August 11, 2022 • 38 mins
After spending millions of dollars they didn’t have to build World Cup infrastructure, and disappearing anyone opposed to their lavish plans, Argentina’s military junta turns its eyes on an even bigger prize – a World Cup victory on its home soil in 1978.
How far would General Videla and his henchmen go to win? And would FIFA ignore their blatant efforts to rig the World Cup?
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Warning that this episode contains graphic language and descriptions of violence,
so you may not want to listen around your kids.
About it is that you never gained closure, never able
to grieve. That's what's truly wicked. I'm Connor Powell. This
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is episode nine World Cup of Shame are two. It
was the cruelest moment of the day, day after day
after day, that pilgrimage through the heavily guarded doors of
a police station or government building or detention center, past
(00:50):
the signs of the area marked military control zone. Susanna
Philip Floor, like so many other mothers, came every week,
sometimes times every day, to these bleak government buildings to
ask a simple yet deeply distressing question. Don't stand, don't
this stand? Where are they? Please? Do you have my child?
(01:15):
She and the other mothers begged, pleaded. The soldiers behind
the desk, with their polished black boots were smug in
their own authority. They love to brandish it, and yet
with all the power and control they possessed, they couldn't
or wouldn't answer that simple question, where is my child?
(01:36):
There's no information, the soldiers barked, come back another day.
The mothers were dismissed time and time again, forced to leave,
only to repeat the indignity of that walk, the inhumanity
of that request, endlessly. Most families have the disappeared chased
rumors in search of a crumb of hope. Understand Annibal
(02:00):
then that Marita Israel jumped at the news that her sister, Teresa,
a young human rights lawyer, taken in March of ninety seven,
had been seen alive. A woman that had been captive
with my sister was released. She was young and pregnant,
and she eventually managed to leave the country, but before
(02:23):
she did that, she informed us that she had been
detained with my sister. So at the time we still
had the expectation that something would happen. Nothing came of
the rumor, but it didn't stop Marita from chasing other rumors.
What else can you do when your loved one disappears.
Disappointment in despair spread like a virus in Argentina in
(02:49):
v seven. The mothers of the disappeared turned to Argentina's
Catholic church for help, only to be told they're missing
children were a test of their faith. It was a
ruthless and merciless brush off by religious men who made
common cause with Argentina's brutal military junta. Then, one day
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in April of nine, after months of rejections and dismissals,
a small group of women, only about a dozen or so,
including a Susina Villaflor, quietly walked together not to a
police station, but to the Plaza de Mayo, the main
plaza and Buenos Aires. At first, no one noticed the
(03:31):
women with their plain white head scarfs. They were easy
to ignore. There were nobody's to anyone passing by. But
the photos they held, those couldn't be ignored. In their hands,
the mothers tenderly clutched the pictures of their disappeared children,
even if Argentine's refused to acknowledge the distressing rumors of
(03:54):
what was happening in their own country. In the Plaza
de Mayo, they were forced to see the faces of
the disappeared and the tears of the loved ones who
ate for information. The police arrived that first day, and
they were always lurking nearby. They told the mothers they
weren't allowed to gather in a group. The military dictatorship
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forbade it, so the mother started walking around the plaza.
It couldn't be any less fruitful, they thought, then their
walks to the government offices. The next week, more mothers
and white scarves showed up. Then they returned every Thursday
afternoon to that busy square across from the Presidential Palace.
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They would confront the man who held the real power
in Argentina. They would force General Jorge Vedela to hear
their voices, to see the faces of their children. They
would stand outside of his home until he answered their
only question, where are our children? As FIFA and the
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generals began their final preparations for the World Cup, the
hunter's vice like grip on Argentina was only tightening. By
the end of nineteen seven, as new stadiums were being finished,
thousands of so called subversives had disappeared, their last traces
lost in a black hole of bureaucratic indifference and state
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sanctioned cruelty. The question became much husher, and thousands and
thousands of people were enlisted, tortured, killed. As Latin American
history professor Ron and Ryan reminded me, the horrors were
an open secret. It was no secret that the army,
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the military was involved in massive human rights violations. Day
by day, the regime's brutality grew, Argentina's opposition was weak.
There were no large scale protests against the military hunter,
just a you dozen women walking in circles around the
Plaza de Mayo. In Argentina's newspapers, words like disappeared or
(06:08):
human rights were absent from the stories penned by journalists.
Then came the challenge on the morning of October Mother's
Day in Argentina. Printed in black and white, the message
was a simple one. We do not ask for anything
(06:29):
but the truth. The paid advertisement in La Princea included
two hundred and thirty seven I D card photos of
the missing. The generals were forced in their own newspaper,
mind you, to see the faces of the children they
had ripped away from the grieving mothers. Days later, hundreds
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of women in white head scarves and flat soled shoes
marched on Congress, armed with a petition that demanded a
full investigation. The others of the Plaza de Mayo were
no longer just the despondent women of the square, not
the hysterical mothers as the generals like to call them.
They were now subversives, and their boldness made them targets.
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The mothers were harassed, detained, arrested. On December tenth, they
started to disappear. A Susana Villa Flora was only a
block and a half away from her home. The fresh
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fish she had just bought was neatly wrapped and ready
to be prepared and cooked. The mother of four had
been one of the original protesters in April, begging for
information about her second child, Nestor. With her home in view,
villa floor was grabbed by security forces and, like her son,
shoved into the back of a Ford falcon. She was
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never seen again. The abduction terrified the other mothers of
the Plaza. More mothers went missing. For a while, the
protests shrank in number. They might have given up, but
the regime couldn't help itself. It continued its kidnappings, its torture,
its killings. The mothers of the Plaza regrouped, their numbers swelled.
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The regime did their work for them. Every new disappearance
was a face on a picture in the hands of
a mother and the Plaza de Mao with the World
Cup around the corner. It was the type of scene
neither the military, Junta nor FIFA wanted the outside world
to see. As the nineteen seventy eight World Cup approached,
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the families of the disappeared had one more thing to
worry about, and as the national side progressed into the
second round of play and then the third, their concerns
only grew. An Argentinian three, they feared would mean the kidnappings,
the torture, the murders were somehow justified. Marita Israel explains
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their fears. We watched from a place where we felt
that the best thing that could happen would be that
Argentina looms. What we wanted was for Argentina to lose
every game as a form of vindication. So the World
Cup wasn't as useful for the dictatorship. After all. General
Vedela's governing philosophy was as cruel as it was simple.
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Many people must die for Argentina to be safe, and
a successful World Cup would prove his governing philosophy was working.
Shortly after taking power in nineteen seventy six, Videla met
within US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who told him
to speed up his dirty war against subversives. Kill him
if you must, Kissinger urged, but just do it fast.
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And probably before the American Congress caught wind, some of
the world had already started to figure it out. The
human rights group Emnancy International published a report just before
the World Cup detailing the horrors of the military junta,
torture with cattle products, jail cells smeared with urine feces,
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and perhaps the most terrifying detail of them all prisoners
were drugged and then tossed alive from airplanes into the ocean.
This was undoubtedly the bloodiest, the most bootle dictatorship that
Argentina had. It was all well documented by a host
of human rights groups pressuring FIFA to relocate the upcoming
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World Cup. Emnesty International had even issued a warning, it's
a FIFA president, Jaojavlange. Sports is not separate from politics.
The stadiums of Argentina might appear, if not neutral, at
least clean, respectable, civilized, protected. The true Argentine no one
of prisons, torture, repression of political opposition will be carefully
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hidden and denied Amnesty International. At the same time, groups
in Europe mobilized the pressure FIFA. The French newspaper Laman
was the first to call for a boycott domestic football
associations in Germany, France and Holland were also pressure to
withdraw from the tournament. Some suggested moving it. Brazil and
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Belgium were quietly put forward as alternative host countries. FIFA
president Jaohavlange wouldn't hear of it. FIFA stayed the course.
Havalanche and Adidas CEO Horse Dassler were committed to keeping
the World Cup in Argentina. Here's historian John Sugden, they
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didn't here's their job to pressure the country that was
hosted in the World Cup. They didn't see that was
that business. And of course much is the intention to
keep politics so out of sports. It was a way
of ignoring it. West Germany's left back Paul Brightener pulled
out of the tournament on moral grounds, but he was
the only player of note to do so. From FIFA's
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point of view, getting involved in the messy world of
human rights and democratic advocacy were roadblocks to success. FIFA
wasn't the business of making money, not taking political action.
Just as former FIFA president Stanley Rouse had connoodled with
Chile's dictator and steered FIFA away from confronting apartheid in
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South Africa. FIFA's new president, jel Haablange, barreled ahead as
soccer fans from around the world gathered in Buenos Areas
for the start of the eleventh People World Cup in June.
Of the military Hunta had never been stronger. They mocked
calls for human rights. We are human and we are
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right became the unofficial slogan of the Military Hunta. We
are human and we are right kind of makes your
skin crawl. Even today, none of it mattered for FIFA's president,
and the face of all of that pressure, Hablanch doubled
down on Argentina and the converted cells of the Buenos
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Areas Navy Training School. The muffled sounds of FIFA's opening
ceremony could be heard. Prisoners, some with festering wounds and
bloodstained clothes, could just make out the Catholic blessing the
TV on the guard's desk down the hall was even clearer.
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General Vedella, the panther and pin stripes could be heard
promising global soccer fans a World Cup of peace. The
guards demanded prisoners cheer for General Vedella. There were just
a few hundred meters away from the newly redesigned National
Stadium as May as the Navy Training School was known,
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had long stopped being a school. Professor Ryan, who teaches
at Tel Aviv University, didn't mince words. There's no other
term to describe it but the Constipation Camp. From the outside,
it was an impressive building with tall white columns. Inside
it housed thousands of so called subversives, and it was
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the center of the junta's torture and interrogation machine that
FIFA in Argentina didn't want seen. And the mothers of
the Plaza tried to make their voices heard in the
opening days of the tournament, but foreign journalists who tried
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to interview them were harassed and chased off. Once the
spectacle of the World Cup was under way and there
was little interest in talking about torture and murder. The
matches had begun, I saw making the break on the
left side. You heard earlier that FIFA wanted a well organized, profitable,
and beautiful looking tournament. The junt of hope this World
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Cup would serve as a public relations boon for the regime,
a scrubbing of its dirty war. The junta got its
wish and then some Here's how Argentina fared on the pitch.
The veteran Argentinian side, led by the dynamic score Mario Kempis,
wanted its first two matches in advanced to the second
round group stage, where they defeated Poland two goals to nothing,
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but then their game with Brazil ended in a nil
nil draw. In Argentina's prospects for advancing to the World
Cup Final looked bleak. Argentina would have to win its
match against Perue by at least four goals to get
past Brazil. Now, in today's world Argentina wouldn't have known
how many goals it needed to win by, but they
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got a little help. Let me explain. Under today's rules,
Brazil and Argentina would have played their respective matches at
the same time to avoid any trickery. But in with
future FIEFA vice president in Jaohavlan Jamigo Admiral Carlos Lacos
making the schedule, Brazil played first in the afternoon, Argentina
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later that evening. Because of the friendly homemade schedule, the
host nation knew exactly how many goals it needed to
score against Peru to advance to the final. That's a
big advantage It was the first time the military junta
offered Argentina's national side of boost, but certainly not the last.
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The fix was in. There are too many, too many
news items that make us all suspicious as to this
victory of Argentina of a pool. It was supposed to
be the most important soccer match of their lives, but
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all anyone on the bus could think about was where
the are we? They screamed at the driver, how much longer?
The Argentine driver blamed the delay on a few mistaken turns.
He was either exceptionally stupid or intentionally making them late,
maybe both. The trip was supposed to take twenty five minutes,
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and after two hours on the bus, Peru's national team
was no closer to a Sario Central Stadium than when
they left the hotel. There was barely any traffic on
the road. Everyone in the city of Sario, like the
rest of the country, were at home to watch the
semifinal match with Argentina. Peru's semifinal match against Argentina, well
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they even have a chance to warm up. Some took
long drags on their cigarettes. It was the seventies. Folks
and soccer players even smoked on the sidelines. Many of
Prus players are already piste off even before they set
foot on the bus. They were tired and exhausted and
increasingly nervous. The night before, the Argentine's made sure they
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had all the advantages of home soil, hotel security guards
actually Argentinian soldiers quietly disappeared in the night, only to
be replaced by dozens of fans shouting, singing, hanking car horns,
and banging on pots and pans. The noise lasted well
into the evening. Now the provings were used to these
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types of pre match antics. Every soccer player on the
road has been woken up by opposing fans. But the
reason you get to the stadium early is to warm
up and to rest on the day of their most
important match. Everest players CRUs national team lost in a
black hole of a bus ride wouldn't get the opportunity
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to do either. And this is just the start of
the dirty tricks the military junta would pull to make
sure their team one. With his brown tortoiseshell glasses and
permanent pout, the now former U S Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger still carried himself like America's top divelmat when
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he arrived in boy in this areas, and he was
treated like one by the gaggle of reporters following him
and the line of generals who welcomed him. Kissinger lost
the role of Secretary of State when Jimmy Carter was
elected in nine six, but he still carried a great
deal of influence. I've always wanted to visit Argentina, he
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told reporters in his famously gruff and almost guttural voice.
I can see that Buenos Aires is simply dazzling, he added.
For good measure, the Argentine's desperate for approval lapped it up.
A lifelong soccer fan who had attended multiple World Cup finals,
Kissinger's trip to Argentina was a mix of business and pleasure.
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For days, he was photographed around town, meeting with celebrities, businessmen,
and politicians. If the only thing missing from the World
Cup was the official US government seal of approval, the
ruling junta made sure everyone in Argentina new Kissinger had
given them his support. His trip had been meticulously planned
by Argentina's generals. Kissinger was, after all, the guest of honor,
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so when the doors to the locker rooms swung open.
Deep down in the bowels of a Sario's central stadium.
There was stunned silence. Everyone in Peru's locker room was
scrambling to get ready. The noise from the crowd shook
the dressing room walls. The Peruvians had finally arrived at
the stadium just an hour before kickoff. Then someone, no
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one remembers who realized they were standing face to face
with Argentina's dictator general of a Della. What is he
doing here? Then they saw those tortoise shell glasses, that
infamous pout. But then I saw Kissinger and I thought,
what's Henry Kissinger doing here? It was unsettling, to say
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the least. Prue star player Jose Velasquez remembers that bizarre meeting.
He told the British broadcaster Channel four. We started looking
at each other and wondering, shouldn't they have gone to
the Argentine room. Not what's going on? I mean they
wished us luck. Why it left us wondering. Even in
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both Adela and Kissinger had not quiet. I wouldn't want
to meet them in a dark alley reputations, but more
I don't really want to meet their associates in the
dark alley reputations. In front of the camera, both men
were all smiles. Another Peruvian player, Hector chum Petez, told
Channel four that Vedela rambled on about the brotherly spirit
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of sport that all South Americans suppose only shared. We're
not looking at Badela and Kissinger came into our dressing room.
It seemed like they were just that to greet us
and welcome us. They also said they hoped it would
be a good game because there was a great deal
of anticipation amongst the Argentinian public, respectful platitude decide. There
was also a not so subtle, darker message, a threat
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that really took a while to sink in. One Carlos
Oblitas told FIFA dot Com about it decades later. I
was changing and I didn't give it much importance. I
gave it much more importance later when I thought about it.
General Vedela read a letter out loud from Peru's own
military strongman, General Francisco Morales Bermudez, which referenced the mutual
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cooperation between Argentina and Peru. General Vedela then looked at
the Peruvian players and added ominously that he hoped things
turned out well, and then he turned and left. No
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One was thinking about how it happened, but everyone watching
the World Cup semifinal was amazed that it was happening.
With a three goal lead over Peru, Argentina was on
the bleeding edge of a World Cup miracle. Now the
impossible they probable. The veteran Argentinian side needed just one
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more goal to knock out Brazil in clinching improbable spot
in the final. Trouble Okay checked out. The crowd unleashed
an earth shaking cheer when in the fiftieth minute Leopold
Luke headed the ball into the goal, the go ahead goal,
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and then the earth really did shake. The bomb blast
left want A Alman's house a smoldering mass of debris.
The match against Peru cost me the bombing of my home.
The moment Argentina scored the fourth goal and qualified for
the finals, a bomb exploded in my house. Almen was
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no left wing rebel or communists aversive. He was a
senior member of the Argentinian government, the finance minister, but
he'd opposed the military's wasteful World Cup spending, earning him
the wrath of Abriel, Miss Sarah and Captain Lacosse a
present from mass Sarah because I had criticized the enormous
amount of money spent on the World Cup. The present,
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as the ailman described the bomb to Dutch filmmakers years later,
it was time to coincide with the fourth goal, almost
as if someone knew the clinching score was coming. It
seems almost obvious that the Argentina put such a pressure
on Peru, and the Peruvian had no choice but in
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the way to allow Argentina not just will but win
seeks to zeal. The order to fix the match came
from the top, of course, but the other generals agreed
with Fidela's command. Argentina must win by any means necessary, bribes, threats, kidnapping.
The regime was too close to realizing its destiny. Every
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victory made it stronger. How did the brutal regime ensure
such a lopsided victory against Peru. Nothing is certain, but
the evidence goes far beyond a reasonable doubt. At this point,
the cost in the military junta left nothing to chance.
Peru started the game brilliantly. Their first goal attempt in
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the early minutes hit the crossbar, just missing an opportunity
to take an early lead. Then their energy just fizzled.
Prus defense wasn't just uninspired, it appeared to be non existent,
almost comically so. Argentina scored two more times after the
go ahead goal. The sixth to nothing thrashing left many
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to speculate Pru's goalkeeper ramone A Loco Kiaroga was on
the take. His parents were Argentine, he was born there,
and six balls was just too many for a goalie
of his caliber to miss. It's long been rumored he
admitted to accepting bribes back in the day, but ki
Roga denies it and his blame Prus manager for assembling
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a sub standard squad for the match. At least three
Peruvian players, including Rodolfo Manzo, have acknowledged being offered bribes,
though not necessarily taking them. British newspaper The Sunday Times
reported Argentina's ruling Hunta offered Prue's dictator a deal he
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couldn't resist through the match, weapons, thirty thousand tons of
grain and a fifty million dollar line of credit. It
the evidence here is circumstantial, but it isn't some bar
stool conspiracy theory. Either pressed Yes, we were pressured. What
kind of pressure pressure from the government, from the government
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to the managers of the team, from the managers of
the team to the coaches. That's Jose Velasquez, one of
Prue's star players, telling the UK's Channel four News he
believes the Provian government ordered his substitution. It was an
unusual move and a crucial game. Something happened. Our team
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was changed. I was dropped after ten minutes in the
second half, when we were already losing by two goals.
There's no reason to change me. I was always a
key player, so what can one think. In two thousand
and twelve, former Peruvian senator Gennaro Ledesma offered testimony in
a special Argentine human rights court that backed up allegations
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at the Peruvian government was in on the fix. I
want to propose the anulment of the nineteen seventy eight
World Cup. Argentina should give it back. It should be
investigated by THIFA and by the Argentine judiciary. At the time,
La Desmo was a progressive labor activists in Peru. He
claimed he was one of thirteen people abducted by Peru's
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military regime and sent to Argentina again Channel four with
the interview Perus sent its political prisoners to Argentina in
order to disappear them. Peru's president offered to return this
favor by losing their World Cup game with Argentina by
a large school. In addition to his testimony in court,
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he signed an affidavit under penalty of perjury, meaning the
evidence of a fix is a bit more than circumstantial. Look,
Argentina was likely always going to defeat Peru. They were
the better side, but winning by four goals was a
monumental task. Only two other teams had won by such
a margin, Germany over Mexico and the Netherlands are for
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Austria winning by six with all the rumors and accusations,
it starts to look a little well ridiculous, and for
a regime willing to kill anyone to retain power, what's
a little match fixing. In the championship game, Argentina's star
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striker Mario Kempis almost single handedly dismantled the Dutch defense.
Kempis scored twice, including the winning goal in a hundred
and fifth minute. Argentina, the underdogs, the home team one
three to one. It was a gritty and dramatic final
played on a pitch covered in white confetti, confetti that
accumulated like snow as the game war on. It was
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nothing short of surreal. Argentina's victory was celebrated as a
fairytale ending to a magical World Cup. Disney couldn't have
written a more enchanting script, nor could the best Hollywood
cinematographers have designed the more visually stunning tournament just made
for color TV. A great football nation, rocked by political upheaval,
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pulled off at home what it had never done before.
Argentina had won the World Cup. Thedela and his supporters
got everything they had hoped for in the short term.
It was a huge political victory for the military regime, undoubtedly,
and this allowed them to continue ruling, at least until
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congratulations poured in from around the world. Argentina had overcome
the naysayers, the critics, the human rights activists, and former
U S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was on hand
to congratulate his dear friend, General Jorge Videla. FIFA was
over the moon and how well the tournament was run.
The ruling military hunter basked in the global praise at
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a lavish FIFA banquet in the ornate French style ballroom
of the Buenos Aires Plaza Hotel. The congratulatory hugs and
kisses on the cheek were only interrupted by the clinking
of champagne glasses to Argentina, to the military, to General Vedela.
Senior members of the ruling military junta shared canopies in
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a five course meal with FIFA's executive committee as they
savored Argentina's victory from the night before. The only ones
missing were the Dutch players. After losing to Argentina three
to one, the Netherlands collectively turned their backs on FIFA
and the Argentinian regime. They refused to collect their second
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place medals. The Dutch had no desire to rub shoulders
with General Vedela or the rest of his murderous military regime.
Some of the players also believed the referees were paid
to throw the game to Argentina. No that FIFA seemed
to care much about the rumors or the missing Dutch
players at the finals banquet, and the General certainly didn't.
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As the alcohol flowed, FIFA's president Gal Havlang stood up
to speak. The room quieted as the imposing Brazilian lifted
his glass and thanked his Argentine hosts. Havlang then singled
out Captain Carlos LaCosta, showering special praise on the soon
to be FIFA Vice President for his efforts. Havlanch ended
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his toast by saying, without a hint of embarrassment, now
the world had seen the true face of Argentina. Across
the country, Argentinians celebrated the fairy tale championship for days.
The streets overflowed with people dancing and cheering. A wave
of national euphoria swept through the country. Among the thousands
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in the streets of Buenos Aires were several dozen prisoners.
Captors at the Navy training school had packed them in vehicles,
forcing them at gunpoints to stick their heads out of
car windows. That disappeared were allowed to breathe in the celebrations,
but not to taste them. They were forced to watch
as their countrymen, saying songs, drank to excess and pay
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tribute to the regime that tortured them. That disappeared within
returned to their cells, now filled with the knowledge that
the regime had succeeded, had hoisted the World Cup trophy,
and in doing so, had erased them from their nation's
collective consciousness. I remember a sort of euphoria, but a
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euphoria that was yes, it was contradictory. For the families
of the disappeared, like Marita Israel, that victory has forever
damaged their relationship with Argentina's national soccer team. Even today,
the Hunter's use of the World Cup as a political
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instrument for repression and to secure its own popularity still
cuts deep. I really like soccer, but when I watched
the World Cup, I don't cheer for Argentina. I can't
may Argentina win. It's impossible for me to say that.
There's no way. The Argentinian journalists Ezekiel Fernandez More has
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described the World Cup as the most obvious political manipulation
suffered by sports since the ninety six Olympic Games in
Nazi Germany. Even today, the dark side of its fairy
tale victory haunts Argentina. But there's no arguing the first
championship was a huge boon for the military Hunta. It
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helped them stay in power for five more years before
democracy was restored in some thirty thousand people were killed
during the junta's military rule. Many of the bodies of
the disappeared remained missing, Teresa Israel's included and just as
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in the Mothers of the Plaza, at least the few
that are still alive are at the square every Thursday,
thirty four years later, still pleading, still demanding answers from
their government. General Jorge Vedella and Armoral Emilia Massarah were
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both tried and convicted for crimes against humanity and would
spend most of the rest of their lives in and
out of prison, and both would die behind bars. Vice
Admiral Carlos Lacosse would later become a key member of
FIFA's executive committee and a close ally of Jaohavlang. The
cost would later be forced to step down from FIFA
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because of a long list of criminal charges he faced
in Argentina, including the murder of General Actus, his predecessor
on the World Cup organizing committee. Chall Hablan try to
remain FIFA's president until he used a considerable amounts of
his own political power to try and keep the Costs
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from ever seeing the inside of a prison. The shame
of World Cup seventy eight is hard to calculate the
institutional rot that let it happen. That's easier to figure.
On the next episode of The Lords of Soccer, you'll
see a direct line between FIFA's approach to Argentina and
what happened in Brazil when the World Cup arrived in
(36:39):
two thousand and fourteen. The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA
Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production
(37:00):
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 Tea Bowie for voicing our translations, and special thanks
to Donna Carney who produced our interviews in Israel. Logan
(37:22):
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
(37:44):
find us on Twitter. I'm 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 h
Warning that this episode contains graphic language and descriptions of violence,
so you may not want to listen around your kids.
About it is that you never gained closure, never able
to grieve. That's what's truly wicked. I'm Connor Powell. This
(00:26):
is episode nine World Cup of Shame are two. It
was the cruelest moment of the day, day after day
after day, that pilgrimage through the heavily guarded doors of
a police station or government building or detention center, past
(00:50):
the signs of the area marked military control zone. Susanna
Philip Floor, like so many other mothers, came every week,
sometimes times every day, to these bleak government buildings to
ask a simple yet deeply distressing question. Don't stand, don't
this stand? Where are they? Please? Do you have my child?
(01:15):
She and the other mothers begged, pleaded. The soldiers behind
the desk, with their polished black boots were smug in
their own authority. They love to brandish it, and yet
with all the power and control they possessed, they couldn't
or wouldn't answer that simple question, where is my child?
(01:36):
There's no information, the soldiers barked, come back another day.
The mothers were dismissed time and time again, forced to leave,
only to repeat the indignity of that walk, the inhumanity
of that request, endlessly. Most families have the disappeared chased
rumors in search of a crumb of hope. Understand Annibal
(02:00):
then that Marita Israel jumped at the news that her sister, Teresa,
a young human rights lawyer, taken in March of ninety seven,
had been seen alive. A woman that had been captive
with my sister was released. She was young and pregnant,
and she eventually managed to leave the country, but before
(02:23):
she did that, she informed us that she had been
detained with my sister. So at the time we still
had the expectation that something would happen. Nothing came of
the rumor, but it didn't stop Marita from chasing other rumors.
What else can you do when your loved one disappears.
Disappointment in despair spread like a virus in Argentina in
(02:49):
v seven. The mothers of the disappeared turned to Argentina's
Catholic church for help, only to be told they're missing
children were a test of their faith. It was a
ruthless and merciless brush off by religious men who made
common cause with Argentina's brutal military junta. Then, one day
(03:09):
in April of nine, after months of rejections and dismissals,
a small group of women, only about a dozen or so,
including a Susina Villaflor, quietly walked together not to a
police station, but to the Plaza de Mayo, the main
plaza and Buenos Aires. At first, no one noticed the
(03:31):
women with their plain white head scarfs. They were easy
to ignore. There were nobody's to anyone passing by. But
the photos they held, those couldn't be ignored. In their hands,
the mothers tenderly clutched the pictures of their disappeared children,
even if Argentine's refused to acknowledge the distressing rumors of
(03:54):
what was happening in their own country. In the Plaza
de Mayo, they were forced to see the faces of
the disappeared and the tears of the loved ones who
ate for information. The police arrived that first day, and
they were always lurking nearby. They told the mothers they
weren't allowed to gather in a group. The military dictatorship
(04:15):
forbade it, so the mother started walking around the plaza.
It couldn't be any less fruitful, they thought, then their
walks to the government offices. The next week, more mothers
and white scarves showed up. Then they returned every Thursday
afternoon to that busy square across from the Presidential Palace.
(04:37):
They would confront the man who held the real power
in Argentina. They would force General Jorge Vedela to hear
their voices, to see the faces of their children. They
would stand outside of his home until he answered their
only question, where are our children? As FIFA and the
(05:02):
generals began their final preparations for the World Cup, the
hunter's vice like grip on Argentina was only tightening. By
the end of nineteen seven, as new stadiums were being finished,
thousands of so called subversives had disappeared, their last traces
lost in a black hole of bureaucratic indifference and state
(05:23):
sanctioned cruelty. The question became much husher, and thousands and
thousands of people were enlisted, tortured, killed. As Latin American
history professor Ron and Ryan reminded me, the horrors were
an open secret. It was no secret that the army,
(05:44):
the military was involved in massive human rights violations. Day
by day, the regime's brutality grew, Argentina's opposition was weak.
There were no large scale protests against the military hunter,
just a you dozen women walking in circles around the
Plaza de Mayo. In Argentina's newspapers, words like disappeared or
(06:08):
human rights were absent from the stories penned by journalists.
Then came the challenge on the morning of October Mother's
Day in Argentina. Printed in black and white, the message
was a simple one. We do not ask for anything
(06:29):
but the truth. The paid advertisement in La Princea included
two hundred and thirty seven I D card photos of
the missing. The generals were forced in their own newspaper,
mind you, to see the faces of the children they
had ripped away from the grieving mothers. Days later, hundreds
(06:50):
of women in white head scarves and flat soled shoes
marched on Congress, armed with a petition that demanded a
full investigation. The others of the Plaza de Mayo were
no longer just the despondent women of the square, not
the hysterical mothers as the generals like to call them.
They were now subversives, and their boldness made them targets.
(07:15):
The mothers were harassed, detained, arrested. On December tenth, they
started to disappear. A Susana Villa Flora was only a
block and a half away from her home. The fresh
(07:35):
fish she had just bought was neatly wrapped and ready
to be prepared and cooked. The mother of four had
been one of the original protesters in April, begging for
information about her second child, Nestor. With her home in view,
villa floor was grabbed by security forces and, like her son,
shoved into the back of a Ford falcon. She was
(07:57):
never seen again. The abduction terrified the other mothers of
the Plaza. More mothers went missing. For a while, the
protests shrank in number. They might have given up, but
the regime couldn't help itself. It continued its kidnappings, its torture,
its killings. The mothers of the Plaza regrouped, their numbers swelled.
(08:21):
The regime did their work for them. Every new disappearance
was a face on a picture in the hands of
a mother and the Plaza de Mao with the World
Cup around the corner. It was the type of scene
neither the military, Junta nor FIFA wanted the outside world
to see. As the nineteen seventy eight World Cup approached,
(08:47):
the families of the disappeared had one more thing to
worry about, and as the national side progressed into the
second round of play and then the third, their concerns
only grew. An Argentinian three, they feared would mean the kidnappings,
the torture, the murders were somehow justified. Marita Israel explains
(09:09):
their fears. We watched from a place where we felt
that the best thing that could happen would be that
Argentina looms. What we wanted was for Argentina to lose
every game as a form of vindication. So the World
Cup wasn't as useful for the dictatorship. After all. General
Vedela's governing philosophy was as cruel as it was simple.
(09:33):
Many people must die for Argentina to be safe, and
a successful World Cup would prove his governing philosophy was working.
Shortly after taking power in nineteen seventy six, Videla met
within US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who told him
to speed up his dirty war against subversives. Kill him
if you must, Kissinger urged, but just do it fast.
(09:57):
And probably before the American Congress caught wind, some of
the world had already started to figure it out. The
human rights group Emnancy International published a report just before
the World Cup detailing the horrors of the military junta,
torture with cattle products, jail cells smeared with urine feces,
(10:18):
and perhaps the most terrifying detail of them all prisoners
were drugged and then tossed alive from airplanes into the ocean.
This was undoubtedly the bloodiest, the most bootle dictatorship that
Argentina had. It was all well documented by a host
of human rights groups pressuring FIFA to relocate the upcoming
(10:41):
World Cup. Emnesty International had even issued a warning, it's
a FIFA president, Jaojavlange. Sports is not separate from politics.
The stadiums of Argentina might appear, if not neutral, at
least clean, respectable, civilized, protected. The true Argentine no one
of prisons, torture, repression of political opposition will be carefully
(11:05):
hidden and denied Amnesty International. At the same time, groups
in Europe mobilized the pressure FIFA. The French newspaper Laman
was the first to call for a boycott domestic football
associations in Germany, France and Holland were also pressure to
withdraw from the tournament. Some suggested moving it. Brazil and
(11:29):
Belgium were quietly put forward as alternative host countries. FIFA
president Jaohavlange wouldn't hear of it. FIFA stayed the course.
Havalanche and Adidas CEO Horse Dassler were committed to keeping
the World Cup in Argentina. Here's historian John Sugden, they
(11:49):
didn't here's their job to pressure the country that was
hosted in the World Cup. They didn't see that was
that business. And of course much is the intention to
keep politics so out of sports. It was a way
of ignoring it. West Germany's left back Paul Brightener pulled
out of the tournament on moral grounds, but he was
the only player of note to do so. From FIFA's
(12:13):
point of view, getting involved in the messy world of
human rights and democratic advocacy were roadblocks to success. FIFA
wasn't the business of making money, not taking political action.
Just as former FIFA president Stanley Rouse had connoodled with
Chile's dictator and steered FIFA away from confronting apartheid in
(12:35):
South Africa. FIFA's new president, jel Haablange, barreled ahead as
soccer fans from around the world gathered in Buenos Areas
for the start of the eleventh People World Cup in June.
Of the military Hunta had never been stronger. They mocked
calls for human rights. We are human and we are
(12:59):
right became the unofficial slogan of the Military Hunta. We
are human and we are right kind of makes your
skin crawl. Even today, none of it mattered for FIFA's president,
and the face of all of that pressure, Hablanch doubled
down on Argentina and the converted cells of the Buenos
(13:29):
Areas Navy Training School. The muffled sounds of FIFA's opening
ceremony could be heard. Prisoners, some with festering wounds and
bloodstained clothes, could just make out the Catholic blessing the
TV on the guard's desk down the hall was even clearer.
(13:51):
General Vedella, the panther and pin stripes could be heard
promising global soccer fans a World Cup of peace. The
guards demanded prisoners cheer for General Vedella. There were just
a few hundred meters away from the newly redesigned National
Stadium as May as the Navy Training School was known,
(14:11):
had long stopped being a school. Professor Ryan, who teaches
at Tel Aviv University, didn't mince words. There's no other
term to describe it but the Constipation Camp. From the outside,
it was an impressive building with tall white columns. Inside
it housed thousands of so called subversives, and it was
(14:34):
the center of the junta's torture and interrogation machine that
FIFA in Argentina didn't want seen. And the mothers of
the Plaza tried to make their voices heard in the
opening days of the tournament, but foreign journalists who tried
(14:55):
to interview them were harassed and chased off. Once the
spectacle of the World Cup was under way and there
was little interest in talking about torture and murder. The
matches had begun, I saw making the break on the
left side. You heard earlier that FIFA wanted a well organized, profitable,
and beautiful looking tournament. The junt of hope this World
(15:18):
Cup would serve as a public relations boon for the regime,
a scrubbing of its dirty war. The junta got its
wish and then some Here's how Argentina fared on the pitch.
The veteran Argentinian side, led by the dynamic score Mario Kempis,
wanted its first two matches in advanced to the second
round group stage, where they defeated Poland two goals to nothing,
(15:43):
but then their game with Brazil ended in a nil
nil draw. In Argentina's prospects for advancing to the World
Cup Final looked bleak. Argentina would have to win its
match against Perue by at least four goals to get
past Brazil. Now, in today's world Argentina wouldn't have known
how many goals it needed to win by, but they
(16:04):
got a little help. Let me explain. Under today's rules,
Brazil and Argentina would have played their respective matches at
the same time to avoid any trickery. But in with
future FIEFA vice president in Jaohavlan Jamigo Admiral Carlos Lacos
making the schedule, Brazil played first in the afternoon, Argentina
(16:25):
later that evening. Because of the friendly homemade schedule, the
host nation knew exactly how many goals it needed to
score against Peru to advance to the final. That's a
big advantage It was the first time the military junta
offered Argentina's national side of boost, but certainly not the last.
(16:47):
The fix was in. There are too many, too many
news items that make us all suspicious as to this
victory of Argentina of a pool. It was supposed to
be the most important soccer match of their lives, but
(17:09):
all anyone on the bus could think about was where
the are we? They screamed at the driver, how much longer?
The Argentine driver blamed the delay on a few mistaken turns.
He was either exceptionally stupid or intentionally making them late,
maybe both. The trip was supposed to take twenty five minutes,
(17:31):
and after two hours on the bus, Peru's national team
was no closer to a Sario Central Stadium than when
they left the hotel. There was barely any traffic on
the road. Everyone in the city of Sario, like the
rest of the country, were at home to watch the
semifinal match with Argentina. Peru's semifinal match against Argentina, well
(17:53):
they even have a chance to warm up. Some took
long drags on their cigarettes. It was the seventies. Folks
and soccer players even smoked on the sidelines. Many of
Prus players are already piste off even before they set
foot on the bus. They were tired and exhausted and
increasingly nervous. The night before, the Argentine's made sure they
(18:15):
had all the advantages of home soil, hotel security guards
actually Argentinian soldiers quietly disappeared in the night, only to
be replaced by dozens of fans shouting, singing, hanking car horns,
and banging on pots and pans. The noise lasted well
into the evening. Now the provings were used to these
(18:37):
types of pre match antics. Every soccer player on the
road has been woken up by opposing fans. But the
reason you get to the stadium early is to warm
up and to rest on the day of their most
important match. Everest players CRUs national team lost in a
black hole of a bus ride wouldn't get the opportunity
(18:58):
to do either. And this is just the start of
the dirty tricks the military junta would pull to make
sure their team one. With his brown tortoiseshell glasses and
permanent pout, the now former U S Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger still carried himself like America's top divelmat when
(19:21):
he arrived in boy in this areas, and he was
treated like one by the gaggle of reporters following him
and the line of generals who welcomed him. Kissinger lost
the role of Secretary of State when Jimmy Carter was
elected in nine six, but he still carried a great
deal of influence. I've always wanted to visit Argentina, he
(19:42):
told reporters in his famously gruff and almost guttural voice.
I can see that Buenos Aires is simply dazzling, he added.
For good measure, the Argentine's desperate for approval lapped it up.
A lifelong soccer fan who had attended multiple World Cup finals,
Kissinger's trip to Argentina was a mix of business and pleasure.
(20:05):
For days, he was photographed around town, meeting with celebrities, businessmen,
and politicians. If the only thing missing from the World
Cup was the official US government seal of approval, the
ruling junta made sure everyone in Argentina new Kissinger had
given them his support. His trip had been meticulously planned
by Argentina's generals. Kissinger was, after all, the guest of honor,
(20:31):
so when the doors to the locker rooms swung open.
Deep down in the bowels of a Sario's central stadium.
There was stunned silence. Everyone in Peru's locker room was
scrambling to get ready. The noise from the crowd shook
the dressing room walls. The Peruvians had finally arrived at
the stadium just an hour before kickoff. Then someone, no
(20:54):
one remembers who realized they were standing face to face
with Argentina's dictator general of a Della. What is he
doing here? Then they saw those tortoise shell glasses, that
infamous pout. But then I saw Kissinger and I thought,
what's Henry Kissinger doing here? It was unsettling, to say
(21:14):
the least. Prue star player Jose Velasquez remembers that bizarre meeting.
He told the British broadcaster Channel four. We started looking
at each other and wondering, shouldn't they have gone to
the Argentine room. Not what's going on? I mean they
wished us luck. Why it left us wondering. Even in
(21:35):
both Adela and Kissinger had not quiet. I wouldn't want
to meet them in a dark alley reputations, but more
I don't really want to meet their associates in the
dark alley reputations. In front of the camera, both men
were all smiles. Another Peruvian player, Hector chum Petez, told
Channel four that Vedela rambled on about the brotherly spirit
(21:57):
of sport that all South Americans suppose only shared. We're
not looking at Badela and Kissinger came into our dressing room.
It seemed like they were just that to greet us
and welcome us. They also said they hoped it would
be a good game because there was a great deal
of anticipation amongst the Argentinian public, respectful platitude decide. There
was also a not so subtle, darker message, a threat
(22:20):
that really took a while to sink in. One Carlos
Oblitas told FIFA dot Com about it decades later. I
was changing and I didn't give it much importance. I
gave it much more importance later when I thought about it.
General Vedela read a letter out loud from Peru's own
military strongman, General Francisco Morales Bermudez, which referenced the mutual
(22:43):
cooperation between Argentina and Peru. General Vedela then looked at
the Peruvian players and added ominously that he hoped things
turned out well, and then he turned and left. No
(23:06):
One was thinking about how it happened, but everyone watching
the World Cup semifinal was amazed that it was happening.
With a three goal lead over Peru, Argentina was on
the bleeding edge of a World Cup miracle. Now the
impossible they probable. The veteran Argentinian side needed just one
(23:28):
more goal to knock out Brazil in clinching improbable spot
in the final. Trouble Okay checked out. The crowd unleashed
an earth shaking cheer when in the fiftieth minute Leopold
Luke headed the ball into the goal, the go ahead goal,
(23:52):
and then the earth really did shake. The bomb blast
left want A Alman's house a smoldering mass of debris.
The match against Peru cost me the bombing of my home.
The moment Argentina scored the fourth goal and qualified for
the finals, a bomb exploded in my house. Almen was
(24:13):
no left wing rebel or communists aversive. He was a
senior member of the Argentinian government, the finance minister, but
he'd opposed the military's wasteful World Cup spending, earning him
the wrath of Abriel, Miss Sarah and Captain Lacosse a
present from mass Sarah because I had criticized the enormous
amount of money spent on the World Cup. The present,
(24:38):
as the ailman described the bomb to Dutch filmmakers years later,
it was time to coincide with the fourth goal, almost
as if someone knew the clinching score was coming. It
seems almost obvious that the Argentina put such a pressure
on Peru, and the Peruvian had no choice but in
(25:00):
the way to allow Argentina not just will but win
seeks to zeal. The order to fix the match came
from the top, of course, but the other generals agreed
with Fidela's command. Argentina must win by any means necessary, bribes, threats, kidnapping.
The regime was too close to realizing its destiny. Every
(25:23):
victory made it stronger. How did the brutal regime ensure
such a lopsided victory against Peru. Nothing is certain, but
the evidence goes far beyond a reasonable doubt. At this point,
the cost in the military junta left nothing to chance.
Peru started the game brilliantly. Their first goal attempt in
(25:46):
the early minutes hit the crossbar, just missing an opportunity
to take an early lead. Then their energy just fizzled.
Prus defense wasn't just uninspired, it appeared to be non existent,
almost comically so. Argentina scored two more times after the
go ahead goal. The sixth to nothing thrashing left many
(26:08):
to speculate Pru's goalkeeper ramone A Loco Kiaroga was on
the take. His parents were Argentine, he was born there,
and six balls was just too many for a goalie
of his caliber to miss. It's long been rumored he
admitted to accepting bribes back in the day, but ki
Roga denies it and his blame Prus manager for assembling
(26:32):
a sub standard squad for the match. At least three
Peruvian players, including Rodolfo Manzo, have acknowledged being offered bribes,
though not necessarily taking them. British newspaper The Sunday Times
reported Argentina's ruling Hunta offered Prue's dictator a deal he
(26:52):
couldn't resist through the match, weapons, thirty thousand tons of
grain and a fifty million dollar line of credit. It
the evidence here is circumstantial, but it isn't some bar
stool conspiracy theory. Either pressed Yes, we were pressured. What
kind of pressure pressure from the government, from the government
(27:14):
to the managers of the team, from the managers of
the team to the coaches. That's Jose Velasquez, one of
Prue's star players, telling the UK's Channel four News he
believes the Provian government ordered his substitution. It was an
unusual move and a crucial game. Something happened. Our team
(27:34):
was changed. I was dropped after ten minutes in the
second half, when we were already losing by two goals.
There's no reason to change me. I was always a
key player, so what can one think. In two thousand
and twelve, former Peruvian senator Gennaro Ledesma offered testimony in
a special Argentine human rights court that backed up allegations
(27:55):
at the Peruvian government was in on the fix. I
want to propose the anulment of the nineteen seventy eight
World Cup. Argentina should give it back. It should be
investigated by THIFA and by the Argentine judiciary. At the time,
La Desmo was a progressive labor activists in Peru. He
claimed he was one of thirteen people abducted by Peru's
(28:17):
military regime and sent to Argentina again Channel four with
the interview Perus sent its political prisoners to Argentina in
order to disappear them. Peru's president offered to return this
favor by losing their World Cup game with Argentina by
a large school. In addition to his testimony in court,
(28:37):
he signed an affidavit under penalty of perjury, meaning the
evidence of a fix is a bit more than circumstantial. Look,
Argentina was likely always going to defeat Peru. They were
the better side, but winning by four goals was a
monumental task. Only two other teams had won by such
a margin, Germany over Mexico and the Netherlands are for
(29:00):
Austria winning by six with all the rumors and accusations,
it starts to look a little well ridiculous, and for
a regime willing to kill anyone to retain power, what's
a little match fixing. In the championship game, Argentina's star
(29:22):
striker Mario Kempis almost single handedly dismantled the Dutch defense.
Kempis scored twice, including the winning goal in a hundred
and fifth minute. Argentina, the underdogs, the home team one
three to one. It was a gritty and dramatic final
played on a pitch covered in white confetti, confetti that
accumulated like snow as the game war on. It was
(29:44):
nothing short of surreal. Argentina's victory was celebrated as a
fairytale ending to a magical World Cup. Disney couldn't have
written a more enchanting script, nor could the best Hollywood
cinematographers have designed the more visually stunning tournament just made
for color TV. A great football nation, rocked by political upheaval,
(30:09):
pulled off at home what it had never done before.
Argentina had won the World Cup. Thedela and his supporters
got everything they had hoped for in the short term.
It was a huge political victory for the military regime, undoubtedly,
and this allowed them to continue ruling, at least until
(30:33):
congratulations poured in from around the world. Argentina had overcome
the naysayers, the critics, the human rights activists, and former
U S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was on hand
to congratulate his dear friend, General Jorge Videla. FIFA was
over the moon and how well the tournament was run.
The ruling military hunter basked in the global praise at
(30:59):
a lavish FIFA banquet in the ornate French style ballroom
of the Buenos Aires Plaza Hotel. The congratulatory hugs and
kisses on the cheek were only interrupted by the clinking
of champagne glasses to Argentina, to the military, to General Vedela.
Senior members of the ruling military junta shared canopies in
(31:21):
a five course meal with FIFA's executive committee as they
savored Argentina's victory from the night before. The only ones
missing were the Dutch players. After losing to Argentina three
to one, the Netherlands collectively turned their backs on FIFA
and the Argentinian regime. They refused to collect their second
(31:44):
place medals. The Dutch had no desire to rub shoulders
with General Vedela or the rest of his murderous military regime.
Some of the players also believed the referees were paid
to throw the game to Argentina. No that FIFA seemed
to care much about the rumors or the missing Dutch
players at the finals banquet, and the General certainly didn't.
(32:07):
As the alcohol flowed, FIFA's president Gal Havlang stood up
to speak. The room quieted as the imposing Brazilian lifted
his glass and thanked his Argentine hosts. Havlang then singled
out Captain Carlos LaCosta, showering special praise on the soon
to be FIFA Vice President for his efforts. Havlanch ended
(32:31):
his toast by saying, without a hint of embarrassment, now
the world had seen the true face of Argentina. Across
the country, Argentinians celebrated the fairy tale championship for days.
The streets overflowed with people dancing and cheering. A wave
of national euphoria swept through the country. Among the thousands
(32:55):
in the streets of Buenos Aires were several dozen prisoners.
Captors at the Navy training school had packed them in vehicles,
forcing them at gunpoints to stick their heads out of
car windows. That disappeared were allowed to breathe in the celebrations,
but not to taste them. They were forced to watch
as their countrymen, saying songs, drank to excess and pay
(33:19):
tribute to the regime that tortured them. That disappeared within
returned to their cells, now filled with the knowledge that
the regime had succeeded, had hoisted the World Cup trophy,
and in doing so, had erased them from their nation's
collective consciousness. I remember a sort of euphoria, but a
(33:42):
euphoria that was yes, it was contradictory. For the families
of the disappeared, like Marita Israel, that victory has forever
damaged their relationship with Argentina's national soccer team. Even today,
the Hunter's use of the World Cup as a political
(34:03):
instrument for repression and to secure its own popularity still
cuts deep. I really like soccer, but when I watched
the World Cup, I don't cheer for Argentina. I can't
may Argentina win. It's impossible for me to say that.
There's no way. The Argentinian journalists Ezekiel Fernandez More has
(34:32):
described the World Cup as the most obvious political manipulation
suffered by sports since the ninety six Olympic Games in
Nazi Germany. Even today, the dark side of its fairy
tale victory haunts Argentina. But there's no arguing the first
championship was a huge boon for the military Hunta. It
(34:54):
helped them stay in power for five more years before
democracy was restored in some thirty thousand people were killed
during the junta's military rule. Many of the bodies of
the disappeared remained missing, Teresa Israel's included and just as
(35:16):
in the Mothers of the Plaza, at least the few
that are still alive are at the square every Thursday,
thirty four years later, still pleading, still demanding answers from
their government. General Jorge Vedella and Armoral Emilia Massarah were
(35:36):
both tried and convicted for crimes against humanity and would
spend most of the rest of their lives in and
out of prison, and both would die behind bars. Vice
Admiral Carlos Lacosse would later become a key member of
FIFA's executive committee and a close ally of Jaohavlang. The
cost would later be forced to step down from FIFA
(35:57):
because of a long list of criminal charges he faced
in Argentina, including the murder of General Actus, his predecessor
on the World Cup organizing committee. Chall Hablan try to
remain FIFA's president until he used a considerable amounts of
his own political power to try and keep the Costs
(36:17):
from ever seeing the inside of a prison. The shame
of World Cup seventy eight is hard to calculate the
institutional rot that let it happen. That's easier to figure.
On the next episode of The Lords of Soccer, you'll
see a direct line between FIFA's approach to Argentina and
what happened in Brazil when the World Cup arrived in
(36:39):
two thousand and fourteen. The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA
Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production
(37:00):
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 Tea Bowie for voicing our translations, and special thanks
to Donna Carney who produced our interviews in Israel. Logan
(37:22):
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
(37:44):
find us on Twitter. I'm 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 h
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