The World Cup of Shame, Part 1

a public relations coup. FIFA could have backed out, it didn't, Just as it turned a blind eye to apartheid in South Africa to torture in Chile. It overlooked the horrors and Argentina just as it overlooks other horrors. Today, I'm Connor Powell. This is Episode A World Cup of Shame, Part one, uneven. Irregular, bumpy. These were the polite words used by soccer commentators to describe the condition of the pitch at the National Stadium in Buenos Aireas, Argentina on

June one. It was the opening game of the eleventh fief of World Cup. A great deal was at stake for General Jorge Raphael Videla Argentina's new unelected ruler. He had just staged the brutal coup two years before Vedela. They didn't care for soccer himself, but he loved attention, and he knew the importance of image, especially when that image would be broadcast around the world on color TV. He also knew what stage in a successful World Cup

would mean for him and his ruly military junta. The World Cup was a chance to scrub clean the regime's dirty war and project legitimacy to any doubters. For FIFA and its president, Jao Haavelange, the World Cup was a chance to flaunt its growing commercial power, like the new massive Coca Cola sponsorship. If Argentina could provide a well run tournament, a brightly colored spectacle, without any political distractions, and do it on Argentina's dime, FIFA would be happy.

It was an unholy alliance rooted in the power of prestige. Both craved it, Fidela and FIFA. They knew how well it would pay off. So why with so much at state? I was the grass so bumpy, clumpy, downright crappy. Well, it turns out seven weeks before groundskeepers sprayed the pitch at Argentina's National Stadium with saltwater from a nearby river. They were new with their jobs and clearly not qualified. The grass turned yellow, withered, it almost died overnight. I'm

good even too. In just a few moments time, the World Couple will be on the way in Argentina. If you were sitting in the stadium or watching the opening ceremony on TV, it couldn't really tell. All anyone noticed where the hundreds of local kids dressed in white gymnastic outfits proudly spelling out Argentina seventy eight, followed by a flock of white doves released into the sky, gracefully soaring

up and around an excited packed stadium. Minutes later, General Adela, dressed in a gray pinstriped suit, his dark shiny hair slipped back, strode out before the world. Yes. Bedella promised the nearly eighty thousand fans on hand and the roughly six million more watching on TV, that this World Cup would be a symbol of peace, and it was just the start of the carefully staged heart tugging moments that Vedella and the ruling military junta had planned. The whole

world was watching Argentina and Vedella and his generals. We're writing a fairy tale script. And there's only one way. A fairy tale script written by thugs who wanted to look like the good guys can end a home team win, to take the cup and hoist it up in front of the whole world Cannon World Cup tournament be fixed. Would FIFA let them with the lords of soccer, continue to turn a blind eye to the murder and torture, to play along with this fake, forced fairy tale. The

answer is yes. Teresa Israel was accustomed to the provocations, the veiled accusations, a climate of fear. In the years since the military snatched control of Argentina and installed the mustachio general Jorge Vdela as its leader, the twenty five year old human rights lawyer had heard and seen it. All. Photos of her from that time show her with these intense eyes. They say to me, I won't back down even when the threats are real, and in Argentina the

threats were as real as they get. Too. Many friends had disappeared, thousands more of her fellow countrymen had gone missing since the generals took over. Imagine one second, you're safely asleep in your own bed, or just riding the bus to work or walking down the street, and the next second you feel a jerk on your arm, punch to your stomach, a scratch at your neck, and before you know it, you're being stuffed in the back of a green Ford falcon. The security forces always drove the

American made falcon, and you disappear. A March eighth, the sun barely up. The threat came to Teresa Israel's door, shouting, banging, and then she was gone. The screams of her family you couldn't hear them over the sound of the Ford falcons speeding off. March eighth seven was the last time Teresa Israel was seen by her family. It was the last time they knew she was alive, when to this day we haven't been given any answers about where she is.

That's Marita Israel, Teresa's sister. As tragic as her story is, Marita and her family are not alone. Some thirty thousand Argentinian families have similar tales. Thirty thousand That was life and death under General Adela's military dictatorship. When a family member was taken, you could knock on doors You could plead with officials, you could hold out hope, but that's all you could do. And that's what Teresa's family did, all the while wondering was she being tortured, was she

in pain? Was she even alive? They had heard the rumors of rape and other unspeakably monstrous acts. The few lucky families got a body to bury, Most like Teresa's were left in the dark. The secrecy, the not knowing, the refusals to answer. That's how the hunter terrorized the families. That's how they terrorized Argentina. And on the eve of the night World Cup, the families of the disappeared faced

another blow. The game they loved, the game that had given them a hants to cheer for their nation, was about to provide a banner of legitimacy for the men that had taken their family members away. When we lived those days with a lot of anger and resentment, but also with many contradictions, because as a country we love soccer. My sister loved soccer. The military regime was basically telling the world there was nothing to see in Argentina. As

far as the rumors were concerned. It was safe, secure, and prosperous. The families of the disappeared, of course, knew the terrible truth. Marita Israel knew that if the junta staged a successful World Cup, Fadela and his cronies would be praised and her sister would be forgotten by the world. For the military junta, the World Cup was a remarkable opportunity to turn around the tidal wave of bad press.

You know, the bad press that comes when dozens of bloated Argentinian bodies wash up on Uruguay's beaches with signs of trauma that indicate they've been tossed from an airplane, or the rumors that the military regime was arresting pregnant women, cutting out their babies and giving the kids to regime loyalists to be raised, and leaving the women to die. In real life, fairy tales should be read with caution. The more magical or improbable, the more disappointed they often

turn out to be. No sports fairy tale is darker, more repugnant, more monstrous than Argentina competing for its first World Cup on home soil. In There isn't any part of the tale that isn't tainted, and you have to know this because it's the reason I'm telling you about Merita and Teresa and the bloated bodies. There were plenty of clues to the horrific reality inside Argentina, and FIFA

never wavered from staging the World Cup. There bigger clues than the clumpy, messy, uneven grass that couldn't be seen on TV, or the incompetent groundskeepers who only had their job because they were regimed loyalists. The British broadcaster I t V referred to the political situation in Argentina ever so cautiously when describing the World Cups choreographed opening ceremony,

someting Ober, children not taking bob. In this displace, the ages range from sutting to seventeen I'm not a part of It is not on accident, with no one fronting age taking pop. The emphasis is wrongly on the innocence of your prey. For many, suggestion of political involvement. Free from the suggestion of political involvement, that phrase was very on brand for Argentina and for FIVA and its corporate partners. The collective blindness to Argentina's brutal military rule was no accident.

It was planned in Buenos Aires and in FIFA's headquarters in Zurich. The plan was to obscure the violent, arrest, the torture, the political murders, and the disappeared, so General Jorge Vedela could deliver his fairy tale promise, a World Cup of peace. And FIFA they did what they always do, kept their focus on the money. A three man mulitary junta has taken over the government of Argentina. All eyes in the room were on them, and they knew it.

If there was any regret or second thoughts, they weren't showing it. Why would they. General Jorge Vedela, Admiral Emilio Messerah and General Orlando Augusti had known for months what had to be done. She was weak, after all, unfit to lead the country. Argentina deserved better than Little Isabelita, the nickname given to President Isabel Peron. The plotters laughed. No one in her own government even bothered to lift a finger to help her. Country was begging for the

military to end the chaos. On the morning of March ten, hours after their troops arrested President Peron, Argentina's generals were plotting a new way forward. The economy was in shambles. The price of basic goods bread, coffee, meat was up more than from the previous year. Argentina's massive ballooning debt only made things worse. These were men of action. They saw themselves as Christian soldiers, the new protectors of the

Western world. First, Fidela ordered all political activity immediately stopped. Congress was dismissed. Then the arrest came. They went after the subversives, the communists, the leftist, the guerrillas, the journalists, the lawyers, the troublemakers. They snatched them from their homes and from the streets. If they resisted, kill them. They would come to be known as the disappeared. After General Vedela tried in vain to explain away the thousands of

missing people. What he said was that the disappeared our different entity. Neither alive nor dead. They are just disappeared. Then Vedella and his junta ordered all the TV and radio broadcasts canceled until further noticed, except for one soccer, the national sport. When someone asked, what about today's friendly match against Poland, the answer was the game goes on.

From the big first day, they understood the importance of football for national identity, but also for the own political purposes. The game, the Beautiful Game was useful to the junta, so says Professor Ron and Ryan of Tel Aviv University. Argentinians needed a distraction, and there was no greater distraction than soccer. Broadcast the game that was the command. The generals understood that counseling the podcast of this game might cost them dearly, so they decided to leave it on.

As the general's talked about the day's match, you could see in General of Adela's face that he had no interest in the sport. Soccer was dull, maybe no coincidence that his body just wasn't built for the sport. With his long frame and odd gate. He was nicknamed the paint Panther, after the lanky cartoon character. No one dare say it to his face, of course, but they said it. General Vedella was skilled at a different game public relations dollars,

it might be. To him, soccer was his nation's passion, its obsession. The priest of his country only wished Argentineans were as loyal to the Church as they were to their own soccer clubs, and so General Vedela readily agreed with our molds, Sarah, who was a soccer fan, that playing the World Cup in their homeland would be a

pr coup. Here's British soccer writer Stu Horsefield. Military young to see as this golden opportunity to promote Argentina, to promote very thals, to promote their style of governance, you know, and it's a gift to the Argentine political regime. The General's decided on that first day in power that the World Cup, awarded by FIVA years earlier, was a priority. General Vedella picked a friend one of their own, to chair the World Cup organizing committee, a retired general and

oil executive Omar Actus. Actors knew how to get things done, and he had even played for the Buenos Areas club River on its third team back in the nineteen forties. He was resolute and loyal, but was he too honest our moment, Sarah, in his right hand man, Captain Carlos Lacosse, seemed to think so. Friction was inevitable. The military junta promised FIFA and its president Johablanch the greatest World Cup ever,

despite the dire economic situation in the country. Argentina's General's vowed to spend whatever was needed, even hundreds of millions of dollars. These are the types of promises you make. You don't really care about the consequences, just the results. They were going to build dazzling new stadiums, first class hotels,

modern airports, new highways. Here again, it's to horse Field what you get with a strong government, as you will get that because they see it as an opportunity to sell to the outside world what they can do, and what their ruling party are doing and what they're achieving, and how great their country is, how happy their people are, how wealthy their country is, and so for FIFA it's a it's a win situation for them. World Cup seventy

eight would be Vedella's crowning achievement in FIFA. President Lanche understood the general's goals with his close working relationship with Brazil's military dictators. Havlange was among the first to congratulate General Vedela after taking power under his command. FIFA never wavered in its support for staging the tournament in Argentina. The stories of brutality made no difference. They didn't see that as their business, and of course it matches there

intention to keep politics out of sport. It was a way of ignoring it. I think that FIFA never into account such trivial quote unquote issues like human rights. In FIFA, they try to cultivate this false image of sports being completely disconnected from politics and they want to make sure that the show goes on. They didn't particularly do anything about it. They had no sanctions. They didn't try and put an impression on art and change to change its ways.

They didn't. Chare's their job to pressure to consider was hosting in the World Cup. John Sugden and Ron and Ryan paint a picture of FIFA absolutely committed to not seeing what was right in front of their eyes. It's a picture we've seen over and over again, from Stanley Rouse's willful ignorance about South African apartheid to the bizarre spectacle of a game in Chile's a Stadio and Nacion. Now, for General Adel and his cohorts, FIFA was the perfect

partner here, no even see no evil. A few months in General Actus had a reasonable sober plan. They would dedicate one hundred million dollars to World Cup infrastructure. It was a huge number for a country suffering under crushing debt, and General Actus was positive it was all his country could afford of you, backed by none other than Argentina's finance Minister Juan Ailman. But FIFA President Chao Hovlanch wanted more.

FIFA's rainmaker and corporate partner, Adida's boss Horse Dassler, wanted more. A flashier stadium at the beach resort of Mar del Plata, a modern color TV broadcasting system for the tournament. Color images were particularly important to Dassler, who had recently convinced Coca Cola to join Adidas as a major corporate sponsor for the World Cup. Coca Cola hadn't paid millions for its iconic red logo to be shown in black and white. General Actus pushed back, and so did Finance Minister Ailment.

These projects were too lavish, a waste of public money. They were certain there were more worthy projects for the people of Argentina. General Actors haggled with suppliers, tried to keep costs down. His frugality irritated angered i'm Almo Sarah and Captain Lacosse, who had a much more flexible sense of money management. They wanted to please FIFA. Sure impress the world, of course, but what they really wanted to

do was line their own pockets. That penny pincher Actors was standing in their way, the closed door arguments grew more heated, the lines were drawn, the knives sharpened. General actors threatened to break ranks, to publicly criticize FIFA for its demands, and to tell the world about the junta's reckless spending. Threats like that, well you better believe they had consequences. In Argentina, on the morning of August, Actus was on his way to meet his fellow generals. He

was done with the threats, the bureaucratic fights. He was going to speak out. As he left his house, a pickup truck with five hooded men in the back pulled up. The assassination took place just a few blocks from a police station, but the security vehicles didn't budge. As General Actus bled out, his assassins dropped paper leaflets declaring the

Revolutionary Army of Montenero was responsible for the attack. The military junta was happy to blame the assassination on Marxist rebels, and when the bodies of thirty tortured and badly mutilated, Marxists were found on the field outside of Buenos Aires. The junta said it was retribution for the murder of General Actus, but that story is never held up. General Actus's body, riddled with bull was barely in the ground when the junta announced Captain Carlos Lacost would now be

the head of the World Cup planning Commission. La Cost was described as a man of unbridled ambition. He wasn't going to worry about things like fiscal responsibility. Our well, Miss Sarah Havlange and Dazzler finally had their man in place. The cost would later end up a vice president of FIFA and a close associate of Havlange, and he did just what they wanted. He loosened the purse strings. He might as well have been lighting money on fire, money

his country didn't have. The spending for the World Cup went through the roof, costing Argentina and estimated seven hundred million dollars about three billion in today's dollars. FIFA would get everything it wanted and more, the stadiums, the airports, the hotels, the highways, and at state of the art color TV broadcasting system. It would cost more, much, much more. Than the World Cup held in Spain four years later. For the Junta, the goal had grown beyond worldwide legitimacy.

Once the opening ceremony was behind them, the Junta set its eyes on an even bigger prize. Victory on the pitch. Victory for Argentina was the only measure of success now. For General Vedela A K. The Pink Panther and his cohorts, winning a World Cup on its home soil would prove to the world and the malcontents at home, that the regime was invincible. This was the fairy tale ending they wanted, and they would do anything to get it, and FIVA

would continue to look the other way. In our next episode, we'll hear about FIFA's willful blindness as Fidela and his henchman attempt to fix the World Cup final. It's part two of the World Cup of Shame. The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me

Connor Powell. Special thanks to Page Nichols, who helped produce this episode and conducted interviews in Argentina for us, and thanks to a Tia Valie for voicing our translations, and special thanks to Donna Carney who produced our interviews in Israel. Logan Heftel and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance from j. C. Swaddick and Jake Blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer and Jeffrey Katz was our

story editor. Our fact checker is Alexa O'Brien, and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any comments or questions, please reach out. You can find us on Twitter. I him at Connor M. Powell and Gary is at Gary Robert Scott. And if you have any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear, please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords of Soccer