When sports meet politics in South America

Hello and welcome back to the Brazil Sports newsletter. This week, with the news of the Copa Libertadores final being moved after protests in Chile, we look back on other times the beautiful game has been directly influenced by politics, in Brazil and around South America. Plus, there’s news of physical and verbal violence in Brazilian stadiums this week, and we keep up with Brazil’s women’s and under-17 squads. Happy reading!

When sports meet politics

As we suspected in last week’s Brazil Sports newsletter, the 2019 Copa Libertadores final will no longer be held in Santiago, amid the wave of public protests and conflict in the Chilean capital. As opposed to reverting to the two-legged final model, the South American football confederation (Conmebol) decided to move the deciding match to the Peruvian capital of Lima, holding the game at the famous Estadio Nacional of Peru.

Football around the world has always been influenced by politics, often acting as a reflection or opposition to the context of power at the contemporary moment. However, at some points in history, the two have clashed, with politics no longer playing a concealed behind-the-scenes role, and taking center stage in the beautiful game. Here are a few cases of politics invading the realm of sports in 20th-century South America:

Football in a torture center

Ahead of the 1974 World Cup, Chile and the Soviet Union were to face each other in a qualification play-off, pitting the brutal far-right dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet against Soviet Communism. The second leg had been scheduled to be played in Santiago’s Estadio Nacional—the original venue for this year’s Libertadores final—on November 21, just two months after the Chilean military junta took power in a bloody coup d’etat. 

After reports that the stadium was being used as a detention and torture center by the Chilean army, the USSR demanded the match be relocated. Fifa inspected the stadium, with political prisoners hidden in the depths of the ground, and said the game should go ahead as planned. The Soviets refused to travel and the game took place, being stopped after 30 seconds and a walkover awarded to Chile.

President firing the manager

Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning team enchanted the...