tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/world-cup-2018-11490/articlesWorld Cup 2018 – The Conversation2022-03-01T02:49:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1780352022-03-01T02:49:14Z2022-03-01T02:49:14ZFIFA has finally acted against Russia, but it doesn’t undo a long history of cosying up to Putin<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449064/original/file-20220301-17-13n7dpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=320%2C28%2C3392%2C2544&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Meissner/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Under intense international pressure, FIFA made an abrupt about-face this week and suspended Russia’s teams from international football. The move means Russia will not have a chance to compete in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.</p>
<p>For decades, soccer’s global governing body has avowed sporting neutrality, preferring not to politicise <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-fifa-protests-idUSKBN2BI2FN">sporting events</a>. The federation’s decision to punish Russia for its aggressive war-making represents a small step towards a more politically forward-thinking policy, but its actions fall far short of redressing the harm it has caused in the past. </p>
<p>It also came after international outcry over its initially weak response to Russia, in which it said the team would still be allowed to compete under the name “Football Union of Russia”, at neutral venues and without its flag or anthem.</p>
<p>It took bold steps by countries like Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic, which flat-out refused to play against any Russian team, for FIFA to change its mind.</p>
<p>What FIFA’s leadership still fails to realise is banning Russia does not introduce politics into sports – it removes the stench of it. FIFA has long allowed dictators – especially Russian President Vladimir Putin – to politicise the game. It now has a responsibility to clean up its own mess. </p>
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<h2>A long history of Russian sportwashing</h2>
<p>FIFA has taken action against belligerent nations before. Following the second world war, both <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/news/story/_/id/1836963/a-tournament-unlike-other">Germany and Japan</a> were prevented from taking part in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. </p>
<p>FIFA also excluded South Africa from the World Cup during the apartheid era and removed Yugoslavia from qualifying for the 1994 tournament during the war in the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/10/01/Yugoslavia-banned-for-1994-World/8232717912000/">Balkans</a>. </p>
<p>But FIFA has had a long history of working alongside Putin and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-14/world-cup-dream-sportswashing-russia-appalling-record/9867166">looking the other way</a> when it comes to Russia’s human rights abuses. </p>
<p>The 2018 World Cup, for which FIFA awarded hosting rights to Russia, allowed Putin to trumpet his country’s post-Soviet modernisation. But it came at great cost to soccer’s legitimacy. </p>
<p>After a bribery scandal in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups shook the soccer world, FIFA <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-30035670">hired a former US attorney</a> to investigate. He didn’t last long; he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/sports/soccer/fifa-investigator-michael-j-garcias-resignation-ended-an-uneasy-marriage.html">resigned in protest</a> and suggested FIFA was incapable of reform. </p>
<p>FIFA refused to move the tournament from Russia even after Russian-backed rebels <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/2014/07/25/fifa-russia-2018-world-cup">shot down</a> a Malaysia Airlines plane, the Russian military <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/26691561">occupied</a> Crimea, and a former Russian spy was <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/3417865/england-world-cup-boycott-talk-is-attempt-to-punish-us-russias-foreign-ministry">poisoned</a> in the United Kingdom.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-russia-worthy-of-hosting-the-world-cup-96917">Is Russia worthy of hosting the World Cup?</a>
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<p>FIFA had been perfectly placed to make an important statement about the centrality of human rights to the sport. The Russian soccer world was (and still is) deeply connected to Putin and his oligarch backers. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/sports/mutko-russia-world-up.html">Vitaly Mutko</a>, the deputy prime minister of Russia, for instance, was the former chairman of the Russian Football Union and head of the 2018 World Cup organising committee.</p>
<p>But FIFA failed to act then, and was slow to act again this week. </p>
<p>In the face of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, FIFA President Gianni Infantino could only offer embarrassingly milquetoast comments when questioned by reporters. </p>
<p>Asked if he regretted allowing Putin to host the 2018 World Cup and whether sport had helped “embolden” the Russian leader, Infantino <a href="https://twitter.com/robharris/status/1496930303952183300?s=11">offered cliches</a>. “I firmly believe in sport to bring people together,” he said.</p>
<p>He offered no condemnation of the Russian invasion and refused to comment on whether he would return the Medal of Friendship that Putin awarded him in 2019.</p>
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<h2>Other sports move quickly to isolate Russia</h2>
<p>While FIFA and Infantino prevaricated, other sporting federations acted to isolate Russia. </p>
<p>The Polish Football Association <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/euro-backlash-as-fifa-refuses-to-expel-russia-from-football/3160353/">called FIFA’s stance “totally unaccepteable”</a> and said the Polish national team would not play Russia. UEFA, the European football governing body, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uefa-terminates-gazprom-deal/">ended its lucrative sponsorship deal</a> with the Russian energy company Gazprom and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/02/24/russia-ukraine-sports/">moved the Champions League final</a> in May from St Petersburg to Paris. </p>
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<p>And French Football Federation President Noël Le Graët <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/sports/football/guerre-en-ukraine-je-penche-pour-une-exclusion-de-la-russie-du-prochain-mondial-annonce-noel-le-graet-27-02-2022-WLRL3K3QE5B3NJYSUQ6AUF6RRQ.php">told Le Parisien</a>:</p>
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<p>The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral.</p>
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<p>Even the International Olympic Committee, no stranger to working with dictators accused of human rights violations, strongly condemned Russia for violating the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-strongly-condemns-the-breach-of-the-olympic-truce">Olympic Truce</a> immediately after the invasion. </p>
<p>The IOC went a step further this week, recommending Russian and Belarusian athletes be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/28/ioc-ban-russia-and-belarus-fifa-uefa">banned from all international competitions</a>, although it left itself some wiggle room with the Winter Paralympics about to begin in Beijing.</p>
<p>In fact, the sporting world has been almost completely united in pulling its competitions from Russia. Most didn’t wait to act.</p>
<p>Formula One <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-26/andrey-rublev-alex-ovechkin-against-russian-war-with-ukraine/100863688">cancelled</a> the Russian Grand Prix, while the international ski and volleyball federations <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/russian-athletes-against-war-in-ukraine-fifa-ioc-measures/100866956">cancelled or moved competitions</a> to other locations. Even the International Chess Federation shifted the Chess Olympiad from <a href="https://www.fide.com/news/1599">Moscow</a>. It remains to be seen, however, whether these events will ban Russian competitors from taking part.</p>
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<h2>Should Russian athletes be punished?</h2>
<p>Many other organisations are going further by already banning Russian competitors or looking to ban them. </p>
<p>The Norwegian Ski Federation banned all Russian competitors from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/cross-country-skiing/norway-ski-federation-russia-not-welcome-1.6365836">its competitions</a>, while Sweden <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20220226-cancellations-revocations-and-repudiations-russia-becomes-persona-non-grata-in-sport">is pushing</a> for a total ban on Russian athletes competing in the European Union. </p>
<p>In North America, former NHL stars like Dominik Hasek are arguing for the league to suspend Russian <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/nhl/nhl-2022-russia-ukraine-war-dominik-hasek-calls-alex-ovechkin-chicken-shit-over-vladimir-putin-national-hockey-league/news-story/0ba7042aca88bbb4a994b94d4ba228ce">players</a>. </p>
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<p>These organisations and players realise that Russian athletes competing under a neutral flag still compete for Russia. The IOC might not play the Russian national anthem at the upcoming Paralympics, but Russian state television still celebrates its athletes’ victories and transforms them into symbols of state power and prestige. </p>
<p>Banning Russian athletes might seem unfair because it will impact people who had no say in the invasion of Ukraine. In fact, many Russian athletes are bravely showing their opposition to the Putin regime. But after years of sporting organisations providing exceptions for Russian athletes to continue to compete, a tougher stance is now needed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-olympic-doping-saga-shows-need-for-a-radically-different-approach-90850">Russian Olympic doping saga shows need for a radically different approach</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Rathbone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What FIFA’s leadership still fails to realise is banning Russia does not introduce politics into sports – it removes the stench of it.Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014652018-08-19T20:37:35Z2018-08-19T20:37:35ZCan collective euphoria last? A month into France’s World Cup victory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232272/original/file-20180816-2912-ttmjhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C2044%2C1345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can football really have an impact on society?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnodeuy/41908630870/in/photolist-26RjFTd">Gnodeuy/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a month since the French football team won the World Cup for the second time in their history. At the time the response seemed phenomenal. In the streets of France, people hugged and danced with strangers. Over a million people gathered on the Champs-Elysées in Paris and in thousands of other cities and towns across the country. The last time a similar mobilisation had been seen was in response to the <em>Charlie Hebdo</em> terrorist attacks in January 2015.</p>
<p>But now all that can seem like ancient history. Social solidarity has splintered. The French President is mired in controversy over the violent behaviour of one of his employees, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/25/emmanuel-macron-says-im-to-blame-over-benalla-assault-scandal">Alexandre Benalla</a>. The country is divided over new anti-immigrant legislation. So were all the predictions that the victory of a multi-ethnic team might create a more inclusive, confident and generous nation – that it might expunge the traumas of terrorism – just wishful thinking?</p>
<p>More generally, is it true, as some of our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315752957_Je_suis_Charlie_la_liberte_au-dela_de_l%27egalite_et_la_fraternite_Interpretation_collective_des_attaques_terroristes_de_janvier_2015_en_France_et_expression_online_d%27un_nexus">studies</a> show, that such a sense of unity lasts just a few days, or was the World Cup victory an event that can have longer lasting social significance?</p>
<p>Was the young French World Cup star <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/15/france-boast-seductive-future-with-kylian-mbappe-their-leading-man">Kylian Mbappé</a>, right when he declared “for me, football is more than just a sport, it’s enough to see the impact it has on society” – and if so, what is the nature of that impact and how does it come about? In order to answer these questions, let us first consider how collective euphoria arises in the first place, and from there consider whether the effects can outlast the events that generate them.</p>
<h2>Shared fate, shared identity, shared euphoria</h2>
<p>A great theorist of nationhood, Benedict Anderson, made the point that <a href="https://www2.bc.edu/marian-simion/th406/readings/0420anderson.pdf">a nation is an imagined community</a>. One of the ways to “imagine” nation, Anderson suggested, is when we open our newspapers and imagine people across the country doing likewise, reading the same stories and reacting in the same way to stories of national triumphs or defeats.</p>
<p>Since Anderson wrote, less and less of us read a newspaper. Media audiences are increasingly fragmented. It is harder and harder to imagine others reading what we read let alone reacting as we do. But national sport is different. When our country wins at the World Cup, we can assume that others will share our euphoria. We sense a commonality of feeling. What is more, that makes it easier to interact with others, even strangers. Unlike everyday experience, we can enter the local shop that we have visited for years without ever talking to the shopkeeper, say “wasn’t that wonderful last night”, and be confident not only that the shopkeeper will understand what we mean, but also smile in agreement.</p>
<p>This is not mere speculation. Studies on collective emotions show that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carmen_Morawetz/publication/259072540_Emotional_entrainment_national_symbols_and_identification_A_naturalistic_study_around_the_men%27s_football_World_Cup/links/02e7e529df3d4543a1000000/Emotional-entrainment-na">emotional entrainment</a>, a feeling of affective attunement and emotional <a href="https://sfp2017.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/Conf_Invit_SFP2017_Abstracts.pdf">synchronization</a> with others during rituals, increases during an international sports event.</p>
<p>Moreover, the effects don’t just end with the event. In an unpublished study conducted in New Zealand by the second author along with colleagues in Belgium, Australia and New Zealand before and after the 2016 Rugby World Cup final which the All Blacks won, people described how their interactions with strangers increased in quality and quantity after the All Blacks’ victory. Their sense of positivity and of well-being improved as much because of their sense of connection with other New Zealanders as because of the result itself.</p>
<p>To put it more formally, national sporting success gives rise to a sense of shared national identity and shared identity transforms social relations between people.</p>
<h2>Frenchness: not just an idea</h2>
<p>As has been shown in a range of research, it leads to greater <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317901527_La_beaute_est_dans_la_rue_Four_reasons_or_perhaps_five_to_study_crowds">trust, respect, cooperation, helping and solidarity</a>. Moreover, the resultant sense of unity – that everyone is aligning their efforts and pulling together – is a source of collective empowerment. Members of a united group feel confident about their ability to thrive in a troubled world. Finally, the sense of connection in an increasing atomised world combined with the sense of efficacy in an increasingly perplexing world are a source of joy and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699931.2015.1015969">excitement</a>.</p>
<p>The key point here is that collective euphoria is not a result of losing identity and losing reason in the crowd, as Le Bon’s 1895 work on classical tradition of <a href="http://envole.net/enote/doc/20080418_Gustave_le_bon_psycho_des_foules_alcan.pdf">crowd psychology</a> would suggest. Rather, such <a href="http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/Durkheim_emile/formes_vie_religieuse/formes_elementaires_1.pdf">“effervescence”</a> (to use Durkheim’s 1912 term) reflects the way that an imagined identity is made manifest in the crowd.</p>
<p>For the millions celebrating on the Champs-Elysées, Frenchness was not just an idea. It was an intense shared experience. But what happens to that identity when the celebrations end?</p>
<h2>Defining the nation</h2>
<p>Our own research on collective participation suggests that being part of the crowd can <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pops.12260">increase</a> the significance of identity and identity related practices in everyday life. Just as being part of a religious crowd impacts religious identity, so being part of a national crowd may increase national identity. The implications of this are neither positive or negative in themselves, it depends on how the identity is understood, and what are the consequences of its definition, and how that definition is used.</p>
<p>There are two dimensions to this. The first has to do with the content of identity: concretely, what does it mean to be French? And what effect did the World Cup have on the way that Frenchness is understood? The answer to this questions is complex and multi-faceted. One key aspect of this, which must not be underplayed, has to do with gender.</p>
<p>As Stanford psychologist and former basketball player <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/29/style/the-sexes-the-violence-bowl-one-woman-s-view.html">Mariah Burton Nelson wrote in 1994</a>.</p>
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<p>“We need to take sports seriously – not the scores or the statistics, but the process. Not to focus on who wins, but on who’s losing.”</p>
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<p>In 2007 Michael Messner, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California, <a href="http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4464-out-of-play.aspx">noted</a>:</p>
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<p>“Sport was a male-created homosocial cultural sphere that provided men with psychological separation from the perceived ‘feminisation’ of society, while also providing dramatic symbolic ‘proof’ of the natural superiority of men over women.”</p>
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<p>It follows that, to define national identity through sport is to reinforce patriarchy across all sectors of society. Thus, whatever the result on the pitch, the result off the pitch is that women become the losers.</p>
<h2>The hidden face of celebrating sport: abuse on women</h2>
<p>This is certainly documented in the statistics on gender violence. As the cameras linger lovingly on World Cup celebrations, the spike in <a href="https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sports/foot/coupe-du-monde/france-championne-du-monde/coupe-du-monde-il-y-a-aussi-les-champions-des-lourds-denonce-une-jeune-femme-apres-une-agression-sexuelle-dans-la-foule-des-champs-elysees_2855497.html">assaults on women</a> is hidden. There is by now ample evidence that attacks on women increase during World Cup tournaments, and not just in France.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-england-gets-beaten-so-will-she-the-link-between-world-cup-and-violence-explained-99769">'If England gets beaten, so will she' – the link between World Cup and violence explained</a>
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<span class="caption">‘If France get beaten, so will she’. Campaign against domestic abuse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.earthlymission.com/if-your-country-get-beaten-so-will-she/">Earthly mission</a></span>
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<p>One <a href="http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/65383/2/cdworldcup.pdf">striking study</a> of domestic abuse in Lancashire (a county of approximately 1.5 million people in Northern England), across the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cup tournaments revealed a 26% increase in reports of domestic abuse when England won or drew, and a 38% increase when England lost. Abuse reached its peak when England exited the tournament. To cite a powerful campaign, aimed at raising consciousness of these issues in England during the 2018 World Cup: “If England gets beaten, so will she”. Certainly, any analysis of the impact of the World Cup which fails to address such gender issues will be not only deficient but complicit.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-england-gets-beaten-so-will-she-the-link-between-world-cup-and-violence-explained-99769">'If England gets beaten, so will she' – the link between World Cup and violence explained</a>
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<h2>Boundaries of identity</h2>
<p>The second dimension of identity definition has to do with the boundaries of identity: concretely, who is regarded as part of the nation and who is not. There is an intimate connection between national inclusion and collective action. The nature of collective responses to events is something like the proverbial canary in the cage, telling us who we do and don’t see as part of the national community. As the data suggests <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315752957_Je_suis_Charlie_la_liberte_au-dela_de_l%27egalite_et_la_fraternite_Interpretation_collective_des_attaques_terroristes_de_janvier_2015_en_France_et_expression_online_d%27un_nexus">in our studies</a> conducted after the French mobilisations after the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Paris in January 2015, the massive mobilisations after the attack on Charlie Hebdo derived from the fact that the magazine was held up as a quintessential French institution, enshrining free speech, irreverence and anti-authoritarianism, the French “Liberté”.</p>
<p>Millions encapsulated this by bearing and repeating the slogan “Je suis Charlie”. Yet after the attacks on a kosher grocery in Vincennes and on a policewoman – Clarissa Jean-Philippe – in Montrouge, the response was far more muted.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232278/original/file-20180816-2915-qm6kk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">One of the few memorials (here in Toulouse) to all the victims in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/archives-toulouse/27856624891">Archives municipales de Toulouse/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>These were not seen as attacks on France and Frenchness (thus invoking a response across the nation) but on far narrower categories – Jews and police – whose place in the “nation” appeared to be perceived as far more ambivalent, certainly not emblematic.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the effects of massive affective mobilisations sweep off dissonant voices, as we already know from the unanimous support to the Patriot Act after 9/11, for example. In January 2015, there was little cost for those who failed to respond to the Vincennes or Montrouge attacks. But those who resisted identifying with “Je suis Charlie” were silenced during the mobilisation, excoriated and had <a href="https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01251253/document">their own Frenchness placed in question</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, in July 2018, staying away from the victory World Cup celebrations and denouncing the many sexist assaults on women during those celebrations was discouraged and frowned upon.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gksxQjW2mpE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Report on sexual assaults during the celebration of the 2018 World Cup victory.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What it means to be French</h2>
<p>But it is not only that collective action reflects a pre-existing sense of national identity. It also serves to form national identity. If the celebrating crowd is the imagined national community made manifest, can we read off from the nature of the crowd (and the team which it celebrates) who is French and what it means to be French?</p>
<p>One of the consequences of the French traditional understandings of the <a href="https://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=ANPSY_124_0575">républicanisme</a> is the insistence that nationhood is single and undifferentiated (assimilationist, rather than <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Serge_Guimond/publication/270883336_Les_representations_du_multiculturalisme_en_France_Decalage_singulier_entre_l%E2%80%99individuel_et_le_collectif/links/54e36d6a0cf282dbed6bdaed/Les-representations-du-multiculturalis">multicultural</a>).</p>
<p>One is either French or one isn’t. As the French ambassador to the US recently put it “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/22/trevor-noah-world-cup-france-africa">to us, there is no hyphenated identity</a>”. Apparently, one cannot be African-French, one is either African or French.</p>
<p>As a result, it becomes difficult for players – and those in the wider population as well – to celebrate both their heritage and their nationhood. To be fully part of the celebrations, to join fully in the crowd and the nation, they have to give something up. As the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-05080-022">acculturation literature</a> shows, that creates a serious impediment to integration.</p>
<p>Another tack has been to celebrate the French victory as a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/07/who-wins-when-france-claims-the-world-cup/565508/">victory of immigrants</a>. In a world of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and agitation, there is something very beguiling about a “good news” story showing how migrants contribute to the nation. What could be more powerful than the fact that 80% of the French team were of African origin to support the argument that immigrants should be welcomed and cherished rather than rejected and feared? But to argue that immigrants are good for the nation is very different from arguing that immigrants are of the nation. To argue that the World Cup is a victory of immigrants is to imply that players whose parents come from Africa are not entirely French.</p>
<p>So, the ability of the World Cup victory to create a kinder vision of Frenchness is, at least in part, constrained by existing conceptions. Either one is French and so not African, or else one is an African immigrant and so not entirely French. Neither option is wholly satisfactory.</p>
<h2>Arguing for the future</h2>
<p>What, then, does all this mean for the future? What will the effect of the World Cup victory be on French society, if any? By now, it is hopefully clear that this is the wrong question – or at least, that it implies too deterministic a view of social processes.</p>
<p>The core of our argument is that the social impact of the World Cup, both in relation to the short term celebrations and longer term effectiveness, is achieved through the way that it shapes national identity.</p>
<p>What the World Cup represents is a resource that can be used to help tell a national story. It is clearly something of relevance to the nation and it is clearly an exemplar national triumph. By weaving the victory into one’s story of France, one clearly gains an edge. At the same time, there are multiple ways of relating how the World Cup relates to France and about how the French triumph was achieved. We need to be well aware of the potential toxicity of some of these narratives – which, for instance, root national achievement in masculinity and physical domination. We need to be equally aware of the potential progress which some narratives can achieve – for instance, by rooting national achievement in the recognition and celebration of diversity. Finally, we need to be aware of how World Cup narratives relate to other discourses of national identity (such as <em>le républicanisme</em>) and how these constrain or else enable what can be said.</p>
<p>There is nothing pre-determined about which narrative will prevail. But one thing is for sure. If we ignore the World Cup and if we refrain from arguing over national identity we abandon the field to others whose political projects may not be our own.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreea Ernst-Vintila received fundings from the Agence nationale de recherche (ANR) for the XTREAMIS «Xenophobia, Radicalism in Europe, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia – Deradicalisation and Prevention» project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Reicher ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>For the millions celebrating on the Champs-Elysées last month, Frenchness was not just an idea, it was an intense shared experience. But what happens to that identity when the celebrations end?Andreea Gruev-Vintila, Maîtresse de conférences en psychologie sociale, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresStephen Reicher, Professor of Psychology, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1007802018-08-09T10:32:53Z2018-08-09T10:32:53ZTrevor Noah is right. People can be both French and African<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230024/original/file-20180731-136646-na58xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two of France's players with African roots, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé, celebrate winning the World Cup.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The afterglow of France winning the 2018 World Cup tournament on July 15 should be gone by now. But the arguments over France’s 23-man squad, with as many as <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2785862-why-france-are-carrying-africas-hopes-in-the-world-cup-final">15 players</a> with African roots, rage on. The victory has ignited social commentaries on race, immigration and national identity across the international terrain.</p>
<p>But it was a joke that set the cat among <em>les pigeons</em>. Two days after the final, Trevor Noah – host of the late-night American TV talk programme, “The Daily Show” – <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/07/trevor-noah-answers-french-ambassador-criticism-over-african-world-cup-comments-video.html">jokingly alluded</a> to France’s World Cup triumph as an indisputable bilateral “win-win” for Africa(ns):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Africa won the World Cup… I get it, they have to say it’s a French team, but look at those guys. You don’t get that tan by hanging out in the South of France, my friends.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a British Nigerian – and as such part of the worldwide, transnational African diaspora community – I, along with multiple other Africans, both continental and diasporan, basked in the reflected glory of Noah’s sentiment as we congratulated the French team from afar.</p>
<p>However, the French Ambassador to the US, Gérard Araud, didn’t think the South African-born comedian’s joke was funny. He sent an indignant official letter to Noah the very next day saying that nothing could be less true than his quip about “an African victory”. He added:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Unlike the United States of America, France does not refer to their citizens based on their race, religion or origin. To us, there is no hyphenated identity, roots are an individual reality. By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness. This, even in jest, legitimises the ideology which claims whiteness as the only definition of being French.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230040/original/file-20180731-136679-1dub5an.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French Ambassador’s Tweet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.twitter.com">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That evening on his show, Noah stood by his satirical comments. He <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/07/trevor-noah-french-ambassador-soccer-team-african">argued</a> that Araud was in fact tippexing out the African identities of the French players:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why can’t they be both? What they’re arguing here is: in order to be French they have to erase everything that is African.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3ujf4s7HVfQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trevor Noah reacting to France’s US ambassador.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s this dual identity argument where the crux of the tension lies – an issue I’ve explored <a href="http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/seeing-and-being-developments-other-representations-of-africa-and-diaspora-audiences/">in my research</a> on the identities of African diaspora communities.</p>
<h2>Identity boundaries</h2>
<p>In his letter Araud said this to Noah about the African-rooted French players:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By calling them African, it seems you are denying their Frenchness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As such, both ambitious and irrational, Araud’s comments suggest that national identity transcends and supplants the assumed limitations of racial and ethno-cultural heritage. That it renders their heritage wholly irrelevant and unreconciled. </p>
<p>A person is simply French – and unequivocally so. Within this speculative proposition, and unsolicited moral evaluation of the veracity of one’s identity, are we to assume that forward Kylian Mbappé’s Algerian and Cameroonian roots are annulled? Or, that midfielder Paul Pogba’s “Guinean-ness” is a mere figment of his “undiluted French” imagination? </p>
<p>No. It would be utterly naïve and ill-advised to arrive at such conclusions.</p>
<p>If there is one thing that <a href="http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/seeing-and-being-developments-other-representations-of-africa-and-diaspora-audiences/">my research</a> on the identities of African diaspora communities has taught me, it is that they are seldom tethered to the extremities of irreconcilably divided loyalties of “you’re either this”, or “you’re that”. Rather, identity boundaries for African minorities are necessarily blurred, inconsistent, situationally-driven, provisional, dynamic and transformational. They often lend themselves to progressive hyphenation in strategic and unconscious ways. </p>
<p>These convoluted identity configurations are appropriated and remastered by black and brown folk in their daily attempts to make “meaning” legible in their lived and racialised realities. Within this frame, it is important to understand that the African diaspora constitutes complex and multiplicitous identities. It is not for others then – especially white privileged others – to provide the unsolicited space within which their identities are defined, confined and deemed as comprehensible. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this removes the agency of choice in African “Self”-definition. It also renders all French-situated diaspora as a vast horde of undifferentiated masses devoid of individual intent. It begs the question, if it is true that “roots” are “individual reality” as Araud proclaims, then why implicate the French African players in all-inclusive assimilationist narratives? Where’s the individuality in that?</p>
<p>Suffice to say, it is this hybridity that has affixed my “British” to “Nigerian”, “English” to “Yoruba”, and the “Afro” to my “European” – all coexisting in their complementary contradictions. </p>
<p>If anything, the argument between Noah and Araud implores a rethinking in how France engages with identity, especially for African diaspora communities. It should go from treating it as a conspiratorial affront to its nationalism, and aspirations of a common peoplehood, to conceiving it instead as an enrichment. </p>
<p>By doing this, we consciously engage with African-descended minorities and their hybrid identities in ways that are as multiple and diverse as the football players that compose them.</p>
<p>So yes, Noah is right. The players, and many other people, can indeed be both French and African.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Edward Ademolu PhD, FHEA does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is important to understand that African diaspora constitute complex and multiplicitous identities.Dr Edward Ademolu PhD, FHEA, Dr of International Development; Global Development Institute, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003382018-08-02T11:43:43Z2018-08-02T11:43:43ZHow the sale of Wembley affects grassroots investment – or not<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229999/original/file-20180731-136649-sw9d1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/feb-24-2011-london-uk-red-737439265?src=GbE42DQQBEv9TbTSnd8GMQ-1-0">PixHound / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the World Cup a distant memory for all but the winners, France, the question of whether to sell the “<a href="http://www.wembleystadium.com/TheStadium.aspx">home of football</a>”, London’s Wembley stadium, has once more raised its head in the UK. People are weighing in both for and against the current proposal to sell to Fulham (and Jacksonville Jaguars) owner, Shahid Khan. </p>
<p>The argument seems to revolve around the allocation of funds from the sale to development of the game, particularly grassroots facilities, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/aug/02/ffa-confirms-opposition-to-fifa-recommended-congress-changes">an issue also facing other football associations</a>. This is because grassroots (non-elite) sport needs funds to develop youth so there’s a pool of football talent in the future. Without development, talented young people might gravitate towards other sports, or other interests.</p>
<p>But what does Wembley have to do with development? Well, Wembley is currently run by <a href="http://www.wembleystadium.com/Organisation/About-Us">Wembley National Stadium Limited</a>, a subsidiary of the Football Association (FA). And the FA is responsible for all types of football, both elite and grassroots. And the grassroots game needs funding for things from coaching to facilities to equipment, some of which could come from the sale proceeds of Wembley. </p>
<p>The debate rages. <a href="https://www.sportengland.org/">Sport England</a> (the body that governs non-elite and grassroots sport) has only consented to the sale <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/17/wembley-stadium-sale-plans-fa-sport-england-grassroots?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Australian+sports&utm_term=281359&subid=19613276&CMP=ema_aus_spt">conditional on</a>, among other things, reinvestment of the funds “for the benefit of football … at the grassroots or community level”. The FA’s current proposal is for a £70m increase in grassroots funding per year as a result of the sale. Former England player, Gary Neville, however, has derided this amount, calling it “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44873278">a pittance … the price of a full-back</a>”. </p>
<p>Part of the issue is that the link between the grassroots, development side of the game and elite sport is not direct. In the UK, the two are funded separately by the government. <a href="http://www.uksport.gov.uk/about-us">UK Sport</a> allocates funding for elite sport, while grassroots are funded by regional organisations (<a href="https://www.sportengland.org/">Sport England</a>, <a href="https://sportscotland.org.uk/">Sport Scotland</a>, <a href="http://www.sportni.net/">Sport Northern Ireland</a>, and <a href="http://sport.wales/">Sport Wales</a>).</p>
<p>So where do football development funds come from? And what can we do about the current shortfall? How spending on development compares with other expenses of the funders (in this case the FA) is one way to answer these questions. I’ve had a look at the FA and its accounts to find out.</p>
<h2>Football finances</h2>
<p>Registered organisations and companies have to file accounts and, in the UK, this is with <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house">Companies House</a>. Most public companies and non-profit organisations make their accounts (or financial statements) available on their websites, too. For example, the <a href="http://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/what-we-do/financial-statements">FA</a>, <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/documentlibrary/aboutuefa/index.html">UEFA</a> and <a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/finances/index.html">FIFA</a> all publish their annual reports on their websites. </p>
<p>These reports consist of financial statements, alongside a lot of other reports from auditors, directors, committees and so on. They always make interesting reading for those of us geeky enough to take a proper look. They can tell you how much money has been spent on executives’ and directors’ pay, what other connected organisations owe or are owed, and what plans for the future entail both strategically and monetarily.</p>
<p>So where does football revenue come from? </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.thefa.com/-/media/thefacom-new/files/about-the-fa/2018/report-financial-statements.ashx?la=en">FA’s 2017 accounts</a>, the largest chunk (37%) comes from broadcasting (£131m). This also forms the highest earner for <a href="https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/OfficialDocument/uefaorg/Finance/02/54/02/92/2540292_DOWNLOAD.pdf">UEFA</a> (82%) and second highest (after marketing) for <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-financial-report-2017.pdf?cloudid=pinrmrodexmnqoettgqw">FIFA</a> (31%). </p>
<p>Funds for football’s various governing bodies also flow from licensing, tickets, fines (forming just 0.22% of UEFA’s revenue) and hospitality. The latter, of course, includes Club Wembley (the hospitality element of Wembley stadium) for the FA, with £58m income (17%) in 2017, which is to be retained under the proposed sale.</p>
<h2>Grassroots investment</h2>
<p>In 2017, the FA spent £127m on “investments into the game”, or 38% of its outgoings (including interest payable, but excluding tax). They also spent money on staff costs (£48m, or 14%), restructuring and reorganisation costs, and interest payable (often on loans related to buying assets such as stadiums). </p>
<p>UEFA, by contrast, spends most of its money on “distribution to participating teams” (74%), with no further information on breakdown included in the accounts. Development money is spent through “solidarity payments”, which include non-member and non-club “donations”. These donations (which only make up 0.2% of total expenditure) include those made to the UEFA Foundation for Children, and the International Platform for Sport and Development, but also those for “carbon offsetting” and to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).</p>
<p>FIFA spends 52% of its total outgoings directly on “development and education”, although this includes spending on the FIFA World Football Museum (£9.5m, or 1.33% of total outgoings) and personnel expenses (9% of total outgoings). The majority of the “development and education” spend (81% of it) goes on FIFA Forward project costs, including “operational costs member associations” [sic] – costs incurred by country associations (like the FA) that have successfully bid for these funds, which accounts for $105m (approximately £80m or 12% of total outgoings).</p>
<p>In summary, the FA and FIFA both spend a sizeable amount of their outgoings on investment, development and education, although how much of that flows into grassroots sport is unclear from the headline figures. A variety of cultural and educational initiatives appear to benefit.</p>
<p>Funding is complicated, and football is no different from other industries in that respect. So, in theory, removing some of the FA’s debt by selling Wembley (money owed for loans to build Wembley) would ease its ability to pay more of its income into development. The accounts currently show bank loans of £140m, as well as other creditors. Similarly, a reassessment of investment strategies by UEFA and FIFA could help this flow by redirecting funds towards development.</p>
<p>But for those of us who coach at grassroots level, in my case on a tiny patch of grass shared among ten teams (that also features as a sled run on snowy days), the wait for that much needed development cash will probably be a little longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100338/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Philippou is a volunteer coach with a football club which comes under the governance of the Football Association. </span></em></p>What does the sale of the ‘home of football’ have to do with grassroots development?Christina Philippou, Principal Lecturer, Accounting and Financial Management, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003952018-07-25T15:15:18Z2018-07-25T15:15:18ZHow repressive states and governments use ‘sportswashing’ to remove stains on their reputation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228841/original/file-20180723-189332-15kxv7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Russian president Vladimir Putin.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/57738/photos/54154">Kremlin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the conclusion of the 2018 World Cup with France crowned champions, the tournament as a topic and Russia as the host nation are fading from view. Given the widespread misgivings prior to the tournament about the threat of orchestrated hooligan violence, ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, an appalling domestic rights record borne out by attacks against <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/07/13/russias-bloody-world-cup">both political and LGBT activists</a>, and accusations of conducting <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-poison-russia-williamson/russian-attack-led-to-death-of-woman-from-novichok-uk-defense-minister-idUSKBN1JZ1V8">targeted murders in other countries</a>, this might seem surprising.</p>
<p>The fact that these fairly major issues disappeared from the majority of news outlets during the four weeks of the World Cup demonstrates the power of such events to reset the news agenda. A telling example comes from Britain, where the government admitted that had England reached the finals it would have considered sending a delegation – despite tensions with the Russian government over the Skripal poisonings, among other things. </p>
<p>The coverage of Russia 2018 confirmed a pattern already observed in previous sports events: stories of controversy or lack of preparation fill time and space in the media before the event, but as soon as the competition begins, a “<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781135278557/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203872604-10">sphere of consensus</a>” prevails. </p>
<h2>The rise of ‘sportswashing’</h2>
<p>This has happened before. In the run up to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, the media reported that some national teams considered withdrawing from the tournament to protest the military dictatorship governing the host country. However, after the first match, the coverage focused mostly on what happened on the pitch. In other words, concerns, controversies and accusations are left aside and sports takes centre stage. With <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/15/pussy-riot-claim-responsibility-world-cup-final-pitch-invasion/">very few exceptions</a>, nobody wants to be the party pooper.</p>
<p>Many have argued that major sporting events operate as a form of soft power, allowing host nations to promote themselves on a global stage. “Soft power” was a term coined by the US political scientist Joseph Nye, broadly defined as a way of reaching objectives through the power of attraction rather than military and economic force. Sources of soft power can be movies, music, world-renowned universities and, of course, sports.</p>
<p>Indeed, this concept has been applied to major sporting events, arguing that the Olympic Games or football World Cup represent ideal opportunities for countries to try and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600826.2015.1047743">attract inward investment and promote their tourist industries</a>. We’d argue for an alternative effect, that such events can actually close down, temporarily, critical views of a government. Such sporting mega-events operate as a means to launder a national government’s global image and reputation – even to the extent that adversarial countries will be prepared to engage with them. The effect is similar to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/greenwashing-environmentalism-lies-companies">greenwashing</a>, whereby organisations use PR and marketing to claim their environmentally-friendly credentials in order to boost their reputations.</p>
<h2>Politically avoiding the political</h2>
<p>The supposedly apolitical character of sports events, as promoted by both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, makes them particularly attractive for states in which there is little or no free political debate. The opportunity to harness these events is improved by the fact that, at least in more democratic societies, protests surrounding sporting mega events have <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1354066110380965">grown over time</a>, and cities and countries are increasingly <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4029340/hosting-olympics-ioc-worried-expensive/">reluctant to take part in the bidding processes</a> for these competitions.</p>
<p>Soon enough, the eyes of the world will turn to Qatar and the 2022 World Cup. The host country has already promised to surpass the event in Russia and, in order to boost global prestige, it will attempt to use the World Cup to bring attention to its <a href="https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/2070">political stability, military collaboration with the US, redistribution and aid policies</a>, and the prestige of its Al Jazeera news channel, among other aims. But there are growing concerns about the first World Cup to be played in the Middle East, including the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/world-cup-2022-qatars-workers-slaves-building-mausoleums-stadiums-modern-slavery-kafala-a7980816.html">deaths of construction workers building new stadiums</a>, human rights records, high temperatures, and a lack of existing football culture in the host country. And yet these issues will very likely be out of the spotlight just as soon as the first match kicks off.</p>
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<p>Should we be concerned about the ability of some pretty odious regimes to rinse their reputations through their involvement in sporting events that generate pleasure for so many worldwide? </p>
<p>The prevailing – and somewhat naïve - attitude of most participants and fans is that sports are politically neutral. Once they start, so the view goes, global competitions like the Olympic Games or the World Cup should not be tarnished by these sorts of political considerations. By taking this line are we as sports fans not also complicit in this sportswashing? And if so, what can players, observers and the media do to ensure that sporting tournaments aren’t used to absolve states of their responsibilities to their own people and to the wider international order? </p>
<p>Let’s hope that in the four years before the beginning of the Qatar 2022 World Cup and the four weeks of the competition’s duration, these questions are in the forefront of our minds, so that future sporting mega events will be not only enjoyable, but more ethically, morally and politically responsible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>César Jiménez-Martínez has received funding from Conicyt (Chile) and the London School of Economics.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Skey received funding from Arts & Humanities Research Council. He is a lecturer in Communication & Media at Loughborough University. </span></em></p>New! Mega sports events wash your government’s tarnished reputation whiter-than-white.César Jiménez-Martínez, Lecturer in Promotional Cultures, Brunel University LondonMichael Skey, Lecturer in Media and Communications, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1000452018-07-22T09:38:38Z2018-07-22T09:38:38ZSenegal: the silver lining to Africa’s dismal World Cup showing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228408/original/file-20180719-142438-29tsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Senegal's World Cup coach Aliou Cissé.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Atef Safadi/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the five African teams, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia was a tournament of regret. Not even the fact that eventual champions France was packed with players with <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/soccer/2018-07-01-meet-frances-world-cup-players-with-deep-african-roots/">African roots</a>, could heal the hurt. What made it more painful was that the continent’s strongest contender, Senegal, fell victim to FIFA’s controversial <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/soccer/news/world-cup-2018-senegal-japan-colombia-fifa-fair-play-tiebreaker-red-cards-yellow-cards/19quzgtibl2mj1u6wdfip3lhqy">“fair play”</a> rule. The West Africans were eliminated because they had more yellow cards than Japan.</p>
<p>The overall statistics paint a disappointing picture. All five African teams <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/africa-good-world-cup-2018-180716135536301.html">exited in the first round</a>, making it the worst performance by the continent since 1982, the last time not one African team made it to the second stage. Since then, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/feb/12/world-cup-25-stunning-moments-cameroon-argentina">Cameroon</a> (in 1990), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2002/may/31/minutebyminute.worldcupfootball2002">Senegal</a> (2002) and <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/matches/match_58/default.stm">Ghana</a> (2010) have made it to the quarterfinals. Nigeria has regularly progressed to the second round. </p>
<p>North African teams have been less successful on the whole, but <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/history/newsid_2012000/2012894.stm">Morocco</a> (in 1986) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/30/germany-algeria-world-cup-last-16-match-report">Algeria</a> (2014) at least reached the second round. </p>
<p>So does this year’s tournament represent a step back for an entire continent’s football dreams? The results would appear to suggest so. The five teams managed only three wins in 15 games. But there were encouraging performances from Nigeria and Morocco along the way, as well as Senegal. And it’s fair to say that it was unfortunate for the Senegalese to get knocked out at the first hurdle in the cruellest possible way. </p>
<h2>Senegal’s proud history</h2>
<p>The Senegalese team arrived in Russia <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/18/senegal-aliou-cisse-confident-recreating-spirit-2002">quietly confident</a> that they would be able to replicate the success of the famous exploits of the country’s team in 2002. The team was drawn in an evenly matched group which contained neither overwhelming favourites nor rank outsiders. Coached by the captain of that year, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44642387">Aliou Cissé</a>, many observers tipped the Lions de la Teranga to advance to the next round, and possibly even further.</p>
<p>Things got off to a good start as they dispatched Poland 2-1 with the help of a controversial Mbaye Niang goal, the player reentering the pitch to score immediately after receiving treatment for a minor injury. Following a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Japan, Senegal needed only to avoid defeat in the final group match against Colombia to ensure progress. </p>
<p>It was here that their hopes began to unravel. One moment of inattention at a corner kick was enough to allow Colombia’s Yerry Mina to head what would prove to be the winning goal. Senegal, equal to Japan on points and goals scored, became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated via the fair play ranking – they had two more yellow cards than their rivals. </p>
<h2>Victim to innovations</h2>
<p>This was not the first time that Senegal had fallen victim to the quirks and innovations in the game’s rules which are regularly unveiled, or scrapped, during major tournaments. Earlier in their game against Colombia, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41933128">Sadio Mané</a> won a penalty after being tackled by Davinson Sanchez in the penalty area, only for the referee to revoke the decision upon consulting the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. The VAR was introduced to the World Cup for the first time this year. </p>
<p>In 2002, Senegal conceded the last ever <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-124501/Turkey-beat-Senegal-golden-goal.html">Golden Goal</a> scored in men’s international football to Turkey’s Ilhan Mansiz. This “sudden death” rule was subsequently changed, as it was deemed unfair that the conceding team should lose immediately without having the chance to respond. It appears likely that the fair play ruling will also make a swift exit, as its consequences were anything but fair.</p>
<p>Senegal could consider themselves hard done by, and rightly registered a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-worldcup-sen/senegal-ask-fifa-to-revise-fair-play-ruling-after-exit-idUKKBN1JR247">formal complaint</a> to FIFA asking the sport’s governing body to rethink the fair play rule. However, it would be incorrect to suggest that Senegal’s failure to progress beyond the first round was due to bad luck alone. </p>
<h2>Criticisms and accolades</h2>
<p>Aliou Cissé, the team’s charismatic coach won him many admirers during the tournament with his elegance and passion on the touchline. He will be left wondering if his approach was perhaps a little bit too cautious, especially during the Japan and Colombia games. </p>
<p>Whereas African teams at previous World Cups have been stereotyped as being exciting yet tactically naïve, the current Senegal squad displayed a tactical discipline and defensive solidity which reflected the fact that almost all of the players are employed in major European leagues. </p>
<p>But, for all the stability which Cissé managed to instil in his team, he failed to fully unleash the potential and flair of his highly talented attacking players. The totemic Sadio Mané was a mere shadow of the player who was so instrumental in Liverpool’s run to the European Champions’ League final last season. Also, the likes of Keita Baldé Diao and Diafra Sakho only featured sporadically – leading to criticism from some quarters that Cissé’s selections were too defensive. </p>
<p>Overall, however, there are many positives for Senegal to take from this World Cup. Although the result was disappointing, the team showed that they have a great deal to build on for future campaigns. It appears likely that the federation will persevere with Cissé, who showed that local coaches can more than compete with the <em>sorciers blancs</em> (“white magicians”) – European coaches who are often parachuted in to coach African sides at major tournaments. </p>
<p>As talented and youthful players such as Mané, Diao and Ismaila Sarr continue to improve and gain experience at the highest level, there is plenty to be optimistic about in Senegalese football.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Hann received funding from the European Research Council.</span></em></p>Although Senegal’s overall World Cup result was disappointing, the team showed that they have a great deal to build on for future campaigns.Mark Hann, Doctoral student in Anthropology, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/999812018-07-20T10:28:09Z2018-07-20T10:28:09ZFIFA has successfully developed its own private legal system – now governments must step in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228414/original/file-20180719-142417-1qn1e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/23963811096">Ben Sutherland / shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The World Cup was a success, especially for France, Russia – and FIFA. But the football world’s governing body cannot rest on its laurels. </p>
<p>After all, one better-than-expected tournament cannot erase a series of major scandals. These include the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/dec/02/qatar-win-2022-world-cup-bid">infamous decision</a> by its executive committee to award the 2022 finals to Qatar. This was followed by <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/sixteen-additional-fifa-officials-indicted-racketeering-conspiracy-and-corruption">FIFAGate</a>, a money laundering and fraud conspiracy case under investigation by US and Swiss authorities that has already resulted in the convictions of several top football officials, and the suspension of former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.</p>
<p>This all damaged FIFA’s credibility. Some of the organisation’s critics even called for <a href="https://www.worldsoccer.com/columnists/brian-glanville/by-all-means-abolish-fifa-but-replace-it-with-what-365591">radical action</a>, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/throw-fifa-out-of-the-game.html">abolishing FIFA</a> altogether.</p>
<p>Somewhat ignored in these discussions, however, is that FIFA has successfully developed its own private legal system. And while this is generally a good thing for the game, it also leaves the organisation dangerously free of accountability to governments, or civil society.</p>
<p>FIFA’s own rules, which govern the world of football, have an almost unique degree of sophistication and independence from state interference. Clubs, players and even national teams are bound by these rules. </p>
<p>When Ronaldo recently moved from Real Madrid to Juventus, the reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-italy-juv-ronaldo-fee/juventus-paying-real-madrid-100-million-euros-for-ronaldo-idUSKBN1K02EI">transfer compensation of €100m</a> was agreed under FIFA transfer rules – not Spanish, Italian or EU law. A similar arrangement in any other field seems unthinkable. Associations of lawyers, for example, cannot issue rules that require law firms to pay compensation if they hire a lawyer from a competitor.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228418/original/file-20180719-142432-7fpw8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Juventus fans haven’t been this excited since the club appointed a new star solicitor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antonello Marangi / Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Similarly, football disputes are usually not solved in regular courts but in special sports arbitration tribunals. The enforcement of FIFA’s decisions is not backed by the force of state officials but by special sanctions such as temporary bans from playing football. Instances of national or international government interfering in football, such as the <a href="http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10100134/how-the-bosman-rule-changed-football-20-years-on">Bosman ruling</a> in the 1990s, which allowed players to change clubs freely at the end of their contract, are extremely rare. </p>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2903902">Our own research</a> shows that FIFA’s private legal system is good for football because it offers what states cannot: common rules spanning across borders that are tailored to the needs of the sport. These rules promote predictable contractual relations and equal conditions for competition – and they provide for swift dispute resolution away from regular courts. It is hard to imagine how football clubs could compete internationally had some of them been subject to more favourable local rules than others.</p>
<h2>The rise of football’s elites</h2>
<p>Yet the fact FIFA has been able to build its own legal system, with minimal oversight, has left it vulnerable in the longer term. Recent scandals are in part a result of a power grab by some football bureaucrats who want to increase their own influence and extend their stay in office. </p>
<p>In this regard, FIFA is similar to any other bureaucratic organisation. The difference is that others are subject to transparency, media coverage, and the disciplining effect of civil society. For a long while, FIFA was mostly immune to these factors.</p>
<p>Its success in building the legal system for football relied on states and supra-national organisations such as the EU giving away part of their monopoly on regulation. Implicit in this arrangement is the idea that FIFA’s special status can be tolerated as long as it continues promoting the interests of broader stakeholder groups – mainly clubs and players, but also others involved in the game. </p>
<p>But FIFA’s credibility as an impartial regulator is weakened every time it gives priority to one group over another or even promotes special interests within a group, such as deferring to the demands of big clubs at the expense of smaller clubs. This is why external legal investigations such as the FIFAGate corruption case are so damaging, and endanger the existence of football’s bespoke legal system and even FIFA itself.</p>
<p>Those investigations will keep coming, thanks to governance issues within the organisation. Clubs and players sometimes lack formal channels to get involved in decisions that affect them directly, for instance while FIFA also has no proper mechanisms in place to consider the interests of anyone not related to football. As third parties have no say in the rules, their interests may be ignored. Consider, for example, the alleged use of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35931031">forced labour</a> in venues that will stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.</p>
<h2>Building a better FIFA</h2>
<p>So what should we do about elites with excessive powers? Within a nation state, it is well known that civil society plays a key role in limiting executive power. Modern democracies are successful because they have a democratic process in which the media, NGOs and campaigners oversee public decision-making. But there are no similar mechanisms in place for FIFA. </p>
<p>But if football does not yet have an equivalent civil society, states themselves should step in. As we argue in a recent paper, governments can be FIFA’s civil society by intervening or threatening to intervene to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0123-1">correct the failures of FIFA</a> without ruining its benefits. </p>
<p>If FIFA were to collapse and football became governed by regular laws, the game would lose the benefits of tailored rules and innovation. Conversely, if states do not act, FIFA runs the risk of self-destruction.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/football-may-be-caught-in-the-crossfire-between-qatar-and-the-saudis-100103?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Football may be caught in the crossfire between Qatar and the Saudis</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-provides-plenty-of-drama-but-football-must-not-forget-its-social-responsibility-99061?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup provides plenty of drama – but football must not forget its social responsibility</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99981/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most big bureaucratic organisations are subject to oversight from civil society, but not FIFA.Branislav Hock, Lecturer in Counter Fraud Studies, University of PortsmouthSuren Gomtsian, Lecturer in Business Law, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1000392018-07-20T05:49:54Z2018-07-20T05:49:54ZAfrican countries are losing out on their football talent. They need to figure out why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228205/original/file-20180718-142426-1g3we7j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">France's World Cup winner Paul Pogba was also eligible to play for Guinea.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Powell/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of African countries must be wondering ‘what could have been’ if they were able to field several of the players who starred for champions <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/soccer/2018-07-14-africans-adopt-a-france-team-with-a-familiar-feel/">France</a> and third placed Belgium at the 2018 World Cup tournament. The top talents for Belgium include Romelu Lukaku (parents from Democratic Republic of Congo), Mousa Dembélé (father from Mali) and Marouane Fellaini (parents from Morocco). The French squad featured stars like Paul Pogba (parents from Guinea), N'Golo Kanté (parents from Mali), Kylian Mbappé (Algerian mother and a Cameroonian father), Blaise Matuidi (parents from Angola) and Samuel Umtiti (born in Cameroon).</p>
<p>All who were eligible to play for country of their parentage. It never happened. They opted to play for France and Belgium instead. </p>
<p>France had as many as <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2785862-why-france-are-carrying-africas-hopes-in-the-world-cup-final">15 players</a> with African roots in its squad of 23. <a href="https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news/articles/international/categories/world-cup-2018/24-stars-with-african-roots-in-2018-fifa-world-cup-semi-final/297993">Belgium</a> had nine out of 23. Even England, also in the Top Four of the 2018 competition, had players with African parentage including Dele Alli (Nigeria) and Danny Welbeck (Ghana). </p>
<p>Last year <a href="https://qz.com/1004032/englands-under-20-world-cup-win-is-a-reminder-of-nigerias-local-failures/">six players</a> who were eligible to play for Nigeria were among 21 English players who won the FIFA U/20 World Cup.</p>
<p>The story of Africa missing out to players goes back more than half a century. Eighty years ago <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=NrW50yHkr0EC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Raoul+Diagne+Senegal+France&source=bl&ots=gYZV-t1nID&sig=JnCfEJIX0XdFbxYKb6nxl7INItE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIuePQsKjcAhViDcAKHeenDw04FBDoAQg0MAM#v=onepage&q=Raoul%20Diagne%20Senegal%20France&f=false">Raoul Diagne</a>, a Senegalese, played as defender for France in the 1938 World Cup. He won 18 caps for France and after Senegal’s independence became its first coach. In 1963 he led the West African team to its first victory against France and became a national hero. </p>
<p>Over the decades other players with African connections have made their mark at the World Cup. These included super stars like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/jan/12/just-fontaine-13-goals-world-cup">Just Fontaine</a> (Morocco) who represented France in 1958, Mozambican <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/10551846/Eusebio-da-Silva-Ferreira-obituary.html">Eusébio</a> da Silva Ferreira who represented Portugal at the 1966 World Cup, and <a href="http://www.footballhistory.org/player/zinedine-zidane.html">Zinedine Zidane</a>, of Algerian descent, who was prominent in the French team when they won the cup in 1998. There were others too.</p>
<p>Can African countries break the cycle and improve their chances of accomplishing much more at a World Cup? Change is already underway. But a lot more needs to be done. The biggest challenge is that administrators and managers aren’t trying to find out why African players chose other countries above their homelands. Until this knowledge gap is filled, it will be impossible to reverse the trend.</p>
<h2>Ignored emigrant players</h2>
<p>Until a few decades ago – before emigration of African players to professional careers outside the continent became a deluge – African countries ignored first and second-generation emigrant players. Instead, they only selected players for their national teams who didn’t have multiple <a href="http://websites.sportstg.com/get_file.cgi?id=1127049">eligibility</a>.</p>
<p>But things have changed and countries have begun to actively look for first (African emigrants) and second (children of African emigrants) generation players. The recruitment is yet to focus on third generation players, who are also eligible, including the likes of England’s <a href="https://buzznigeria.com/10-nigerian-players-who-have-never-played-for-nigeria/">Ross Barkley</a> who has a Nigerian grandfather. That could happen years down the line.</p>
<p>Recruiting players eligible to play for multiple countries has begun in earnest. Morocco, for instance, had 17 players in its recent World Cup who were born outside the country. Nigeria had six that could have played for several European countries, while 25 players born in France were at the World Cup in the uniforms of Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.</p>
<p>The race to woo and land these players to represent a European country or an African one is fierce. </p>
<p>Coaches in charge of African national teams – especially European ones – prefer recruiting second generation talent from overseas.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to say what impact these players have had given that they haven’t moved the needle in terms of World Cup performance. One reason for this may be that African countries haven’t been able to recruit the top line of second generation emigrant players. Instead, they’ve been left with players who weren’t being strongly courted by European countries.</p>
<p>In several cases, players ignored by European countries took years before deciding to grab the alternative of representing an African country. Take <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2785862-why-france-are-carrying-africas-hopes-in-the-world-cup-final">Steven Nzonzi</a> who played for France in Moscow. He was eligible to play for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because his father is Congolese. But he repeatedly turned down call-ups to play for the country. Instead he held out until he finally got his first France cap last year at the age of 28. The decision made him very unpopular in the DRC. </p>
<p>There has to be a reason why top line players are not yet choosing to represent African countries. It’s time Africa’s top administrators tried to find out so that they can work to rectify the situation. Success in recruiting such talent will be a much faster route to winning the World Cup.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chuka Onwumechili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time Africa’s top administrators tried to find out why top African players are choosing to represent European countries, so that they can work to rectify the situation.Chuka Onwumechili, Professor of Communications, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1001032018-07-19T10:27:30Z2018-07-19T10:27:30ZFootball may be caught in the crossfire between Qatar and the Saudis<p>Most football fans will still be reflecting on France’s win, Germany’s failure, Messi’s frustrations, Harry Kane’s goals and the rest. Yet many of us who followed the off-field games just as closely will have found the World Cup a largely uneventful tournament. This was despite pre-tournament hyperbole that portrayed Russian president Vladimir Putin as the tyrannical leader of an evil empire. Once the football started, Putin largely disappeared from view and let his soft power fest roll out before the world’s eyes, thereby neatly avoiding public scrutiny.</p>
<p>Putin faces some serious domestic issues, though it is overseas where things could seriously kick off. Under his leadership, Russia has twice used sport as a springboard for military interventions: following the Russian national team’s success at the European football championships in 2008, it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2008/aug/08/georgia.russia">invaded Georgia</a>; and following the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014, it annexed Crimea.</p>
<p>It is therefore not beyond the realms of possibility that we will see Russia similarly asserting itself post-World Cup. Indeed, shortly before the world got distracted by football, Russian ally Syria recognised two of Georgia’s breakaway regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia – as <a href="https://eurasianet.org/s/syria-formally-recognizes-abkhazia-and-south-ossetia">independent countries</a>. This could well be a portent of things to come in the next few months.</p>
<p>While we wait to see if Putin will indulge in any post-tournament political machismo, world football already faces a number of increasingly pressing issues, not least what is happening in the Gulf. </p>
<h2>Be in or out?</h2>
<p>Saudi Arabia is now into the second year of a bitter feud with regional rival Qatar. During the World Cup, Saudi authorities <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/uae/saudi-arabia-lodges-official-complaint-with-fifa-over-bein-s-insulting-world-cup-coverage-1.741717">complained about Qatar to FIFA</a>, claiming that Qatar’s coverage of the Saudi national team’s performances was disparaging and overly politicised.</p>
<p>The channel involved was BeIn Sports, an offshoot of Qatar’s state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera. Though the Saudi government in Riyadh <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2017/07/01/why-al-jazeera-is-under-threat">vehemently dislikes</a> Al Jazeera, BeIn had nevertheless legally acquired the rights to broadcast the World Cup across the region, including in Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>But the World Cup saw the sudden emergence of a previously unknown Saudi-based entity – Beout Q – which began broadcasting BeIn content under its own name. Saudi Arabian <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/fifa-world-cup-piracy-saudi-arabia-deny-beoutq">officials denied their involvement</a> in the content piracy, though some were unconvinced. </p>
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<p>With Riyadh reportedly behind a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/sports/saudi-arabia-fifa-world-cup.html">US$25 billion proposal</a> to develop FIFA’s Club World Cup, and Qatar hosting the next World Cup (with its players using Saudi-rival Iran’s <a href="http://ifpnews.com/exclusive/qatar-may-use-irans-kish-island-for-2022-fifa-world-cup/">Kish Island</a> as a training camp), it seems likely that football will remain caught in the crossfire of an intensifying <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/Voices/qatar-crisis-saudi-arabia-al-jazeera-syrin-war-real-reason-a7826711.html">proxy war</a> in the region.</p>
<p>Ahead of its World Cup, the government in Qatar may think that it has successfully negotiated its way through endless allegations of corruption and ongoing criticism of its stance on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/sep/27/thousands-qatar-world-cup-workers-life-threatening-heat">immigrant labour rights</a>. However, sports mega-events always shine a light on a country’s deficiencies and failings pre-tournament so Qatar had better prepare itself for what is still to come.</p>
<p>Cynics will continue to question the country’s right to host the event, not least because former FIFA head Sepp Blatter has his controversial fingerprints all over the successful bid. Meanwhile, many people, especially Europeans, are still worried about the tournament’s switch from June/July to November/December, when the weather will be slightly less hot.</p>
<p>There will be other issues, too, as Qatar is a small country with a population of less than 3m. The influx of large numbers of fans, some of whom may be intent on getting drunk and fighting, will be challenging and a lack of hotel rooms means some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-qatar-tents-idUSKCN0WN1B3">may have to stay in tents</a> and on boats.</p>
<p>Before we get there, however, there is also the matter of what happens in 2021. The summer before each World Cup, FIFA stages the Confederations Cup – a competition for the winners of each continent’s respective championships. Following uproar about Qatar 2022 being moved to December (mid-season for many leagues across the world), it is extremely unlikely that similar, disruptive, arrangements will be made for the “Confed”. Hence, another host is needed and there are <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/china-stage-new-club-world-cup-alibaba">rumours</a> that China, which has huge football ambitions, is keen to step into the void and help.</p>
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<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-russia-isnt-safe-for-lgbt-fans-and-qatar-2022-will-be-worse-99540?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Russia isn’t safe for LGBT fans, and Qatar 2022 will be worse</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-provides-plenty-of-drama-but-football-must-not-forget-its-social-responsibility-99061?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup provides plenty of drama – but football must not forget its social responsibility</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Chadwick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It seems likely that football will remain a pawn in an intensifying proxy war.Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1000182018-07-19T04:09:11Z2018-07-19T04:09:11ZThe winners and losers in the 2018 World Cup broadcast battle<p>France might have won the 2018 World Cup title, but who were the real winners in the broadcast battle? Not everyone could make it to Russia to watch the games live, and that left people all over the world relying on the distribution and associated media rights within their region.</p>
<p>In Australia there was a lot of debate and discussion around the media rights for the World Cup and associated technical issues. The rights were held by Optus, a major telecommunications company, not a traditional television broadcaster.</p>
<p>Due to Australia’s <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Television/TV-content-regulation/sport-anti-siphoning-tv-content-regulation-acma">anti-siphoning scheme</a>, the public broadcaster SBS was able to broadcast Australia’s games, and the finals.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-and-foxtel-snag-cricket-rights-meaning-more-content-but-maybe-not-for-free-94976">Seven and Foxtel snag cricket rights, meaning more content but maybe not for free</a>
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<p>But Optus’ streaming service created major headaches for those attempting to view the other games. Many people only received errors and were unable to watch the games at all.</p>
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<p>Initially Optus passed on all of its rights to SBS for a 48-hour period, allowing Australians free access on a free-to-air broadcaster. This was to allow Optus time to resolve the technical issues. </p>
<p>Prior to the end of the 48-hour period Optus <a href="https://www.sporttechie.com/optus-suffers-world-cup-streaming-issues-relinquishes-full-rights-to-sbs/">relinquished</a> all rights, allowing SBS to broadcast all remaining matches for the tournament.</p>
<p>The Optus issue is just one example of factors that impacted the media component of the World Cup. This was a global event that was expected to have <a href="https://www.mumbrella.asia/2018/07/the-real-world-cup-winners-were-those-brands-that-adopted-design-thinking">almost half the world’s population</a> watching, and there are several examples from abroad that will impact the future of sportscasting, particularly for global events.</p>
<h2>Would you like some World Cup with that?</h2>
<p>We consistently see examples of sporting matches being broadcast on screens in pubs, but the World Cup showed another example. </p>
<p>In Sweden, fast-food outlet McDonald’s used the World Cup as an incentive to have customers visit its stores. The company negotiated to have all the matches shown in its 207 restaurants across Sweden.</p>
<p>Red Bee Media <a href="https://www.sporttechie.com/world-cup-sweden-mcdonalds-red-bee-media-streaming-ott/">provided</a> the service for McDonald’s, whose digital lead for Sweden, Rickard Berthold, noted:</p>
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<p>We needed someone who could deliver the World Cup to our restaurants on a tight deadline and without any glitches.</p>
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<p>But McDonald’s didn’t stop there. In Hong Kong, McDonald’s <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mcdonalds-tech-world-cup-hungry-moments">partnered</a> with Google and media agency OMD Hong Kong to create “Hungry Moments”.</p>
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<p>The partnership saw real-time promotional <a href="http://www.marketing-interactive.com/mcdonalds-and-google-partner-up-to-anticipate-hungry-moments-during-world-cup/">messages</a> pushed to fans when they were at their hungriest. This was deemed to be at the beginning, half-time, the end of a game, and at each goal. </p>
<h2>Piracy impacts sport too</h2>
<p>While we commonly <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazons-new-grand-tour-series-could-be-the-next-illegal-download-victim-68141">discuss</a> piracy of pre-recorded television programs and movies, improved technology and access is now making piracy an issue for live events.</p>
<p>Before the opening of the World Cup, letters were sent by Sony to any would-be pirates <a href="https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/sony-issues-world-cup-piracy-warning-3484469">detailing what rights it had to any World Cup material</a>. </p>
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<p>We will be monitoring your activities for any act of infringement of the statutory and contractual rights of our client.</p>
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<p>This fear had come from reports that there had been a number of <a href="https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/champions-league-kodi-2018-piracy-3476979">illegal</a> streams for the UEFA Champions League season.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/fifa-statement-concerning-beoutq">FIFA issued a statement</a> accusing one “pirate channel named BeoutQ” of illegally distributing the opening matches of the World Cup. It was <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/world-cup-2018/6542772/world-cup-2018-fifa-illegal-broadcasting/">allegedly stealing</a> another World Cup Satellite feed.</p>
<p>Still, piracy prevention firm Irdeto <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/brazil-world-cup-live-stream-watch-online-free-streaming-belgium-piracy-a8435081.html">reportedly detected</a> 5,088 unique pirate streams, 582 of these were for Brazil’s games. There were also 523 illegal streams detected for England’s group games, despite being available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer and the ITV websites.</p>
<h2>Records were still broken</h2>
<p>Despite broadcast and streaming troubles, and the fear of piracy and illegal viewing of the World Cup matches, the tournament still broke records for legal viewing.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The crowds gathered at public TV broadcasts of the World Cup games.</span></figcaption>
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<p>For example, England’s penalty shootout against Colombia saw 23.6 million viewers <a href="https://advanced-television.com/2018/07/04/nearly-24m-watch-england-penalty-win/">watching</a> on ITV and 3.3 million via the ITV Hub. This meant 81% of people watching TV in the UK at that time were watching the match.</p>
<p>Iceland’s first ever World Cup game saw 99.6 % of people in that country watching TV, to see their <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018650308/dare-to-stream">home team</a> take on Argentina.</p>
<p>Within days the 2018 World Cup <a href="http://www.nscreenmedia.com/world-cup-streaming-shatters-more-records/">surpassed</a> the streaming records set during the 2014 Rio World Cup. Akamia, the company that assists with streaming and was part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rio-olympics-are-a-test-case-for-the-future-of-sports-broadcasting-63589">Olympic streaming</a>, said that three-quarters of first round matches in 2018 exceeded the peak bandwidth for the whole of the 2014 Rio tournament.</p>
<h2>The future streaming of sport</h2>
<p>Optus has a lot of work to do in regaining its current and future costumers after the World Cup “Floptus” crisis. It is particularly important as it continues to try to grow its <a href="http://sport.optus.com.au">Optus Sport</a> brand. </p>
<p>The company has just <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/optus-sport-extends-premier-league-rights-opens-up-sports-platform-20180501-p4zclv.html">extended</a> its exclusive rights to the English Premier League for another three seasons, but highly public technical issues during the World Cup will make many consumers reluctant to pay for the product. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-soccer-is-falling-behind-footy-and-rugby-in-australia-97327">Why soccer is falling behind footy and rugby in Australia</a>
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<p>The Optus failure has also <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018650308/dare-to-stream">raised concerns</a> in New Zealand associated with the Rugby World Cup next year. The rights were won with a joint TVNZ (TV) and Spark (Teleommunciatons) <a href="https://www.sparknz.co.nz/news/Spark-coverage-RWC/">deal</a>, and many people are wondering whether Spark will suffer similar issues.</p>
<p>In Australia, Optus’ failure has been a win for free-to-air broadcast television’s argument to be included in the broadcast of major live events. But the World Cup has also shown that Australians are willing to pay and stream sport to devices other than a TV. The challenge for media rights holders of large live events is to make sure they are ready and able to deliver the service as promised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>Fans have shown they’re willing to watch major sporting events on devices other than traditional TVs, but the technology is letting them down.Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992082018-07-16T20:10:19Z2018-07-16T20:10:19ZRussia’s World Cup widely hailed as success, but will the good vibes last for Putin?<p>Even before the final whistle had been blown at the 2018 World Cup, the world media were already proclaiming it a huge success. The New York Times asked whether Russia 2018 was the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/sports/world-cup/greatest-russia-history.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fsports&action=click&contentCollection=sports&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=13&pgtype=sectionfront">“greatest of all World Cups”</a>, while The Independent gushed the World Cup helped Russia put on its best face, and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/world-cup-2018-russia-best-pictures-fans-video-fifa-vladimir-putin-a8443636.html">“the world smiled back”</a>.</p>
<p>There’s little doubt the World Cup has been a massive victory for Russia, and a double win for President Vladimir Putin. For starters, the tournament has imbued Russians with an immense sense of pride. Even though the Russian team lost in the quarterfinals to Croatia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/jul/07/russia-demobilised-early-from-world-cup-but-with-nation-won-over">its unexpected success gave the nation a rare reason to celebrate</a>. </p>
<p>This is a big positive for Putin. Despite his <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43452449">overwhelming victory</a> in March’s presidential election – not a surprise considering the main opposition leader was prevented from running – Putin realises he cannot maintain the loyalty of the Russian people forever. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russia-not-so-much-a-re-rising-superpower-as-a-skilled-strategic-spoiler-90916">Russia not so much a (re)rising superpower as a skilled strategic spoiler</a>
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<p>At a time when Russia faces heightened geopolitical tensions, including the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/mueller-indictment-russian-intelligence-hacking.html">indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers in the US</a> over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, Putin is under enormous pressure to show that he can still be an effective leader and deliver results for the Russian people. </p>
<p>For now, Putin is managing to keep his promises to Russians. In May, he opened the Crimea Bridge – one of Russia’s most ambitious and expensive infrastructure projects in decades. </p>
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<p>Despite the sanctions imposed by the West, the Russian economy <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/05/23/russias-economic-recovery-continues-modest-growth-ahead">has continued its recovery</a> and is growing again. A hike in oil prices has led to <a href="https://rg.ru/2018/06/04/proficit-biudzheta-v-2018-godu-mozhet-prevysit-trillion-rublej.html">projections of a budget surplus</a> of 1 trillion rubles (about US$15.86 billion) this year, with another surplus forecast for 2019.</p>
<h2>Soft-power coup</h2>
<p>Now, Putin has delivered a successful World Cup that has impressed the world. <a href="http://tass.com/sport/1012057">More than 5 million fans</a> attended the matches, including 2.9 million foreign visitors, which is an impressive figure given all the political controversy that preceded the tournament. </p>
<p>Russia had faced <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/world-cup/australians-warned-against-travelling-to-russia-amid-political-row/news-story/f9129e4359ece02a61a965ec4e017c04">travel warnings</a>, <a href="http://www.espnfc.com.au/fifa-world-cup/story/3519258/australian-government-joins-uk-in-state-boycott-of-world-cup-in-russia">boycotts by some foreign leaders</a> and even radical calls to <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5813328/russia-england-world-cup-host-skripal-punish-attack/">strip the country of the privilege of hosting the event</a>. There were fears of a politically-motivated backlash against Western tourists, and possible terrorist attacks due to Russia’s involvement in Syria and Ukraine. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-russia-worthy-of-hosting-the-world-cup-96917">Is Russia worthy of hosting the World Cup?</a>
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<p>However, the tournament came off without a hitch. All the negative publicity before the event kicked off gave way to stories about the football itself and the positive experiences of foreign visitors. French President Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/macron-congratulates-putin-for-hosting--perfect--world-cup-10532752">congratulated Putin on a successful tournament</a> and was captured in a memorable photo wildly celebrating his team’s victory. </p>
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<p>With relations between the UK and Russia at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/05/uk-points-russia-behind-second-wiltshire-novichok-poisoning">a low point over the nerve agent poisonings</a> earlier this year on English soil, there was even a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-britain-russia/before-match-england-fans-and-diplomats-honor-battle-of-stalingrad-dead-idUSKBN1JE17O">moving wreath-laying ceremony</a> involving England football fans to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest fighting of the second world war.</p>
<p>By and large, the World Cup did what Putin hoped it would – it changed many people’s perceptions of the country. It may prove to be the most significant soft power success for the country in years – even outshining the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.</p>
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<p>The timing could not have been more perfect for Putin’s highly anticipated meeting with US President Donald Trump in Helsinki on Monday. Even if it fails to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-09/vladimir-putins-wishlist-for-meeting-with-donald-trump/9949488">produce any positive material outcomes</a> for the Russians, the mere fact that Putin is sitting down with Trump will be seen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/world/europe/trump-putin-helsinki-summit.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news">as another strategic victory for the Russian leader</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenges remain</h2>
<p>This isn’t to say that Putin has nothing to worry about now the World Cup is over. If history is any guide, the gains that Russia managed to score during the tournament may prove to be short-lived. </p>
<p>For one, the government is facing harsh criticism over its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44709253">recently announced pension reform plan</a>, which will raise the retirement age to 65 for men and 63 for women in 2019. Putin’s United Russia party <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-pensions-putin/russian-authorities-prepare-to-soften-pension-reform-sources-idUSL8N1U21MO">faces pressure</a> to convince Russians the plan is going to benefit the economy, or else risk voter discontent heading into local elections later in the year.</p>
<p>Putin also has a small window of opportunity to capitalise on the World Cup soft power coup and improve relations with the West. But in this regard, the Russian leader has plenty of doubters. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-trump-meets-putin-expectations-may-be-high-but-the-prospects-are-poor-99514">As Trump meets Putin, expectations may be high but the prospects are poor</a>
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<p>One only need look at the country’s history of stoking tensions with its neighbours during previous major sporting events to see why the international community has so little faith in Putin. Back in August 2008, while the world was watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics, a simmering conflict between Russia and Georgia <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-georgia-russia-report/georgia-started-war-with-russia-eu-backed-report-idUSTRE58T4MO20090930">broke out into a full-blown war</a> and led to Russia’s eventual recognition of two breakaway regions in Georgia. </p>
<p>And shortly after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/europe/ukraine.html">Russia responded to the ouster of Ukraine’s president by annexing the Crimea peninsula</a> and fomenting an armed rebellion in the eastern part of the country.</p>
<p>The world will no doubt continue to watch Russia’s behaviour closely in the coming months. As investigations continue into its actions in the US elections and the UK nerve agent poisonings, it’s clear the West has no intention of easing its pressure on Putin anytime soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexey D Muraviev does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most Western leaders have little faith the Russian president will pursue better relations after the final football whistle has blown.Alexey D Muraviev, Associate Professor of National Security and Strategic Studies, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/999632018-07-16T14:35:01Z2018-07-16T14:35:01ZRussia’s World Cup was a success – now normal service resumes<p>That was a great World Cup, wasn’t it? It had memorable matches played in magnificent stadia, great goals and plenty of shocks. In Russia, the success of the much-derided national team was an unexpected treat for the host nation.</p>
<p>The tournament kicked off amid fears of hooliganism and talk of a new Cold War. Many wondered whether Russia, politically antagonistic and still mired in an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/42129521">athletics doping scandal</a>, was even a fit country to host the competition.</p>
<p>Within a matter of days, however, the doom mongering was long forgotten. In the UK, pundits and sports journalists spoke with undisguised surprise about <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44787166">just how welcoming the Russians were</a> and how well the tournament was organised. Rather than the much-anticipated images of hooligans clashing in the streets and of security forces ruthlessly tackling any over-exuberance, we saw fans from different nations happily mingling with their Russian hosts and posing for selfies with the previously feared militia.</p>
<p>For those of us with an interest in Russia (and I have studied the country and its politics for 20 years) this didn’t come as a huge surprise. Anyone who has spent time there will tell you that Russians are, on the whole, very hospitable people, particularly away from the tourist traps of Moscow and St Petersburg. In cities such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/kaliningrad-the-unique-world-cup-city-that-has-twice-tried-to-erase-its-past-98778">Kaliningrad</a>, Samara and Nizhny Novgorod, the Russian people have gleefully welcomed the influx of supporters. The inhabitants of Saransk (a city the size of Sunderland) will long remember the day when <a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/429990-saransk-peru-fans-world-cup/">40,000 Peruvians</a> descended on their city for their opening clash with Denmark.</p>
<p>So the world has seen Russia at its best: warm, friendly and welcoming. But how much has really changed?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/sports/world-cup/russia.html">Very little</a>, according to the small but vocal Russian political opposition. For them, normal service would be resumed once the tournament was over.</p>
<p>The irony of Iranian women happily attending their team’s matches in Russia and protesting against the <a href="https://www.independent.ie/world-news/iran-fans-stage-world-cup-protest-over-ban-on-women-at-football-games-37015534.html">ban on women attending games in their own country</a> was not lost on Russian dissenters. Their de facto leader, Alexei Navalny, had only just been released from prison after spending 30 days in custody for holding an unsanctioned protest.</p>
<p>Opposition activists, however, decided that actions that could portray the country in a bad light would be counterproductive during the razzmatazz of the cup. The four members of the performance group Pussy Riot who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/15/pussy-riot-claim-responsibility-world-cup-final-pitch-invasion">ran onto the pitch</a> during the final were the exception not the norm. </p>
<p>Instead, most well-known oppositionists took time out to enjoy the football. Ilya Yashin, a thorn in the side of the Kremlin and a close associate of the assassinated opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, <a href="https://twitter.com/IlyaYashin/status/1007269564462391296">tweeted a selfie</a> from Russia’s opening game at the Luzhniki stadium with the accompanying text: “Hate my government, love my country.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1007269564462391296"}"></div></p>
<p>Well-staged major sporting events have, of course, always been used by hosting nations as PR exercises and Russia was been no exception. Such events also present golden opportunities for burying bad news. On the eve of the competition, the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, announced a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-retirement-medvedev/russias-government-proposes-to-raise-retirement-age-pm-idUKKBN1JA16D">rise in the retirement age</a> from 60 to 65 for men and 55 to 63 for women. Protests were organised for July 1, which happened to coincide with Russia’s shock victory over the 2010 winners, Spain. Thoughts of having to work an extra five or eight years were lost amid the celebrations.</p>
<p>The 2018 World Cup has undoubtedly been a PR success for the Putin regime at a time when Russia has suffered a great deal of reputational damage. However, whether the feel-good factor will have any longer lasting impact, either domestically or internationally, remains doubtful. One thing is for sure, Qatar 2022 has a hard act to follow.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/kaliningrad-the-unique-world-cup-city-that-has-twice-tried-to-erase-its-past-98778?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Kaliningrad: the unique World Cup city that has twice tried to erase its past</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-russia-isnt-safe-for-lgbt-fans-and-qatar-2022-will-be-worse-99540?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup: Russia isn’t safe for LGBT fans, and Qatar 2022 will be worse</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David White has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC.</span></em></p>Pussy Riot were the exception – most opposition activists decided protest would be counter-productive during the tournament.David White, Lecturer in Politics, Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/999592018-07-16T14:18:30Z2018-07-16T14:18:30ZCroatia’s World Cup consolation: Google searches soar as world seeks information on finalists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227783/original/file-20180716-44070-nrewbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C32%2C4317%2C2880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Croatia may have lost to France in the World Cup final, but the small Eastern European nation may just have won something altogether more precious – worldwide recognition on a whole new level.</p>
<p>Social media users are tweeting about Croatia like never before and web searches are through the roof. The country has long been a holiday hotspot, but many people don’t seem to know much more than that about it. That all seemed to change dramatically over the World Cup.</p>
<p>Croatia’s progress to the 2018 final was something of a surprise. Coming from a nation of just 4m people, the team displayed true character and grit to battle to the end to take on France, one of the favourites to win. And while Croatia didn’t take home the trophy, the nation is likely to benefit massively in other ways.</p>
<p>Google Trends data highlights, astonishingly, that Google web search queries for “Croatia” have increased <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=Croatia">to the highest levels in history</a> as people around the world search and locate information using the keyword “Croatia”. Google ranks search popularity from zero to 100, where a value of 100 is the peak popularity for a term, and 50 half as popular. In the 2014 tournament, Croatia’s score was 28, in 2018 the score is 100. </p>
<p>In a period of just one hour during the semi-final, 350,000 tweets were also sent out including the word “Croatia”. That’s roughly 80 times more than on an average day. And towards the end of the night on the day of the final against France, more than a million tweets had been sent out that included the word “Croatia”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227700/original/file-20180715-27039-1kjhg5t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tweets about Croatia increased massively on final day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Visibrain</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A country would usually have to spend millions if they wanted to gain this type of interest. This itself is a very rewarding aspect of progression in the tournament as it equates to massive free exposure for a nation.</p>
<h2>Your next holiday?</h2>
<p>Even before the final, the Croatian tourist board announced it had observed a 250% increase in <a href="http://www.intellinews.com/croatian-tourist-sector-capitalises-on-international-attention-as-nation-s-football-team-heads-for-world-cup-final-145062/">website visits</a> from across the world, compared to the same time last year. Croatian tourism outlets also capitalised on the increased interest by launching specific marketing communications across <a href="https://www.total-croatia-news.com/travel/29715-world-cup-success-brings-record-number-of-visitors-to-croatia-s-tourism-homepage">social media</a>. This included a promotional video shared on YouTube by
the Croatian National Tourist Board which has been <a href="https://www.total-croatia-news.com/travel/29715-world-cup-success-brings-record-number-of-visitors-to-croatia-s-tourism-homepage">viewed over 250,000 times</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Croatian economy seemed to be enjoying a boost from World Cup interest at home. The national tax administration indicated <a href="http://www.intellinews.com/croatian-tourist-sector-capitalises-on-international-attention-as-nation-s-football-team-heads-for-world-cup-final-145062/">an increase in spend during the tournament</a>. Individual stores reported a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-cro-eng-croatia/cheers-croatia-fans-boost-economy-with-beer-sales-idUKKBN1K22C0">400% increase in sales</a> as compared to previous years as locals stocked up on <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-cro-eng-croatia/cheers-croatia-fans-boost-economy-with-beer-sales-idUKKBN1K22C0">beverages, snacks, and television sets</a>.</p>
<p>Although it was not the dream end for a Croatian team which showed extreme courage in reaching the final, progressing in the tournament has led to a monumental increase in the digital footprint of the country. That, in turn, has the potential to deliver tangible benefits to the Croatian economy and the tourism sector.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-cup-in-digital-and-social-the-viewers-the-tweets-and-the-trolls-99625?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">The World Cup in digital and social: the viewers, the tweets and the trolls</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-may-still-be-coming-home-to-france-99808?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Football came home after all … to France</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Wasim Ahmed is a part of the not-for-profit Social Media Research Foundation and a social media blogger for Visibrain. </span></em></p>Croatia lost to France but has won unprecedented public exposure.Wasim Ahmed, Assistant Professor in Digital Business, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/999022018-07-16T10:11:00Z2018-07-16T10:11:00ZFrance: worthy winners – but here’s what the statistics say about who’s best in World Cup history<p>France have been crowned football champions of the world, after beating Croatia 4-2 in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44841533">thrilling World Cup final</a>. <em>Les Bleus</em> timed their run to perfection, having been unconvincing in the group stage, with narrow wins over Australia and Peru and a draw with Denmark. But they stepped it up in the knock-out stages, and swept aside Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium and Croatia to lift the trophy.</p>
<p>France’s success was all the more impressive given that they battled through what was widely considered to be the much tougher half of the draw, but how did their route to victory compare to previous World Cup winners?</p>
<p>We can compare France 2018 to every other World Cup winner using a “tournament performance rating” (TPR), based on the <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/arpad-elo-and-the-elo-rating-system">Elo rating system</a> which is commonly used in a number of sports and games. The Elo system was devised by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/14/obituaries/prof-arpad-e-elo-is-dead-at-89-inventor-of-chess-ratings-system.html">Hungarian physicist Arpad Elo</a> for ranking chess players. The system was adopted by the world chess federation FIDE in 1970 and has since been adopted by a number of other sports, including football.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/procedure/women.html">The FIFA Women’s World Rankings</a> are based on an Elo system, and <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/revision-of-the-fifa-coca-cola-world-ranking.pdf?cloudid=fzltr4s8tz3v3vy0aqo1">the men’s rankings will also move to an Elo system</a> in August 2018. This ranking system adds points for every victory and subtracts points for every defeat based on the relative strengths of the opponents. Teams gain more points for beating a higher rated opponent than they do for beating a lower ranked side.</p>
<p>TPR can be used to evaluate how well a player or team performed during a particular event. The rating is based on the following simple formula: TPR = average opponent rating + result adjustment.</p>
<p>The average opponent rating is as simple as it sounds – you add up the pre-tournament Elo ratings of all the opponents you faced during the tournament and divide by the number of games played.</p>
<p>The result adjustment is a value which is added or subtracted depending on the team’s results during the competition. A team which wins every game will receive the maximum adjustment of 800 points while a team which loses every game would be deducted 800 points. A team which wins as many games as it loses has an adjustment of zero. The adjustments are based on the same mathematical formula which is used to calculate the Elo ratings. For more information, see <a href="https://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=172&view=article">Section 8 here</a>.</p>
<p>We can therefore calculate France’s 2018 World Cup TPR as follows. During the tournament the team faced Australia (rating 1742), Peru (1915), Denmark (1856), Argentina (1985), Uruguay (1893), Belgium (1939) and Croatia (1853), giving an average opponent rating of 1883. During the tournament, France won six matches and drew one (against Denmark in the group stage), which corresponds to a score of 6.5/7 – or 93%. Using the Elo formula, this corresponds to a result adjustment of 422 points. Therefore France’s 2018 World Cup TPR was 1883 + 422 = 2305.</p>
<h2>Best team ever</h2>
<p>This calculation can then be repeated for every team at each of the 21 World Cup tournaments which have been held to date, allowing us to directly compare performances across different tournaments. Note that matches which went to a penalty shoot out were counted as draws. In order to reward teams who progressed through the tournament each team’s performance was based on the maximum number of matches which they could have played. For example, Germany were knocked out in the group stage in 2018, having picked up one win and two defeats. They were given a score of 1/7 rather than 1/3, since they could have played seven matches had they progressed to the final.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPzNStFGgno?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The table below shows the top 20 best performances in World Cup history. The list is unsurprisingly topped by the legendary Brazil 1970 side featuring <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPzNStFGgno">Pele</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZGRSyTaRko">Jairzinho</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5HbmeNKino">Carlos Alberto</a>. Brazil also occupy second place with their 2002 side featuring the three Rs: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8dUhMGtUtw">Ronaldo</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoSPTksNByA">Rivaldo</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVWqGHsEVWo">Ronaldinho</a>. This year’s French team sits in sixth place, six positions better off than their 1998 side due to facing more difficult opponents. England’s 1966 side find themselves in ninth spot, partly due to having drawn with Uruguay in their opening game of the tournament.</p>
<p>The highest-ranked non-winners are Poland’s 1974 side, who were unfortunate to miss out on the final after finishing runners-up to Germany in the second group stage. The Poles actually obtained a higher performance rating than Germany, having faced higher-rated opponents in the first round, when they won a group containing Italy and Argentina. The worst ranked winners were Germany’s 1990 side, who are 28th on the list with a TPR of 2134.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227708/original/file-20180715-27018-1l219zu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top 20 tournament performance ratings in World Cup history. *Did not win tournament.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How did England rate?</h2>
<p>England faced a dilemma ahead of their final group game against Belgium in the 2018 tournament. They knew that if they lost that match they would potentially have an easier path towards the final. That did indeed prove to be true – England’s average opponent rating was 1824 compared to Belgium’s 1861. But in the end, both sides were eliminated at the semi-final stage anyway, and met again in the third place play-off on Saturday, July 14.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MtvkicJjXsk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Gareth Southgate’s side surprised many with their run to the semi-finals in 2018, but they are ranked behind the sides from 1966, 1982, 1990 and 2002 in terms of TPR. England’s 2018 side had a low average opponent rating, with group stage opponents Tunisia and Panama being two of the four lowest ranked sides in the tournament. They also ended up with an adjustment of zero after winning three and losing three of their seven matches in Russia. Nonetheless, England can take heart from the massive improvement they made compared to 2014, which was unsurprisingly the worst England performance in their World Cup history – the team failed to get out of their group having managed <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27935803">just one draw in three games</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227710/original/file-20180716-27042-5s6l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">England’s tournament performance ratings at the World Cup.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-var-technology-is-transforming-the-beautiful-game-97907">video assistant referee (VAR) system</a> introduced at this World Cup, the tournament performance rating is not without its flaws, and is unlikely to ever fully settle any pub debates. But it provides a fairly simple method of comparing teams across different World Cups based on their results and the difficulty of their matches. In the aftermath of the final, France are widely regarded as deserving winners who compared favourably to previous world champions – and the numbers seem to agree.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-may-still-be-coming-home-to-france-99808?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Football came home after all … to France</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The best team to lift the trophy was Brazil’s star-studded 1970 team.Craig Anderson, Lecturer in Statistics, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/996252018-07-15T21:38:57Z2018-07-15T21:38:57ZThe World Cup in digital and social: the viewers, the tweets and the trolls<p>A compelling World Cup in Russia has drawn huge numbers of television and social media viewers. Indeed, one estimate suggests that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/soccer-world-cup-2018-global-audience-hit-34-billion-fifa-revenue-reach-6-billion-1120071">3.4 billion people across the world</a> will ultimately have watched the tournament at some stage.</p>
<p>Yet something significant is happening inside this number, as people shift their consumption of the World Cup online. For instance, though the US didn’t qualify, <a href="http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/world-cup-broadcasters-streaming-records">a record 7.7m Americans streamed</a> the game between Argentina and Iceland. This compares to highs of just 1.5m and 3.2m people during the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, both tournaments the US qualified for.</p>
<p>In Britain, a similar trend has been evident, the BBC identifying peaks of more than 3m people streaming matches through its website at once. During the Brazil World Cup four years ago, the BBC clocked up 32m online match views across the whole tournament. This year, that figure was reached <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/world-cup-live-stream-sites-football-watch-games-online-2018-england-croatia-bbc-itv-a8440946.html">by the end of the group phase</a>.</p>
<p>In turn, further evidence from the US indicates that around half of NBCUniversal’s live digital viewers have consistently <a href="https://digiday.com/media/half-of-telemundos-live-digital-viewers-for-the-world-cup-are-watching-on-mobile-devices/">watched the games on their smartphones</a>. The rest are thought to constantly switch between connected TV and desktop streaming.</p>
<p>Second screen consumers are not just watching matches online, they are also posting on social media at the same time. During the 2014 World Cup, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/15/twitter-world-cup-tweets-germany-brazil">672m tweets</a> were posted – peaking at 618,725 tweets per minute during the final.</p>
<p>And with social media fast maturing as a medium of sports consumption, these numbers have grown. While we await confirmation of the final numbers for this summer, it is nevertheless worth noting that, for example, during England’s last-16 match against Columbia tweets peaked at <a href="https://www.aol.co.uk/sport/2018/07/04/twitter-users-are-convinced-its-coming-home-following-england/?guccounter=1">127,000 per minute</a> during the penalty shootout.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1014451848865046528"}"></div></p>
<p>In this context, we set out to explore the nature and content of social media chat during the World Cup by examining Twitter conversations, who was leading them and who was influencing them. Over the past month we have tracked and analysed the #WorldCup hashtag, as well as relevant Twitter accounts and appropriate message content. </p>
<p>The top headlines are unsurprising: big stars, exciting games, controversial incidents and intense fandom. Whereas people used to sit in bars and living rooms arguing about tough tackles and fantastic goals, they now inevitably seem more likely to share their views on social media. However, in making sense of the millions of tweets we have analysed, we have observed three particularly interesting recurring themes: ambushers and trolls, bots, and gender. </p>
<p>Ambushing is a term used to describe the activities of companies and brands that have no legal right of association with an event, but which seek to capitalise upon the marketing opportunities associated with a tournament such as the World Cup. In recent years, ambushing appears to have been supplemented by social media trolling. </p>
<p>During the World Cup, we observed this numerous times. For example, Iceland (a British-based frozen supermarket chain) actively sought to associate itself with the tournament, even though it was not a sponsor of it or of a team (not even its namesake nation). On Twitter, the supermarket sought to goad one of its competitors (Lidl, a sponsor of the England national team):</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1008778823180214273"}"></div></p>
<p>Alongside the trolls and ambushers, bots have again been feasting on, and become an endless generator of, World Cup social media content. Bots are web robots, essentially software applications that run automated scripts, enabling simple tasks to be repetitively undertaken. In a previous study we undertook (of the 2018 Super Bowl), we observed a <a href="https://theconversation.com/super-bowl-how-bots-brands-and-the-alt-right-highjacked-the-event-on-social-media-91133">preponderance of alt-right bots</a>. However, during the World Cup the bots have had a much stronger commercial than political purpose.</p>
<p>In one example, Qatar Airways (an official FIFA partner) caught our attention, the same message having been re-tweeted multiple times thus promoting the airline’s association with the tournament. Significantly, many of the accounts involved in the re-tweeting appeared to be little more than “shells”, or hubs through which content has been shared.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226723/original/file-20180709-122274-7oep5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Rushil Dhawan’ has sent 3,000 tweets, all of them retweets of corporate accounts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/rushil68">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some might have expected that social media chatter during the men’s World Cup would be dominated by males. However, our research suggests otherwise and indicates that females were actively engaged with the tournament in several ways. Not only were female fans just as vocal as their male counterparts in supporting their favourite teams, they also appeared in our analysis as increasingly important influencers – helping to lead and shape opinion.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1006500305868066816"}"></div></p>
<p>The tournament also raised some important gender issues, which many women used as the basis for critiquing both the prevailing <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-football-tournament-should-be-called-the-mens-world-cup-98348">dominant male narrative</a> around the tournament and for asserting the importance of women’s rights.</p>
<p>So, this has been a World Cup characterised by intense battles on the field and buoyant viewing figures for terrestrial television and for streamed games. Yet arguably the most compelling aspect of such mega-events has nowadays become the posturing, positioning and parleying on social media. It’s challenging to keep-up with the volume of traffic, though it is proving to be a fruitful source of data about peoples’ conversation. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-may-still-be-coming-home-to-france-99808?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Football finally came home… to France</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fans are shifting their consumption of the World Cup online.Alex Fenton, Lecturer in Digital Business, University of SalfordSimon Chadwick, Professor of Sports Enterprise, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/998082018-07-13T13:04:35Z2018-07-13T13:04:35ZWhy football may still be coming home… to France<p>When England hosted the 1996 European Championships, a song by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds inspired the popular chant: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-lions-roar-the-mixed-fortunes-of-englands-football-anthems-97481">football’s coming home</a>”. Ahead of England’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Croatia, many fans were again talking about football coming home. But were they right to do so? After all, there is a chance that football will still be coming home – despite England’s elimination.</p>
<p>Given their team’s recent performances and their country’s role in the history of football, the French also have reason to feel that football may soon be “coming home”. This idea may be hard to swallow for some English fans, not least those who are getting the lyrics <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/everyones-singing-the-three-lions-lyrics-wrong_uk_5b4083bbe4b07b827cc0b72f">wrong</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1016089591491842049"}"></div></p>
<p>Jules Rimet – the World Cup founder mentioned in the chorus of Football’s coming home – was French. So was Henri Delaunay, who is generally seen as the brains behind the European Championships. So was Gabriel Hanot, the <em>L'Equipe</em> journalist credited with founding the European Cup (now Champions League). Indeed, football’s world governing body the <em>Fédération Internationale de Football Association</em>, better known as FIFA, was founded in Paris in 1904 and its first president was another French journalist, Robert Guérin.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227577/original/file-20180713-27018-14gmuq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first World Cup trophy was named after Jules Rimet, FIFA president 1921-1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jules_Rimet_in_1920.jpg">BnF</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>France has had a long history of establishing international sports tournaments and organisations. This in part stems from influential Frenchmen in the late 19th century such as Philippe Tissié, Paschal Grousset, and Pierre de Coubertin who became convinced of the educational and physical benefits of sport. </p>
<p>De Coubertin is best-known as the founder of the modern Olympics and he initially wanted the first games to take place in Paris, to coincide with the city’s 1900 <a href="https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/Exposition-Universelle-de-1900.html">Exposition Universelle</a>. For De Coubertin and others, the development of international sport provided France with an instrument of soft power. </p>
<p>England were at this time somewhat suspicious of international sporting organisations, as the football sociologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479">John Williams</a> has mentioned. It didn’t send a team to the World Cup until 1950, fully 20 years after the first tournament in Uruguay. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, England is often perceived as the home of football due to its role in the early development of the game. Sheffield FC (founded 1857) is heralded as the world’s first football team. The Football Association (FA), established in 1863, is the oldest national football association in the world and it is the FA that helped create the basis for the rules of football that exist today.</p>
<p>France’s oldest football team Le Havre were in fact created in 1872 by Englishmen working in the city’s port. Their sky blue and navy halved shirts represent the alma mater of the club’s founders, namely the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoKBaNS1IdY">Le Havre’s club anthem</a> even adopts the same tune as “God Save the Queen”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227584/original/file-20180713-27042-vd0un0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just Fontaine scored a record 13 goals for France at the 1958 World Cup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fontaine1958.jpg">wiki</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Williams was right that it is not easy to define where <a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479">football’s true home</a> is to be found. The line “football’s coming home” appears to hint at a sense of entitlement and ownership when it comes to England’s relationship with football. </p>
<p>Yet football is a global game. Its governing body FIFA may have been founded in Paris, but its headquarters are now located in Zurich, Switzerland. England is no longer home to the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that is responsible for the laws of football. Its headquarters are now also in Zurich. </p>
<h2>‘Never understood anything about football’</h2>
<p>Given the role that France has played in football becoming a major international sport, are many French people talking about football potentially “coming home” this summer? In short, they’re not. This is largely due to football occupying a very different place in French as opposed to English culture.</p>
<p>France has a larger population than England, but less than half as many professional football teams. Prior to the launch of cable channel Canal Plus in 1984, relatively little domestic football was shown on French television. Nevertheless, hosting and winning the 1998 World Cup led to increased interest in football.</p>
<p>Since then, high-profile failures in several major tournaments have led to France’s leading footballers facing lots of <a href="http://frenchfootballweekly.com/2012/06/06/french-media-the-key-for-les-bleus-at-euro-2012/">criticism back home</a> over their bad attitudes. In 2012, French football magazine <em>So Foot</em> hit back and claimed that France was a “country that has never understood anything about football”. These comments appeared in a special issue on “<a href="http://www.sofoot.com/so-foot-102-yann-m-vila-164225.html">Why France doesn’t like its footballers</a>”. France was also described in the title of a book that year by the journalist Joachim Barbier as “This country that doesn’t like football”, or <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/PAYS-QUI-NAIME-PAS-FOOT/dp/2755609737"><em>Ce pays qui n'aime pas le foot</em></a>, subtitled “why France misunderstands football and its culture”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1015265588489474048"}"></div></p>
<p>At a time when France has faced economic challenges and an increased threat from terrorism, football has the potential to <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-les-bleus-boost-france-at-euro-2016-60404">boost the national mood</a>. This year’s World Cup Final will take place the day after a national holiday that marks Bastille Day. A victory by <em>Les Bleus</em> would give France good reason to claim <em>le football revient chez lui</em> two decades after its iconic 1998 World Cup victory.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Ervine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The French set up FIFA and the World Cup.Jonathan Ervine, Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997752018-07-13T12:14:36Z2018-07-13T12:14:36ZTo Russia, with luck? The astronomical odds that separate England’s young footballers from stardom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227195/original/file-20180711-27036-1ngw6g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new recruits look a little green.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tAc65p7SC3o/W0Yds7t1YMI/AAAAAAAABqw/PhGTGhLjlAIngMGgJqxL2rgUfcADREqcgCL0BGAYYCw/h590/2018-07-11.jpg">Football Association</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even for the most optimistic of supporters, England’s 2018 World Cup exploits lasted longer than many expected. However, if the past two weeks have felt long for you, then spare a thought for the players, whose arduous journey to Russia started many years ago in various academies across the country. </p>
<p>One quirk which has captured a lot of local coverage is the shared origins of seven members of the squad, who all started their professional careers around Yorkshire and Derbyshire. A more detailed look at their lives reveals the odds they have overcome to represent England on the world stage. </p>
<p>These seven players provide a snapshot into the lives of professional footballers everywhere and the sacrifices they have to make for a shot at a professional career and a chance to play for their country.</p>
<p>It has been reported that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/06/football-biggest-issue-boys-rejected-academies">less than 1%</a> of boys who enter academies before the age of 14 will ever make it to the professional level of the game. This already sets Gary Cahill, Fabien Delph, Harry Maguire, Jamie Vardy, Danny Rose, John Stones and Kyle Walker apart from the majority of boys who want to succeed in British football.</p>
<p>Now consider their transition into the professional game. Recent research from Sheffield Hallam University suggests that around 30% of players are able to convert their scholarship contract (a contract signed for two years between the ages of 16 and 18) into a professional contract once it expires.</p>
<p>However, the academy that a player is employed at during those years plays an important role in the chances of them entering professional football. Of our sample of 303 players, for example, only 11 players who were with academies connected to League One or League Two clubs gained a professional contract. In comparison to this, 82 of the players who were at academies at Premier League and Championship clubs were awarded professional contracts at 18. </p>
<p>As the table below shows, a player at a Premier League academy has a 52% chance of being offered a professional contract compared to 36% chance in the Championship, 13% in League One and 7% in League Two. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227132/original/file-20180711-27030-4zk02l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=264&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Premier League academies enjoy the lion’s share of professional contracts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sheffield Hallam University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, Gary Cahill is alone among the seven England players to train at an academy with a Premier League club - he was a scholar at Aston Villa while they were in the Premier League. The rest started out with Championship and lower division teams.</p>
<h2>Moving home, loaned away</h2>
<p>To understand the career trajectories of Cahill, Delph, Maguire, Rose, Stones, Vardy and Walker, we shed light on the lengths these players have had to go to compete in football’s biggest tournament. Of the 92 players from the sample of 303 who were offered a professional contract at 18, on average they had undertaken 4.63 moves between 2010 and 2018 and 1.61 loan moves each. </p>
<p>Professional football is a precarious career in which short-term contracts and loan moves are all part of the job. It is hard to think of another career where an employee would move companies, on average, every other year and, in this regard, the seven players in the England squad are no different.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227194/original/file-20180711-27042-3e5vlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bramall Lane - the home ground of Sheffield United where Cahill, Maguire and Walker have cut their teeth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bramall_Lane_End.jpg">Lewis Skinner/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of all the players, perhaps John Stones stands out due to a relatively low number of transfers and an absence of loan moves. He moved from Barnsley to Everton and then on to his current club, Manchester City. Beyond Stones however, the careers of the other players mirrors the patterns seen in our sample. </p>
<p>Gary Cahill was a trainee at Aston Villa, where he made the first team. However, since then, he spent time on loan at Burnley and Sheffield United before permanent moves to Bolton Wanderers and Chelsea. Cahill had to move away from home in order to become a scholar, having grown up in Dronfield, Derbyshire. </p>
<p>Fabian Delph also left his home club of Bradford City for Leeds United at 15 and, since then, has moved from Leeds United to Aston Villa and on to Manchester City, with a brief loan spell back at Leeds United in between. Danny Rose only has one permanent move, from Leeds United to Tottenham Hotspur, however, and has had four loan moves in his career. Harry Maguire spent a number of seasons playing in the first team at Sheffield United, before leaving for Hull City on a permanent move, Wigan Athletic on loan and, finally, to Leicester City on a permanent deal. </p>
<p>Kyle Walker has a higher than average number of loan moves with four to date in his career including Northampton Town, Sheffield United, Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa. He also has had two permanent deals, to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. Finally, the career of Jamie Vardy stands out, not just for the number of moves, but the trajectory, which has taken him from non-league Stocksbridge Park Steels to Leicester City, via Halifax Town and Fleetwood. </p>
<h2>The long road to Russia</h2>
<p>Not only did these seven players beat the bookmakers’ odds to make it to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, but their careers also attest to the vanishingly small probability of becoming a professional player in the first place. </p>
<p>For each of the players we have mentioned from the England squad here, there are thousands who were unable to make it to the professional level of the game. As these seven players show, a career that includes playing at the top level of professional football is a lengthy, complex and unpredictable journey. </p>
<p>It is often termed a privilege to represent your country at a World Cup, but there should be no doubt that these young men have worked extremely hard to earn that privilege.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-emotional-intelligence-helped-take-a-young-england-team-to-the-brink-of-a-world-cup-final-99792?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">How emotional intelligence helped take a young England team to the brink of a World Cup final</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/success-of-french-football-team-masks-underlying-tensions-over-race-and-class-99781?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Success of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Platts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For players in this World Cup’s England squad, even getting picked to play is at the end of a very long road.Christopher Platts, Senior Lecturer in Sport Development and Sport Business Management, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997932018-07-13T09:35:06Z2018-07-13T09:35:06ZAbility to fake pain and other emotions may be the evolutionary origin of speech – new research<p>We’ve seen fantastic football from the likes of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neymar">Neymar Jr</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylian_Mbapp%C3%A9">Kylian Mbappé</a> at this year’s World Cup, but they’ve also treated us to an unhealthy dose of play-acting and football con artistry. Quadruple rolls brought on at times by a mere Siberian breeze, often accompanied by devious squeals, were simply designed to deceive the referee into brandishing a colourful card or awarding a dangerous free kick. </p>
<p>While we all want to see such behaviour kicked out of the beautiful game, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09524622.2018.1463295?scroll=top&needAccess=true">new research</a> shows that the vocal aspect of faking pain – both on and off the football pitch – has evolutionary roots that may help explain how speech evolved.</p>
<p>Genuine pain causes both human infants and nonhuman mammals to produce cries, which are highly effective at <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-so-hard-to-ignore-a-babys-cry-according-to-science-63245">engaging caregivers to respond</a> and assist. Louder, longer and, in particular, rougher (think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hOwKmPzoj0">white noise</a>) cries indicate greater pain. These are therefore harder to ignore, provoking more urgent responses. Interestingly, pitch doesn’t increase gradually with rising levels of pain in human infants. Instead, the pitch tends to increase rather abruptly after a threshold of high pain has been reached.</p>
<p>From stubbing toes to childbirth, adults cry out in pain too. But understanding these anguished noises in a scientific way isn’t easy – gone are the days where giving participants electric shocks are easily justified in the name of research. We do however know that midwives can judge the stage of labour a woman is at <a href="https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1479-828X.1993.tb02115.x">from her vocalisations during childbirth</a>. This suggests that adult pain cries also communicate useful information about the intensity of pain experienced.</p>
<p>But the voice functions as more than just a transparent window into a person’s pain level. Our brains process pain differently depending on context, mood and attention. For example, our pain response may be exacerbated if anxiously anticipating an imminent injection.</p>
<h2>Faking it in the lab</h2>
<p>Anecdotal evidence suggests that we can deliberately exaggerate, minimise and fake pain to serve our own needs. All of us have made a bigger song and dance over an injury than we needed to at some stage in our lives, just as we’ve stifled outbursts in embarrassing or formal situations. We’ve also watched actors writhing in pain we know full well doesn’t exist, yet helplessly squirmed and empathised anyway.</p>
<p>But until now nobody has scientifically investigated to what extent we can convincingly modulate and fake responses to pain. In our latest <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09524622.2018.1463295?scroll=top&needAccess=true">study</a>, published in Bioacoustics, we recruited 60 trainee actors to express three levels of increasing pain. We also asked 64 listeners to rate how much pain each vocalisation conveyed. We then investigated which aspects of their voices the actors manipulated – and how this influenced listeners.</p>
<p>In the complete absence of pain, we found that the actors used their voices to communicate pain intensity in a highly similar fashion to human infants. We found that they were indeed highly successful at manipulating listeners’ pain ratings, so it seems we really are quite skilled at faking pain.</p>
<h2>Evolutionary meaning</h2>
<p>For our ancestors, navigating an environment with danger at every turn, this ability to convincingly simulate or exaggerate pain – and, crucially, elicit more urgent aid – may have provided a vital survival advantage. Initially, our ancestors’ vocal repertoire consisted only of automatic responses to environmental triggers, which solely functioned to communicate information that affected their chances of survival or reproductive success. For example, threat elicits roars, <a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-roar-now-we-know-why-99049">which advertise fighting ability</a> – allowing individuals to compete for resources without needing to engage in costly combat.</p>
<p>It may seem that such information must remain honest to prevent a communicative system from breaking down. What’s the point of paying attention to a vocalisation if you can’t trust its content? But, in the context of the need to survive, there are great potential costs to ignoring a vocalisation whose honesty is questionable. After all, if someone nearby <em>is</em> in pain, then you could soon be too if you don’t err on the side of caution. Under these circumstances, vocal exaggeration and deception strategies can take advantage of the high stakes and flourish.</p>
<p>This vocal trickery was likely to have been a <a href="http://www.kasiapisanski.com/research/Home_files/Pisanski%20et%20al%202016%20-%20TiCS%20Voice%20Modulation.pdf">key step</a> in our progression from primitive nonverbal noises to complex, controlled speech. Developing the ability to produce and modulate pain cries and other vocalisations at will represents a watershed moment – after which point the voice became not just an honest window into a vocaliser’s attributes, but a social tool with which to influence others.</p>
<p>Eventually, our vocal control would have become sufficiently advanced to allow us to produce new, arbitrary sounds, whose structure and meaning we agreed on culturally, rather than being determined by our physiology and evolutionary processes. Or in other words: the first words.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227181/original/file-20180711-27039-1ntrfob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crested capuchin monkeys can deceive with their voice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some nonhuman mammals are further down the road to speech than you might think. Many are able to <a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-roar-now-we-know-why-99049">exaggerate</a> their body size when producing aggressive vocalisations, and <a href="http://www.kasiapisanski.com/research/Home_files/Pisanski%20et%20al%202016%20-%20TiCS%20Voice%20Modulation.pdf">recent evidence</a> indicates that great apes are capable of greater vocal control than previously assumed. Some mammals even have a few vocal deception strategies up their sleeve. Take the capuchin monkey for example, which can produce deceptive alarm calls that are acoustically indistinguishable from genuine alarm calls elicited by predators.</p>
<p>But this vocal “cheating” is not without risk – the costs of losing the trust of group members through providing dodgy information can quickly leave one fending for oneself. So while deception may have been a fundamental factor in creating the vibrant and varied communicative tools we possess today, it must be handled with care. </p>
<p>While Neymar was able feign pain and pull the wool over the referee’s eyes a few times, eventually reputation preceded him in his team’s hour of need – as Brazil found out against Belgium. Sometimes, deception can even be deadly – just ask the boy who cried wolf.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Raine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Vocal deception may have played a key role in our progression from primitive nonverbal noises to complex, controlled speech.Jordan Raine, PhD Researcher, Nature and Function of Human Nonverbal Vocalisations, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997812018-07-13T08:57:54Z2018-07-13T08:57:54ZSuccess of French football team masks underlying tensions over race and class<p>The French football team has won the 2018 World Cup, 20 years after it triumphed on home soil in 1998. “Les Bleus”, as they’re called, are back in the nation’s good books, celebrated for their excellent performance in this year’s tournament, right through the 4-2 win over Croatia in the final. Out of the limelight and the glare of success in Russia 2018, however, a question continues to dog French football – the role of race and class in the selection of national players.</p>
<p>On the surface, this may seem strange with the <a href="https://www.goalsoul.net/products/zidane-black-blanc-beur-poster">attention given</a> to the multicultural harmony of the 1998 World Cup-winning team. The straight-talking former captain of the French national team, Zinedine Zidane, <a href="https://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/vice-zinedine-zidane-shares-his-world-cup-memories/5b3b81eebe407726cc522301">recently said</a> of his country’s 1998 win: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was not about religion, the colour of your skin, we didn’t care about that, we were just together and enjoyed the moment. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This echoed the sentiment of the times, that a multicultural team of united “<a href="https://www.goalsoul.net/products/zidane-black-blanc-beur-poster">black, blanc, beur</a>” (black, white or Arab) players had united under the cause of the French national team to lift the World Cup for the first time. Triumph, on the football field, demonstrated that integration had been successful in France and anyone could reach the top of French society. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tmjFa9LB7Pg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Zidane, the star of France’s 1998 World Cup-winning team, was born to Berber Algerian parents. He grew up in Marseille’s infamous “<a href="https://www.laprovence.com/article/sports/4988951/de-la-castellane-au-real-zinedine-zidane-un-heros-made-in-marseille.html">La Castellane</a>” estate, seen as one of the toughest estates in one of France’s toughest cities. Two decades later, Kylian Mbappé – a 19-year-old of Cameroonian and Algerian heritage – who grew up in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44669497">Bondy suburbs</a> of Paris, is the star of the French team.</p>
<p>Some commentators <a href="https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/mbappe-marque-la-france-gagne-vous-reprendrez-bien-un-peu-de-black-blanc-beur-97076">have discussed</a> the 2018 success of Les Bleus as a return to the joys of “black, blanc, beur” multicultural national celebration, acceptance and celebration of ethnic diversity. Yet others have been <a href="https://abonnes.lemonde.fr/mondial-2018/article/2018/07/12/coupe-du-monde-2018-epargnez-nous-une-deuxieme-saison-de-black-blanc-beur-par-olivier-guez_5330286_5193650.html">critical</a> of the way politics, integration and football have been mixed together again. </p>
<h2>Far-right opportunism</h2>
<p>Zidane and Mbappé bookend a couple of decades where the ethnic make-up of the national team has come under fierce scrutiny, often taking worringly racist forms.</p>
<p>Questions about the French team’s ethnic credentials were present even before their 1998 victory against Brazil. The far-right leader of the Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen <a href="https://www.la-croix.com/Archives/1996-06-25/Pour-Le-Pen-l-equipe-de-France-de-foot-n-est-pas-francaise-_NP_-1996-06-25-377656">argued</a> that some the team were “foreigners” who didn’t know how to sing the national anthem. When Le Pen made it to the second round of the presidential election in 2002, some of the world cup-winning footballers, including the captain, <a href="https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2002/04/26/350370-ils-disent-non-a-le-pen.html">Marcel Desailly</a>, campaigned hard against him. </p>
<p>In 2010, the French team crashed out of the World Cup in South Africa at the group stage, winning no games. Behind the scenes, the manager Raymond Domenech had terrible relations with the players, obscenities were screamed and the captain Patrice Evra had an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/20/france-raymond-domenech-nicolas-anelka">on-field bust up</a> with the fitness coach, Robert Duverne. Rather than question the incompetence of these two white coaches in managing the national side, blame fell quickly on the players, whose commitment to the French team was questioned. </p>
<p>The criticism went further than the usual rumblings about spoilt and overpaid players, taking on a distinctly sinister and racial tone when the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut <a href="https://www.agoravox.tv/tribune-libre/article/finkielkraut-l-equipe-de-france-26725">called the team</a> a “gang of thieves with mafia morals”. While this referred to the footballers by their presumed class backgrounds as children of France’s crime-ridden, suburban housing estates, <a href="http://diversite.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2010/06/22/alain-finkielkraut-derape-sur-l-equipe-de-france-attention-a.html">some pointed</a> to a racial undertone as these estates are also synonymous with black and Arab youths.</p>
<p>Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the FN party – since then renamed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/01/marine-le-pen-rebrands-front-national-in-push-for-support">Rassemblement National</a> – waded into the fray arguing that the <a href="https://www.marianne.net/societe/comment-le-debat-sur-lequipe-de-france-de-football-sest-racialise-depuis-1998">problem with the national team</a> was down to them having “another nationality in their hearts”. </p>
<p>In the years since, there have been other accusations that France <a href="https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/dossier/les-quotas-discriminatoires-dans-le-foot-francais">operated</a> a “quota” to limit the number of black and Arab players in the national team. In part, this was justified as a means to limit the number of bi-national players trained by the French youth team, who may choose to play for a country other than France. However, <a href="http://world.time.com/2011/05/04/french-national-soccer-rocked-by-accusations-of-racist-quotas/">transcripts which formed part</a> of an investigation found the rationale also extended to racial stereotypes that white players were more “cerebral” and “team orientated” than their “fast and strong” African and Arab counterparts. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1014427497432313856"}"></div></p>
<p>Notable by his absence in this world cup is Karim Benzema, an international star with Real Madrid who has been continually left out of the squad, for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/01/karim-benzema-accuses-didier-deschamps-france-euro-2016">what he has called</a> “racist” reasons. Benzema was suspended from the national team in 2015 due to a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40566551">criminal investigation</a> into an alleged blackmail case – which remains ongoing – and he was again <a href="https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news/articles/international/categories/world-cup-2018/snubbed-karim-benzema-hits-back-at-france-football-federation-president-s-claims/295846">omitted</a> from the 2018 squad. The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/karim-benzema-wants-answers-didier-deschamps-france-national-team-exile-a7648616.html">official</a> reason for his continued absence is “sporting choices”, but former French international Samir Nasri went <a href="https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/sport/football/un-fond-de-racisme-autour-de-benzema-en-bleu-pour-nasri-c-est-oui_1950546.html">on record</a> in 2017 to say that the reason may have a more racist rationale.</p>
<h2>Banlieue boys</h2>
<p>The aftermath of the 2010 debacle demonstrated that even for those who do make it to the top of French football, when times are hard it is they who are viewed first and foremost with suspicion due to their minority ethnic and working class backgrounds from <em>les banlieues</em> (suburbs). These areas continue to have <a href="http://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/Hors-serie-Connaissance/Banlieue-de-la-Republique">massive structural problems</a> that disadvantage those of minority and low-income backgrounds.</p>
<p>In the 20 years since Zidane lifted the World Cup, little has changed in the estate outside of Marseille where he grew up. Like other estates in France that house significant numbers of those of foreign ethnic origin, La Castellane continues to be <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2015/02/09/rafales-d-armes-automatiques-a-marseille-lors-de-la-visite-de-manuel-valls_4572697_3224.html">gripped by violence</a> and the all-too lucrative drugs trade, which periodic <a href="https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/bouches-du-rhone/marseille/marseille-plus-gros-reseau-drogue-marseille-demantele-castellane-1499475.html">raids</a> do little to disrupt.</p>
<p>The achievements of 1998 and 2018 demonstrate that players such as Zidane and Mbappé from ethnic minority backgrounds can rise to the top of French society. Some players transcend football, taking up bigger political causes, such as the French 1998-world cup winning defender Lillian Thuram who has worked against discrimination in France. He even turned <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2009/02/03/thuram-explique-pourquoi-il-a-refuse-d-entrer-au-gouvernement_1149889_823448.html">down a position</a> in the government of Nicolas Sarkozy because of differences with the president over his stance on social issues and because Sarkozy called the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/mar/04/football.newsstory">rioters of 2005 “scum”</a> when he was interior minister.</p>
<p>Yet while the current team is riding high on a wave of the resurrection of “black-blanc-beur” success, French football, like French society, remains marred by <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2009/02/17/discrimination-raciale-un-heritage-francais_310620">complex forms of racial discrimination</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-suddenly-get-into-football-during-the-world-cup-98812?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why do people suddenly ‘get into’ football during the World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Downing receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 703613. </span></em></p>When France won the world cup in 1998, the team was celebrated for its multiculturalism. What has happened since?Joseph Downing, Marie Curie Fellow, CNRS, Laboratoire méditerranéen de sociologie, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/998872018-07-13T08:24:16Z2018-07-13T08:24:16ZDoes doing well in the World Cup bring a ‘feel-good’ boost to the UK economy?<p>Who would have thought that Gareth Southgate and his squad of England footballers would have done much better than the prime minister and her cabinet at giving a boost to the UK economy? By working hard as a proper team, Southgate and his men managed, in less than a month, to rally the country behind it in support and reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the British government is still struggling, more than two years on from the EU referendum, to reach a meaningful Brexit solution, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44310224">reassure business</a> and safeguard the economy.</p>
<p>But does this feel-good football feeling really translate to a boost for the UK economy? According to some websites, including <a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1695842/World-Cups-16bn-boost-for-Britains-economy.html">This is Money</a>, the World Cup is thought to bring a £1.6 billion boost for the UK economy thanks to spending on flat-screen TVs and consumption of food and drink while watching games. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/10/uk-economy-gets-kick-from-world-cup-heatwave">The Guardian</a> makes the point that England fans were expected to buy an additional 10m pints of beer thanks to the football team reaching the semi-final against Croatia on July 11, 2018. </p>
<p>But, although this will bring a welcome surge for the UK economy, the Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/28/bank-of-england-expert-world-cup-feelgood-factor-backs-case-for-interest-rate-rise">argues</a> that the rise in consumer spending as a result of the “feel-good factor” could put pressure on the need to raise interest rates. This could ultimately hinder economic growth. There is something paradoxical about all this: an England performance way above par at the World Cup might trigger a return of interest rates to more normal levels because of the resulting economic boom.</p>
<h2>History lessons</h2>
<p>Yet from an historical point of view, there is no evidence that England’s success (or failure) during the World Cup or other football tournaments has any serious impact on the economy. To see this, the following graph plots the UK output gap over the years. This measures the percentage deviations of the UK’s actual economic performance relative to its potential. A value of zero implies that actual economic performance is equal to its potential. Positive deviations indicate overperformance and negative deviations indicate underperformance. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/x5muj/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="436"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>When England won the World Cup in the second quarter of 1966, the country’s economy overperformed. Nevertheless, output was slightly higher than the underlying trend and the “feelgood factor” failed to positively affect the UK economy shortly after. In fact, the output gap turned slightly negative afterwards. </p>
<p>The UK economy also overperformed in the second quarter of 1974, when England failed to qualify for the World Cup in Germany. Again in 1978, the UK economy overperformed, despite England failing to qualify for the World Cup in Argentina that year.</p>
<p>Then, in 1990, when England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Italy (which it lost to Germany on penalties), the economy was performing better than expected. But the economy did slip into recession after the third quarter of 1990.</p>
<p>Contrast this to when England did not qualify for the World Cup in 1994 in the US. The country’s economy performed worse than expected. Then, during Euro 96, which was hosted by England, the economy failed to overperform, despite the fact that England started really well and reached the semi-finals (only to be beaten again by the Germans on penalties again). </p>
<p>All of this suggests that there is no immediate impact on the economy (positive or negative) or any feel-good (or feel-bad) “domino” effect. And this is backed up by more sophisticated statistical analysis, which reveals no significant effect of the “feel-good factor” when England managed to reach at least the semi-finals in the World Cups of 1966 and 1990. </p>
<p>Ultimately, our analysis seems to agree with John Hawksworth, chief economist at professional services firm PwC, who was quoted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/10/uk-economy-gets-kick-from-world-cup-heatwave">The Guardian</a> saying that the bigger issues are what really determines the underlying trend in terms of productivity growth, Brexit and what’s happening in the global economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some estimates say the World Cup will bring a £1.6 billion boost to the UK economy. Do they stack up?Mike Ellington, Lecturer, Finance, University of LiverpoolCostas Milas, Professor of Finance, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997922018-07-12T12:34:17Z2018-07-12T12:34:17ZHow emotional intelligence helped take a young England team to the brink of a World Cup final<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227416/original/file-20180712-27030-1ina1hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A “new era for England”; a young team who “did their country proud”; a manager who embraced and consoled each of his players afterwards hailed a national hero who “united the country”. Even sales of waistcoats – Gareth Southgate’s signature sideline look – went through the roof. As English football fans came to terms with the crushing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/11/tears-pain-young-england-team-world-cup-croatia">defeat at the hands of Croatia</a> in the World Cup 2018 semi-finals, it was clear there had been a tangible shift in the way these young footballers and their manager were received and portrayed in the media. </p>
<p>Contrast the response to England <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/21/england-world-cup-2014-exit-what-happened-next">crashing out</a> of its first ever World Cup in 1950, when the Daily Mail echoed attitudes towards male footballers that have continued to define much of today’s popular sports coverage:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One reason for our soccer eclipse in the World Cup stands out clearly – our men are too gentlemanly… In a street fight you don’t play a violin – you use it as a club.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227399/original/file-20180712-27042-mzwkhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">England manager Gareth Southgate comforts Ashley Young after England’s semi-final defeat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/search-results/fluid/?q=paul%20gascoigne%20in%20tears&amber_border=1&category=A,S,E&fields_0=all&fields_1=all&green_border=1&imagesonly=1&orientation=both&red_border=1&words_0=all&words_1=all">PA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The failure, both collectively and individually, was primarily down to a lack of “fight”: the ability to overcome all obstacles, such as better-prepared and better-trained opponents. The players should have been less diplomatic, less emotional and less sensitive if they wanted to win, was the message. They had, the Mail appeared to be saying, been insufficiently “manly”.</p>
<h2>Macho man vs new man</h2>
<p>The image of the archetypal England player – the “Lion” – has long been steeped in qualities that would now be associated with “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/09/about-the-boys-tim-winton-on-how-toxic-masculinity-is-shackling-men-to-misogyny">toxic masculinity</a>”. The ideal Lion, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-44239757">Roy of the Rovers</a> figure, is a stoic, defiant battler who fights against the odds without wavering or questioning. He doesn’t complain or vocalise his internal strife. His emotional range is, appropriately, limited to roars: either passion or anger.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227396/original/file-20180712-27021-1nx1xbl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A distraught Paul Gascoigne after England lost to Germany in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/search-results/fluid/?q=paul%20gascoigne%20in%20tears&amber_border=1&category=A,S,E&fields_0=all&fields_1=all&green_border=1&imagesonly=1&orientation=both&red_border=1&words_0=all&words_1=all">PA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://talksport.com/football/397650/world-cup-2018-paul-gascoigne-to-fly-to-russia-to-support-england-ahead-of-croatia-semi-final-clash/">iconic image</a> of Paul Gasgoine in tears at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jun/15/italia-90-world-cup-special">Italia 90</a> is partly so iconic because, as Daniel Storey notes in his excellent audiobook <a href="https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008300883/gazza-in-italy/">Gazza in Italy</a>, it is the exception to the rule. Gascoigne aside, the ideal England player is a statue of stiff-upper-lip emotional repression.</p>
<p>This English football hero is one the nation’s press has helped fix in the popular imagination. Football successes or failures are still allied to the perceived level of “heart” that a team or player has demonstrated. Any “flamboyance” in players’ behaviour – such as fashion sense, spending habits or hairstyles – is frequently mocked.</p>
<p>The classic image of a Jack the Lad England star – the chest-thumping, badge-kissing hero who can down a pint comfortably – is one that stands awkwardly against decades of evolution in football and popular culture, as ideas of the typical “man” have been increasingly challenged. For far too long, leading voices in sports reporting have championed certain players who fitted the Lion stereotype at the expense of others, and in the process have distorted the reality of modern male football.</p>
<h2>World Cup 2018</h2>
<p>It has taken the World Cup in Russia, aided by England’s unexpected progression in the tournament, to see that toxic restriction of English football identity widely challenged. Certain players – most notably Harry Kane – arguably still receive greater levels of acclaim due to their closeness to the “<a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/world-cup-southgate-invokes-spirit-of-66-as-lions-feel-history-at-their-shoulder-37094151.html">Spirit of ‘66</a>” stereotype of a classic England international. However, there has been an undoubted and welcome growth in coverage that expresses the <a href="https://www.6seconds.org/2018/02/27/emotional-intelligence-tips-awareness/">emotional literacy</a> of the young players carrying the hopes of a nation.</p>
<p>The positive platforms given to <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/players/3507/Danny-Rose/overview">Danny Rose</a>, for example, to discuss his mental health and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/06/danny-rose-tells-family-not-travel-world-cup-player-racism-fears-abuse-england-football-team">battles with depression</a>, marks a significant step where footballers and people within football culture can express emotional and mental vulnerability. Where other players who suffered from mental illness – most <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/08/paul-gascoigne-macho-players-must-tackle-mental-health-issues/">notably Paul Gascoine</a> – became items of tabloid titillation, the increased sensitivity and acceptance of men’s mental health is a welcome step and long overdue.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227402/original/file-20180712-27033-1nq8oka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The playfulness of this young millennial team reflects the ongoing evolution of British football.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/image-details/2.37361247">PA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing media attitudes</h2>
<p>Media representations of the squad have also challenged traditional ideas of the toxic Lion ideal by showing these players as diverse and sensitive young men. It is almost inconceivable to imagine past generations of English World Cup sides being shown <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/23/england-world-cup-inflated-egos-inflatable-unicorns-gareth-southgate">playing around on inflatable unicorns</a>, for example, without either an emphasis on alcohol – permissible as an example of lad culture – or toe-curling flirtations with homophobic “banter”. This generation, however, is shown to be merely having fun: expressing simple, childlike enjoyment while still bearing a badge that historically would have discouraged any emotional expression.</p>
<p>In a recent appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live, the New York Times’ chief soccer correspondent Rory Smith succinctly outlined how the other great English football myth of the aggressive, apoplectic manager is no longer applicable in the modern game. Being screamed and shouted at by a boss, as he put it, is “not how people in any industry expect to be treated”. The reason for this change in broader attitudes is also reflected in the UK media gradually breaking with its traditional attachment to the Lion-style footballer.</p>
<p>This “millennial team” (to borrow Smith’s words) is one that grew up in a wider culture that increasingly sees male emotional expression and personal vulnerability as something other than a failure of character. Seeing these players expressing a variety of emotions – from playfulness and affection to fragile vulnerability – is a reflection of a society becoming more comfortable with male emotional intelligence.</p>
<p>It’s a welcome step forward in British football culture when the image of a player in tears is no longer considered an embarrassment. England’s World Cup team are still Lions; but now they’re allowed to do more than simply roar.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/if-england-gets-beaten-so-will-she-the-link-between-world-cup-and-violence-explained-99769?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">‘If England gets beaten, so will she’ – the link between World Cup and violence explained</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/three-lions-roar-the-mixed-fortunes-of-englands-football-anthems-97481?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Three Lions roar: the mixed fortunes of England’s football anthems</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Shoop-Worrall receives funding from The Royal Historical Society. </span></em></p>Unlike squads before them, this exciting team of millennials have the capacity, courage and honesty to express their emotions.Christopher Shoop-Worrall, Lecturer in Media at UCFB and PhD Researcher in Journalism History, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997692018-07-11T12:17:42Z2018-07-11T12:17:42Z‘If England gets beaten, so will she’ – the link between World Cup and violence explained<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227154/original/file-20180711-27033-105gewc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.ncdv.org.uk/not-beautiful-game/">National Centre for Domestic Violence</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Historically, football has always been associated with aggression and violence. Since its emergence in the <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719037597/">14th century</a>, the game “on the pitch” has been gentrified. The FIFA World Cup epitomises this evolution, bringing together some of the world’s best athletes who, representing their country of origin, are pitched together in intense competition. </p>
<p>But during this time, the violence “off the pitch” has intensified. In many countries across Europe, supporters wearing national team colours have engaged in pitched battles both inside and outside stadiums. During the Euro 2016 football tournament, a new wave of violence began, as “trained” Russian hooligans battled the English in France, equipped with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/euro-2016-russia-vs-england-violence-marseille-hooligans-clash-hospital-a7077906.html">mixed martial arts</a> gloves and gum shields.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/590355https://www.jstor.org/stable/590355">Many studies</a> have highlighted the violence which occurs near football stadiums. But further research shows that even watching football on the TV can be associated with violence. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks098">One study</a> on the 2010 World Cup found that there was a 37.5% rise in admission rates across 15 accident and emergency departments on England match days. </p>
<p>Major football matches have also been linked to increased violence in the home. A campaign by the <a href="http://www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk/">National Centre for Domestic Violence</a> draws on findings of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022427813494843">a 2013 study</a> we conducted with our colleague Rosie O'Flaherty. </p>
<p>Examining reports of domestic abuse in Lancashire (a county of approximately <a href="http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/lancashire-insight/population-and-households/population/mid-year-population-estimates/">1.5m people</a> in Northern England), across the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cup tournaments, we discovered a 26% increase in reports of domestic abuse when England won or drew, and a 38% increase when England lost. Reports were also more frequent on weekends, and reached their peak when England exited the tournament. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227158/original/file-20180711-27021-11zrcv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dashed hopes: violence worsens when England lose.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_ellis/4784214757/sizes/l">tim ellis/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Put simply, academics account for domestic abuse using individual or social explanations. Individual accounts suggest domestic abuse comes from individuals who lash out due to their inability to deal with anger or frustration, the consumption of drugs or alcohol, or because they witnessed the behaviour in others. Social explanations focus on wider cultural factors, such as the imbalance of power between men and women.</p>
<h2>What causes abuse?</h2>
<p>Both explanations are relevant, when it comes to watching football. The World Cup brings with it emotional and situational stressors, which create a perfect storm with regard to incidents of domestic abuse. The pastime has been associated with a surge in testosterone levels, which some researchers have linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks098">aggressive behaviour</a>. Supporters approach each match with a strong <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14608940802249965">cultural identity</a>, so they internalise wins and losses. </p>
<p>The month-long competition means there are more arguments between partners about what to watch on the television. Matches often take place on weekends and on exceptionally warm days, which again <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/30/1/51/523870">are associated</a> with increases of violence. And the tournament is heavily marketed, with many retailers and caterers taking the opportunity to increase alcohol sales – another factor <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199912163412505">closely associated</a> with domestic violence. </p>
<p>This doesn’t just apply to soccer – <a href="http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/card-dahl-family-violence.pdf">researchers</a> found that men were involved in 10% more violence against their female partner if their team lost an American National Football League game. And a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/MediaSport/Wenner/p/book/9780203014059">further study</a> found that husbands and wives argued most over which television programmes to watch when sports were being broadcast.</p>
<p>Almost 20m watched England beat Sweden in the recent quarter final – and a record global audience of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/06/14/world-cup-2018-the-money-behind-the-biggest-event-in-sports/">3.4 billion</a> is expected to watch at least one game either on the TV or online. Our study found that the reports of domestic violence grew worse tournament by tournament. So while England’s extended run in the 2018 competition brings national joy for many English people, some still live in dread of match days. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-provides-plenty-of-drama-but-football-must-not-forget-its-social-responsibility-99061?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup provides plenty of drama – but football must not forget its social responsibility</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-football-tournament-should-be-called-the-mens-world-cup-98348?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why this football tournament should be called the men’s World Cup</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="http://theconversation.com/world-cup-sexism-in-british-punditry-is-clear-for-all-to-see-98715?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup: sexism in British punditry is clear for all to see</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Francis has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kirby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When England play a match, there’s a 26% increase in reports of domestic abuse. When they lose, reports go up 38%.Stuart Kirby, Professor of Policing and Criminal Investigation, University of Central LancashireBrian Francis, Professor of Social Statistics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/996792018-07-11T06:29:55Z2018-07-11T06:29:55ZAim for the middle: it could be your best shot for a goal in a penalty shootout<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227102/original/file-20180711-27036-1cjqhly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=308%2C69%2C3033%2C1798&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shoot straight: could be wise words for those looking to score in any penalty shootout.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Eugene Onischenko</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Soccer may be <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/be-a-game-of-two-halves">a game of two halves</a>, but if neither side wins after the 90 minutes of regular play and 30 minutes of extra time, then it all comes down to a penalty shootout.</p>
<p>That could be what decides the winner of the <a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/">2018 FIFA World Cup</a> as it did in <a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/round=3459/match=3104/index.html">1994 for Brazil</a> and <a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/germany2006/index.html">2006 for Italy</a>.</p>
<p>Although often derided as <a href="https://www.economist.com/game-theory/2017/08/11/even-with-the-abba-format-penalty-shootouts-remain-a-lottery">a lottery</a> or as the <a href="https://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/05/07/03/34/victory-s-lack-of-goals-irrelevant-muscat">cruellest way to lose a match</a>, a shootout unquestionably delivers no shortage of high drama. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-video-assistant-referees-could-undermine-on-field-referees-at-the-fifa-world-cup-98466">How video assistant referees could undermine on-field referees at the FIFA World Cup</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Each kick is a battle of wills and judgement between the striker and goalkeeper – separated by just 11 metres between the penalty spot and the goal line.</p>
<p>Given the level of interest in the sport – this year’s final is anticipated to draw a global audience of <a href="http://www.espnfc.com.au/world-cup-soccer/story/2759180/fifa-reports-101-billion-viewers-for-2014-world-cup-final">more than 1 billion people</a> – it should be no surprise that the science of penalty kicks has been extensively studied by psychologists, sports scientists and game theorists.</p>
<h2>What can game theory tell us?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/game-theory">game theory</a>, the study of strategic decision-making, a penalty kick is commonly regarded as a non-cooperative zero sum game. </p>
<p>This means that neither participant can compel the other to make a particular choice. All gains by the goalkeeper (in the form of saved or missed penalties) occur to the direct detriment of the striker, and vice versa.</p>
<p>Unlike many classic problems, game theory suggests that there is <a href="http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/gametheory/useful/equilibrium/nashpure.html">no pure optimal strategy for either participant</a>. For example, if a striker is successful going in any particular direction, goalkeepers should soon start to notice this and alter their own strategies to dive in that direction more frequently.</p>
<p>Most players have a dominant side when shooting. A right-footed player will tend to hit the ball with greater power and accuracy when aiming left of centre in the goal.</p>
<p>But a striker must aim a reasonable proportion of shots to the opposite side, even if such shots are less accurate, to avoid having a shot selection that can be easily predicted by the goalkeeper.</p>
<p>Theory suggests that both strikers and goalkeepers should adopt a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4731201_Testing_Mixed-Strategy_Equilibria_When_Players_Are_Heterogeneous_The_Case_of_Penalty_Kicks_in_Soccer">mixed strategy</a> that seeks to randomise each player’s choice of direction.</p>
<h2>What do the numbers say?</h2>
<p>There are few people on Earth who have studied the decision-making behind penalty kicks more than London School of Economics behavioural economist <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/management/people/academic-staff/ipalacios-huerta">Ignacio Palacios-Huerta</a>, whose database now includes more than 11,000 penalty outcomes.</p>
<p>His <a href="http://www.palacios-huerta.com/docs/professionals.pdf">landmark 2002 study</a> broke down the penalties taken by 22 leading players into whether they shot to their dominant or opposite side, and the resulting successes or failures.</p>
<p>He found that the pattern of penalty outcomes matched very closely with that predicted by game theory.</p>
<p>Most players had very similar success rates when aiming to their dominant and opposite sides. Players shooting to their dominant side scored with <a href="https://qz.com/228958/the-only-penalty-kick-strategy-is-not-having-a-strategy/">82.7% of shots, compared with 81.1%</a> success to their weaker side – an insignificant difference statistically. The advantage strikers had going towards their dominant side had been negated by goalkeepers adjusting and diving in that direction more often.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the patterns of shot selection were typically indistinguishable from a purely random draw. Palacios-Huerta <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3648639?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">concluded that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…professional soccer players are indeed able to generate random sequences; they neither switch strategies too often nor too little.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A curious blind spot?</h2>
<p>But if we look a little deeper, one strange pattern emerges. Palacios-Huerta’s analyses tended to focus on whether a shot was from the striker’s dominant or opposite side – that is, whether a player shoots towards the left or the right of the goal.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.thestatszone.com/statistical-insight-into-penalty-shootouts-where-to-place-your-penalty">more recent dataset</a> looked at all penalty shootouts from the World Cup and UEFA European Championships from 1976 to 2016. </p>
<p>What stands out is that for 440 penalties in the database, goalkeepers only remained in the centre of the goal 3% of the time. Over this period, strikers aimed at the centre of the goal more than three times as often as goalkeepers remained central. </p>
<p>The success rate - the proportion of successful kicks - when shooting there was considerably higher than for the rest of the goal.</p>
<p>Similar studies of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4731201_Testing_Mixed-Strategy_Equilibria_When_Players_Are_Heterogeneous_The_Case_of_Penalty_Kicks_in_Soccer">French and Italian</a> and <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/news/317996">English</a> domestic leagues found the same pattern.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227105/original/file-20180711-27039-1fjoicw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Penalty success rate: Your best penalty shot is to aim for the centre top of the goal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.premierleague.com/news/317996">Based on English Premier League data from 2010/11 to 2016/17</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One particular type of centre shot is nicknamed a “Panenka”, after <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechstoday/antonin-panenka-the-footballer-pele-described-as-either-a-genius-or-a-madman">Czech player Antonin Panenka</a>. He calmly lofted the ball into the middle of the goal, scoring the final penalty in the 1976 European Championship to seal Czechoslovakia’s only major success.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The original Panenka penalty.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shame evasion or science?</h2>
<p>In the era of <a href="https://econfix.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/game-theory-penalties-and-the-champions-league-final-2008/">video analyses</a> and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/england-keeper-jordan-pickford-reveals-secret-water-bottle-message/news-story/d1457c140a1193ab38b6415e0db3b11c">analytics cheat sheets</a>, it seems odd that players should ignore what is potentially an advantageous decision. </p>
<p>Why don’t goalkeepers stay central more often? Similarly, if it is known that they do not, why don’t more strikers aim in the middle, where goalscoring is more probable?</p>
<p>Some suggested reasons have focused on the idea that players are not necessarily optimising their sporting outcome, but rather <a href="https://blog.innerdrive.co.uk/sports/the-psychology-of-perfect-penalties">performing within the bounds of what is expected of them</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trust-me-im-an-expert-what-is-sport-worth-98619">Trust Me, I'm An Expert: What is sport worth?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If a striker aims for the corner and the shot is saved, much of the credit goes to the goalkeeper. If the shot goes central and the keeper stops it by standing still, the striker looks foolish.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gooooaaaal … maybe not.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Conversely, if the goalkeeper stands still and is beaten, more blame may be apportioned than when diving towards one side, even if the sporting outcome is the same.</p>
<p>But statistically speaking, shooting a penalty towards the centre of the goal is a much better choice than most players realise.</p>
<p>Of course, the central shot is only more successful because goalkeepers don’t try to prevent it. If they do start to do so more often, then it would likely become the lowest percentage choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Woodcock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If any game comes down to a penalty shootout then there’s one spot a player should aim for to stand a better chance of scoring a goal.Stephen Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974812018-07-10T12:23:01Z2018-07-10T12:23:01ZThree Lions roar: the mixed fortunes of England’s football anthems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221970/original/file-20180606-137291-18ocjfx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will England be serenading its football heroes in 2018?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/doug88888/4550561194/">@Doug88888/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re fast approaching the final stages of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490">2018 World Cup</a> – and what a tournament it’s been. Germany going out in the group stages turned out to be more than just a chance for schadenfreude – but a harbinger for what has been possibly the most unpredictable World Cup in living memory. One by one, many of the remaining giants fell: Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Brazil. Meanwhile, England won their first-ever penalty shootout and are about to play only their second semi-final since winning the tournament in 1966.</p>
<p>As you’d expect, Baddiel & Skinner’s enduring anthem Three Lions <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44711564">has been sung</a> in pub beer gardens and in city squares since Harry Kane’s brace gave England a winning start to the tournament – their first in an opening World Cup game since Germany 2006.</p>
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<p>Scott Murray <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/may/29/englands-world-cup-musical-efforts-have-often-been-rewarded-on-the-pitch">suggested recently</a> in The Guardian that: “England’s World Cup musical efforts have often been rewarded on the pitch” – implying some correlation between the quality of England’s football anthems and the team’s performance. It only takes a <a href="http://riogoldhammer.com/blog/2018/7/4/every-england-football-anthem-since-1990-reviewed">quick look back through England’s football anthems</a> to suggest that this is debatable, to say the least.</p>
<p>Lonnie Donegan’s World Cup Willie in 1966 was a cheerful number that accompanied England’s first (and only) major tournament win and was based on the home team’s mascot. More than 50 years on, there doesn’t seem to be any record of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2639683/Englands-World-Cup-Hit-Parade-Lonnie-Donegan-Fat-Les-Ant-Dec-Three-Lions-John-Barnes-rapping.html">how the song performed in the charts</a>. Four years later in Mexico – with expectations high – the squad gave us <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag_ujTfx3ak">Back Home</a>, which reached number one in May 1970 (England, meanwhile, went out in the quarter finals to West Germany). </p>
<p>There followed lean years – England failed to qualify in 1974 and 1978. But in 1982, with New Wave, the New Romantics and Two Tone all the rage in the pop charts, England rather mystifyingly selected a song by Chris Norman and Pete Spencer of country band Smokie – possibly because they had written a pop song for England captain Kevin Keegan a couple of years before. The resulting song, This Time (We’ll Get it Right), reached number two in the charts, which was a whole lot better than the squad managed on the pitch, going out in the second group stage.</p>
<p>England’s 1986 campaign is largely remembered for the heartbreak of Maradona’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/apr/08/world-cup-moments-maradona-hand-god">Hand of God</a>” which denied the team a semi final berth. The team song, meanwhile – once again performed by the squad – was the instantly forgettable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emMosrLEqSk">We’ve Got the Whole World at Our Feet</a> by Tony Hiller, best known for the songs he wrote for <a href="http://www.brotherhoodofman.co.uk/">Brotherhood of Man</a>, winners of the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. No such luck for this song, which peaked at 66 in the UK charts. </p>
<p>The 1990 World Cup in Italy – which gave West Germany their third title – featured the now classic World in Motion, for which the England squad teamed up with New Order. It was England’s best World Cup performance since 1966 – and the team made a pretty good fist in the recording studio, too. With a contribution from Keith Allen and a rap by John Barnes, the song reached number one in the UK charts. England, meanwhile, went out in the semi finals to West Germany after – you’ve guessed it – a penalty shoot-out.</p>
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<h2>Three Lions with a side of Vindaloo</h2>
<p>It’s an irony that probably the best England football anthem was recorded for the Euros in 1996. The team had failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the US, but the European championships were in the UK, so football was indeed coming home – at least in one sense. </p>
<p>More than just being a brilliant song, Three Lions represents a narrative departure from previous football anthems. Rather than having the players appear on the record singing about playing for England, player cameos were limited to the video while the song itself was sung by The Lightning Seeds with comic duo Baddiel & Skinner and described the emotional rollercoaster that is supporting England’s football team (“30 years of hurt”). A subtle redirection, but one that would subsequently redefine the genre.</p>
<p>For France 1998, the FA commissioned an indie-pop hybrid supergroup starring the Spice Girls and Echo and the Bunnymen for the official anthem – the forgettable (How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World. But the chart was dominated by the rerelease of Three Lions and the hugely popular Vindaloo from Fat Les (which reached number two in the UK chart with a little help from Blur bassist Alex James and lyrics by Keith Allen). </p>
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<h2>Songs for the Golden Generation</h2>
<p>In 2002, all hopes were that England’s “Golden Generation” of Michael Owen, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney et al would restore the national team’s pride after the ignominy of going out to Argentina and the Beckham sending off in 1998. To serenade the team in Japan and South Korea, England had comedy duo Ant & Dec, who got to number three in the UK chart with We’re on the Ball. Sadly, on the pitch where it counted, Beckham and co were not as on the ball as Brazil, the eventual winners, who knocked England out at the quarter final stage.</p>
<p>And so to 2006 in Germany, where England went out once again at the quarter final stage, once again after a shoot-out – this time to Portugal. The song was Embrace’s tepid World at Your Feet, but the world was most definitely not at the feet of Stephen Gerrard, Frank Lampard or Jamie Carragher, all of whom missed their penalties. </p>
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<p>You have to fast forward to 2014 for the next official England football anthem, written for Sport Relief by Take That’s Gary Barlow and performed by a blended band with a smattering of Spice Girls and other pop singers teamed with former footballers including Gary Lineker, Glenn Hoddle and Sir Geoff Hurst. The song sank without trace, as did England’s football hopes as the team failed to get out of the group stages.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44711734">no official England anthem</a> for the 2018 World Cup (though there are some good unofficial efforts - The Tallywags in particular).
But one thing’s for sure, if Kane and his teammates succeed in ending 52 years of hurt on July 14, you’d be a fool to bet against Three Lions reaching number one as well.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/england-fans-sing-footballs-coming-home-but-where-is-home-really-99479?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">England fans sing ‘football’s coming home’ – but where is ‘home’ really?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-football-tournament-should-be-called-the-mens-world-cup-98348?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why this football tournament should be called the men’s World Cup</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-suddenly-get-into-football-during-the-world-cup-98812?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why do people suddenly ‘get into’ football during the World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rio Goldhammer is the founder of Bunnysnot Records. </span></em></p>England’s on-field performances have been matched by some fairly forgettable songs over the years.Rio Goldhammer, Doctoral Researcher in Leisure Studies, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/995402018-07-10T06:57:51Z2018-07-10T06:57:51ZWorld Cup: Russia isn’t safe for LGBT fans, and Qatar 2022 will be worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226615/original/file-20180708-122253-1q66d9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Luzhniki stadium will host the World Cup final on Sunday July 15.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/april-13-2018-moscow-russia-trophy-1070022389?src=yq7WjXm8KFsxHqLdw_SmoA-1-40">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thankfully or regrettably, depending on your point of view, the 2018 World Cup has so far been something of a triumph for FIFA and the hosts, Russia.</p>
<p>The football itself has sparkled, dramatic upset has followed dramatic upset, and Video Assistant Refereeing has kept all the pundits, if not happy then at least busy. Russian supporters have shed their reputation as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/06/13/euro-2016-150-trained-russian-hooligans-flew-to-marseille-to-sho/">battle-hardened hooligans</a>, and been embraced as consummate hosts even by <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/world-cup-fans-in-russia-agree-this-is-nothing-like-i-expected-1.3548637">the English fans, their sometime rivals</a>. With England through to the semi-finals, football - whisper it quietly - could even be “coming home”.</p>
<p>But these successes have left one pre-tournament talking point out of the headlines. What about LGBT supporters - a demographic once nearly invisible in football stadia, who have now become, with the establishment of out and proud LGBT fan groups, almost as ubiquitous as the halftime pies?</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226517/original/file-20180706-122268-1gip7jb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">LGBT football fans have had to be careful expressing their sexuality in Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-lesbians-german-sport-soccer-fans-175982471?src=4_0oolIqJx3cv_eZgIe01Q-1-97">shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>To knowingly understate the situation, Russia is not considered a friendly environment for the LGBT community. Before the tournament, there were well documented reports that LGBT fans would be <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/28/fifa-world-cup-2018-russia-gay-fans-stabbed/">“hunted down and stabbed”</a> if they dared display public signs of their sexuality.</p>
<p>Although Russia decriminalised gay sex in 1993, a new law was introduced in 2013 that banned <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/russia-law-banning-gay-propaganda">“propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”</a>. Before we fall over ourselves to condemn, it is worth noting that the law bears a remarkable similarity to Britain’s own hated <a href="https://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1384014531S28Background.pdf">Section 28</a>, which remained on the statute book from 1988 to 2003. </p>
<p>As in Britain during the <a href="http://www.jfsonline.org/issue1/pdfs/AndersonFINAL.pdf">homohysteria</a> of the 1980s and 90s, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-lgbt-crime/lgbt-hate-crimes-double-in-russia-after-ban-on-gay-propaganda-idUSKBN1DL2FM">LGBT hate crime</a> in Russia has spiked substantially since the new law. The official advice from the Football Supporters Federation was that it would be <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/england-fans-official-guide-warns-12641801">“extremely unwise”</a> to display any signs of LGBT sexuality, be it as simple as holding hands. Many LGBT supporters have stayed away - but not all. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/gaygooners/joe-going-to-the-world-cup">Joe White</a>, a member of Arsenal LGBT fan group the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/arsenalsLGBTfans/">Gay Gooners</a>, has gone to the tournament in a specifically LGBT capacity.</p>
<p>Joe sees the World Cup partially as an opportunity to raise awareness. “[LGBT Russians] think it’s brilliant that we’re going out there,” <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/fans-heading-to-world-cup-to-support-england-and-russias-lgbt-community-11398069">he said before the tournament</a>, “and that we’re going to be visible. A crucial part of our trip is to show solidarity and help however we can.” FIFA was “supportive”, White said, but he received <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/fans-heading-to-world-cup-to-support-england-and-russias-lgbt-community-11398069">emails and Facebook messages that weren’t</a>. “If you don’t behave,” one read, “you might end up losing your head”.</p>
<h2>A close contest</h2>
<p>FIFA governs the World Cup, wherever it resides, and despite granting Russia the tournament, it has always claimed strictly to oppose homophobia. So, what is it doing about it?</p>
<p>Despite the death threats, Joe was determined to unveil a <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/06/25/british-football-fan-told-to-take-down-rainbow-england-flag-at-russian-world-cup/">Rainbow Three Lions Pride flag</a> at the group stage clash between England and Panama. His flag was initially confiscated by a steward, but FIFA intervened and it took pride of place behind one of the goals. Football 1 – Homophobia 0.</p>
<p>Earlier in the competition, reports surfaced that a St Petersburg “diversity house”, designed as a safe space for LGBT fans during the tournament, had been <a href="https://themoscowtimes.com/news/lgbt-61867">forced to close</a> after objections from the landlord. A similar house in Moscow went ahead with full government support, but in St Petersburg intervention by FIFA failed to overturn the decision. Football 1 – Homophobia 1.</p>
<p>The next controversy came courtesy of the travelling fans from Mexico. Los Mexicanos have a longstanding tradition of serenading the opposition keeper with the word <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/18/puto-chants-mexico-football-world-cup">“puto”</a> – a derogatory term for a male sex worker – every time he’d take a goal kick. Fines and reprimands from FIFA failed to stop the practice – but an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/20/javier-hernandez-pleads-with-mexico-fans-to-stop-homophobic-puto-slur">appeal from Javier Hernandez’s Instagram</a> appeared to do the trick. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the star striker known as “little pea” had more influence than all of FIFA’s suits put together, and their match against South Korea went off <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/06/mexico-fans-stop-puto-chants-at-the-2018-world-cup.html">without any unpleasantness</a>. Football 2 – Homophobia 1.</p>
<h2>A rocky road ahead</h2>
<p>Given these efforts, it would be nice to think that things are improving for LGBT fans. Perhaps they are, but there is no guarantee that gay rights in Russia will reap any long-term benefit when the FIFA circus rolls out of town. FIFA’s commitment to influencing its host country’s discrimination laws will be tested at the next World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is a <a href="https://www.equaldex.com/region/qatar">criminal offence</a> punishable by jail.</p>
<p>When Qatar was granted the World Cup in 2010, then-FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, was pressed on the subject, and assured listening journalists that “I think there shall not be any discrimination”. Moments earlier he had “joked” that LGBT supporters should <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/dec/14/blatter-gay-fans-qatar-world-cup">“refrain from sexual activities”</a>. In reality, we can but hope that FIFA uses its influence to promote equality in the desert nation – which would certainly not be possible without the tournament.</p>
<p>Social campaigns have so far struggled to make an impact on the Qatari authorities – evidence from the campaign to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/qatar-2022-world-cup-workers-rights-kafala-system-migraints-middle-east-a8182191.html">improve workers’ rights</a> suggests that the battle will not be easy, but if FIFA really does commit to the cause then there is some hope for success. And with fans such as Joe White literally flying the flag for LGBT equality, there is more hope still.</p>
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<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-fifa-really-want-out-of-this-world-cup-97393?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">What does FIFA really want out of this World Cup?</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/kaliningrad-the-unique-world-cup-city-that-has-twice-tried-to-erase-its-past-98778?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Kaliningrad: the unique World Cup city that has twice tried to erase its past</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/world-cup-provides-plenty-of-drama-but-football-must-not-forget-its-social-responsibility-99061?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup provides plenty of drama – but football must not forget its social responsibility</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Russia and Qatar World Cups are backward steps for LGBT rights – unless FIFA can use the tournaments to achieve change.Andy Harvey, Lecturer in Sports and Exercise Science, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.