This summer, when soccer and the World Cup come to America, FIFA will have a tough task: hosting a global competition during a period of political violence and instability. It won't be the first time for FIFA, soccer's governing body.
Take the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. A coup had just taken place two years before in 1976. And before a tournament ball was ever kicked in the summer of 1978, a "Dirty War" was taking place. Tens of thousands of people were either killed or kidnapped throughout Argentina, and a brutal junta ruled the country using violence and fear.
But in 1978, soccer offered the country a respite. This is where Roger Bennett's new book, We Are the World (Cup), starts. It isn't a story about soccer and war. The book is a love letter first to the beautiful game. It brings you into one man's safe space, a space that he shares with millions of people around the world where joy, pain, love, and community dance together in a synchronized trance. The World Cup, as he writes, being a thing "far more precious than mere sport."
Every four years, the tournament is hosted in a different city. The 1978 games in Argentina was the first time Bennett experienced the spectacle. It was also his first glimpse at how soccer often mirrors life and all its complications. At age 7, he saw Argentina win the final against the Netherlands, 3-1. The tournament was an enthralling spectacle but was also used for political propaganda — a smokescreen for Gen. Jorge Videla's state-sponsored terror campaign. He writes:
"When two teams take the field, their nation's histories, politics, and cultures take the field alongside them. It is that fusion of sporting, cultural, and geopolitical aspects that make the storytelling so epic, poetic, and multilayered. Like Walt Whitman, the tournament contains multitudes. With the games dripping out, one at a time, the entire planet is focused on a single match while it is being played, all the eyes of the world resting on twenty-two elite athletes acting out a sporting telenovela, living making decisions without a script, under conditions of hysterical pressure."
This 300-plus page account of Bennett's life during the weeklong competition weaves through history — both personal and global. The book is a mostly light-hearted exploration of Bennett's relationship with the tournament, from growing up in England rooting for his local soccer heroes, to watching in amazement every four years as teams from all over the globe take the spotlight on the World Cup stage. It's a personal account, yes, but at its best, the book is an entrance point for new soccer fans in America. We Are the World (Cup) takes readers through the growth and history — and sometimes the hatred — of soccer in America.
Bennett eventually adopts America as his new home; his story takes readers through the pains and labor of his "one-man crusade to expand the vacuum that was American football coverage." (Football, as the sport is called around the world, refers to American soccer here.)
The last time the U.S. hosted the World cup was in the summer of 1994. A poll taken before the 1994 World Cup, Bennett writes, revealed that 71% of Americans didn't know the World Cup was coming to America and the other 29% didn't care. Another study released then said soccer was America's 67th favorite sport. "Tractor pulling was 66," he writes. Americans, at the time, "didn't just not care about soccer, they actively hated it."
But American soccer is different now. Mia Hamm walked years ago so Trinity Rodman could run today. By now most Americans know that an Argentine man called Lionel Messi is living somewhere in South Florida with a pink shirt. Soccer jerseys are en vogue. Bars across the country not only play soccer but support local and European clubs. In We Are the World (Cup) readers also get a behind the scenes look at how Bennett and his Men in Blazers media network transformed how we talked about soccer in the U.S.
When the World Cup takes place in the Americas again this summer, some games will be hosted in Mexico and Canada. There will be nearly 50 countries participating. And when the teams take the field, as Bennett writes, their nation's political tensions will also be on display. For countries like Haiti, Senegal, and Ivory Coast, players and staff will receive certain immigration exemptions, but citizens from those countries expect added visa restrictions under U.S. administration policies. And adding to the complications, Iranian officials are reportedly negotiating to have their matches played in Mexico instead of the U.S.
Just a few months out, there are so many unanswered questions. Is American soccer here to stay? Will the war with Iran, immigration raids, ungodly expensive tickets and a polarized U.S. sour the games? Will Ronaldo sail off into the sunset lifting the trophy like Messi did in 2022? And most importantly: Will the games offer us all a moment of peace and healing? We Are the World (Cup) may not have answers but it will help you understand the storm on the horizon.
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