Iran's president Katami said the heroes game yesterday demonstrated national unity and showed that the Iranian nation was deserving and capable. Fast forward to this year's World Cup in which the Iranian team is facing political challenges from all sides, not being allowed to stay in the US. So they were forced to stay in Tijana, Mexico, and had to commute to and from all of their matches, placing them under increased levels of stress and exhaustion relative to other teams.

[00:06:27]But there's also the challenges from their own country. Over the years, several Iranian players have been arrested and placed under cruel conditions simply for criticizing the current regime. This NPR article quotes Shan Sadri, who studies Iran sports, politics, and media at the University of Alabama, who says Iran's athletes are ultimately stuck. Outside Iran, they're criticized for representing the government and representing the state emblem. But inside Iran, any defiance puts their careers, their freedoms, and their families at risk. Another example was in 2005 when Ddier Drogba used Ivory Co's first ever World Cup qualification as a platform to call for peace during the country's civil war that have been raging for 3 years. After the match that qualified them, Drogba addressed the entire nation in a live broadcast saying, "Men and women of Kot Devois from the north, south, center, and west.

[00:07:20]Today we show that all Ivorians can live together and work towards a shared goal.

[00:07:24]Today, we beg you on our knees. Forgive.

[00:07:27]A year and a half later, following a lengthy negotiation process, a peace agreement was signed that outlined concrete steps towards the country's reunification. The World Cup can never not be political because the players on the field and the fans watching are inextricably linked to the geopolitical events that have affected them, their families, and their neighbors. Like I said in the beginning, some of the best teams in the world are European, but are comprised of a significant number of black players. Some who are immigrants themselves and some who are children of immigrant families. Of France's 26-man roster, 21 are of African descent.

[00:08:04]England has 15 players of African descent or mixed heritage. Germany and Belgium have nine black players each.

[00:08:10]The US roster has 12 black players and three Latino players with roots all over the world. There's a striking irony in members of a political movement defined partly by white grievance politics standing in stadiums and shouting USA for a national team featuring Faren Balagon, Alejandro Zenaas, [ __ ] Wright, and other players from immigrant families. We're living in a political moment where the same diaspora that has made the sport better is vilified in real life. Anti-immigrant policies and ethnationalism are alive in all of these countries. This article gives a glaring example of this hypocrisy, citing UK right-wing member of parliament Robert Genrich, who posts come on England in one breath and announces that he wants immigration to be less than zero in another. As if these children of immigrants, the ones on the team, are different to those heal, a sort of permissible minority supported temporarily for accolade purposes.

[00:09:09]Across all teams, the percentage of players representing a country other than the one they were born in is at an all-time high, 25%. 20 years ago at the 2006 tournament, that figure was less than 9%. The way I see it is that the surge of anti-immigrant sentiment and policies carried out by groups like the Republicans, Reform UK, and Alternative for Germany is a frantic attempt to curb the inevitable effects of globalization while also denying their own ancestors roles in creating these effects. The longlasting effects of colonization and the more recent instances of political destabilization perpetrated by the west drive migration.

[00:09:54]Why are they shocked that migrants are coming? Nevertheless, the diaspora of people and culture is inevitable. More people are moving all around the world than ever before. That's causing a more culturally and ethnically mixed world.

[00:10:09]And unfortunately, the people who are clinging desperately onto the outdated notions of white supremacy and the racial hierarchy are terrified rather than inspired by that. While they try to seem strong and powerful, real power doesn't look like this. This is fear.

[00:10:26]They are scared because the world order as they know it is changing. The racial hierarchy that these white nationalist groups are holding on to is disappearing because of globalization. And that's the reason behind all these frantic policies that don't even make any logistical sense. You want immigration to be less than zero.

[00:10:45]Make it make sense. A significant portion of the world of football's athletes are black and brown people of the diaspora. And that is such a beautiful thing. Even as our so-called leaders vilify and brutalize black and brown immigrants by the thousands, the World Cup serves them their own hypocrisy while billions are watching.

[00:11:06]There's been a lot of exciting games in this World Cup, but two of the most exciting in my opinion were in the round of 32. Germany versus Paraguay and Netherlands versus Morocco. Germany and the Netherlands are two European teams that have historically performed very well in the tournament. Germany has won four times, the second most wins, second only to Brazil. The Netherlands has never won, but they have made it to the finals three times. Because of this history, Paraguay and Morocco were not exactly expected to win. Even though Morocco made it all the way to the semi-finals in the last World Cup in 2022, the first African nation to ever do so. Even though they weren't expected to win, both of them kept their opponents locked into a tie and both matches went all the way to penalty shootouts. Both Paraguay and Morocco were victorious, stunning the euroentric mind. I remember watching these games and hearing the commentators not really know what to say after the Netherlands and Germany got knocked out unexpectedly early. They said things along the lines of Germany just didn't show up today and Netherlands did not play like themselves. Why not just say Paraguay played really well today and Morocco deserved this win? They were not excited like I was about these thrilling historic penalty shootout wins. They were just stunned with a twinge of disappointment. Why? It's because Europe has been and still is the center of the World Cup. South America breaks in there with Argentina and Brazil, but other than that, the rest of the world is just the others. In fact, after the Paraguay Morocco games, I remember one commentator saying something along the lines of, "Germany and the Netherlands are out. the others played better today.

[00:12:56]But let's get into why Europe is the center of the World Cup. On the surface, you might just say soccer, or I should say football, has always been a part of European culture. Europe has just been building their football infrastructure for longer, and that's why they have the best professional leagues in the world.

[00:13:14]That's why the best players in the world are predominantly trained in Europe from a very young age. But then you look below the surface. The top five professional leagues in the world are commonly accepted to be these based in England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. All nations which historically have used imperialism as a means for securing and maintaining power. The British Empire along with the Spanish, German, French, and Italian to a lesser degree had claimed colonies all over the face of the earth using brute force to dominate the populations that have been living there for generations, forcing them to pray to their gods, speak their language, and kidnapping millions and forcing them to work the resourcerich land for them. Between 1501 and 1867, nearly 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto European and American ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved, abused, and forever separated from their homes, families, ancestors, and cultures. And before someone tries to be like, "Indigenous civilizations use slavery, too. Blah blah blah blah blah.

[00:14:18]Save it."

[00:14:20]Hereditary enslavement based on race that was later adopted in the US was rare before the 15th century. Europeans initiated a massive global undertaking that relied on abduction, human trafficking, and racializing enslavement at a scale without precedent in human history. Never before had millions of people been kidnapped and trafficked over such a great distance. Cabo Verde, the nation that captured everyone's hearts, mine included this World Cup, was a Portuguese colony. Cape Verde was ideally located to ship enslaved people from the African continent and then put them aboard the slave ships that cross the Atlantic to be used as labor in plantations in the Caribbean, North America, and Brazil. Enslaved people also worked on the sugar and cotton plantations on the Cape Verde Islands and in the industry producing indigo dye. Oh, but kidnapping and enslaving the people wasn't enough. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Europe started what is now called the scramble for Africa in which they took it upon themselves to divide up the entire continent to decide who would own what. They continued to brutalize the people and pillage the land. The Democratic Republic of Congo sits in the heart of Africa and is incredibly resourcerich with the mineral wealth beneath its soil being estimated to value around $24 trillion. is now known today. The DRC holds approximately 70% of global cobalt reserves. Every Tesla, every iPhone, every laptop battery depends on Congalles cobalt.

[00:15:49]After the scramble for Africa, Belgium [clears throat] claimed what is now the DRC. And King Leopold's empire was notoriously brutal to its people. Up to 8 million of the estimated 16 million native inhabitants died between 1885 and 1908. Similar levels of population decimation were seen all over the continent in Namibia under German occupation and in Algeria under French occupation just to name a couple. The majority of African nations didn't gain independence from these colonial occupations until the 1950s60s and '7s. And it definitely wasn't just handed over to them. They had to fight and die for it. The DRC for example fought and gained independence in 1960.

[00:16:33]A Congolese fan came to several of DRC's games this World Cup tournament and stood up in the stands dressed as Patrice Lumumba, revolutionary independence leader and eventually the first prime minister of the DRC. In his 1960 Independence Day speech, Lumumba said, "We are going to show the world what the black man and woman can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun's radiance for all of Africa. We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children. In 1961, a covert US operation in cooperation with the Belgian government imprisoned and assassinated him. A plan designed explicitly to keep Congo aligned with Western geopolitical interests. Prior to the assassination, they funded anti-Lumumba senators, political demonstrations, labor disruptions, and propaganda campaigns aimed at destabilizing Lumumba's government. the legacy of that. Today, the Congo is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Over six million people have died and millions more are displaced. It is the deadliest conflict since World War II, and no one seems to care. The demand for Congo's minerals in order to produce consumer goods like electric vehicles and smartphones has driven rebel groups to scramble for control of mines where many including children are forced to labor. These groups are funded by Rwanda who denies this and Rwanda is funded by multinational corporations who depend on those mineral reserves to engorg themselves. It's not a civil war. This is a genocide backed by corporate power.

[00:18:18]What situation would the Congo be in today if Lumumba had been able to live out his life and use Congo's richness for the benefit of its people? We will never know. So to get back to the question of why is Europe the center of the World Cup, the answer is that for centuries Europe was building itself up at the expense of the rest of the world.

[00:18:41]Yes, they have been building their football infrastructure for longer, but that's because everyone else was busy fighting for their life. Literally, the playing field has never been equal. And still, countries that have been pillaged and plundered for centuries, and some still being paged and plundered, have made it to this world stage, have made their people proud. Cabo Verde, who was fighting for independence from Portugal in the 60s and finally got it in 1975, gave us a truly inspiring story this year. In their World Cup debut, they forced Spain, the second best team in the world, into a 000 tie. Then they made it into the knockout stage where they forced Argentina, the best team in the world, the defending champions, into extra time and almost a penalty shootout. Cabo Verde played astonishingly well and placed a level of pressure on these teams that the majority of the world was not expecting.

[00:19:37]For the people who just want to see some good football, Cabo Verde gave them that. For the people who just like supporting the underdog, Cabo Verde was that. But for countless people, I think they just gave so much hope because they displayed sheer determination to be seen, heard, and valued in a world where that's not given easily to African nations. Let alone a small African nation of around 500,000 people who just got their independence 50 years ago. The world we live in today will always be tied to the shadows of its past. The legacy of imperialism and colonialism lives and breathes today. We see it in the violence happening in the Congo. We see it in the diaspora of black people all over the world. We see it in the way ethnism and white supremacy are infiltrating the highest levels of government. We see it in the racial hierarchy that places more value and attention on white bodies while devaluing their black and brown neighbors. 9% of the world's population dominates the World Cup while the other 77% struggles to make it to that global stage. This is not a coincidence and it's definitely not an issue of lacking talent. This is by design. The violent extraction of physical and human resources has made it so that much of the world has not been able to build their own infrastructure for sports. And that violent extraction has created the diaspora because people are leaving their homelands in search of refuge and opportunity. And that has made European sports teams full of black talent. If Africa was able to keep its own resources so that it could take care of its people, the World Cup would look very different. The world would look very different. So, I hope you enjoyed this video. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments. Whether you agree, whether you disagree, I would love to hear them. and I will see you in the next video. Bye.