May 31, 2002 was officially winding down my first year as a teacher at Riverdale High School. While the school year was ending, one of my favorite life obsessions was just beginning… it was time for the quadrennial gathering of the world’s football elite known as the World Cup. I had school on the opening day, and throughout the day threatened public 4th Quarter failures to any student who shared the score for that opening game, as I had the VCR humming and could not wait for this 5th version of the WC in my lifetime as a fan. As my parking lot duty wound down and the last students fled for the sanctity of not being at school, a car full of my soccer boys left the lot, yelling through open windows “Senegal 1, France 0!” My first thought was “Those boys boys are dead” when I get them next on the training field… followed immediately by “They’re lying”.

You see, the Opening Game of the World Cup at that time was always played with the current World Champion as they begin their defense of the venerable Jules Rimet trophy. France was not only the World Champion, but they were also the European Champions (arguably a more difficult title to win). Not only that, but their opponents from Senegal had never played in this competition before, while France was quite literally the OG World Cup team, having organized and played in the very first World Cup in 1930 (very first game too when they beat Mexico 4-1 in Montevideo, Uruguay).

While the score WAS correct… and the actions of those savage HS boys DID ruin my Opening Game experience… I was overjoyed! WHY?? A tiny amount of justice for the uncountable sins of European imperialism! In his article “At the World Cup, the Empire Strikes Back” Dayo Olopade shares a posthumous essay from an obscure Nigerian literary magazine called Third World First written by anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. Biko’s essay was written to destroy the “lie” of white supremacy and black inferiority. He’s referring, of course, to the period of history, starting with Spain & Portugal’s “discovery” and subsequent conquest and total humiliation of the “New World” and culminating in Europe’s almost universal conquest and total humiliation of Africa (and large parts of Asia too- with the Middle East included there as well…I only include this tidbit as what we call the “Middle East” is of course just SW Asia). Biko further states “To make the lie live even longer, blacks have to be denied any chance of accidentally proving their equality with white men.”

The World Cup, since its very beginning, was the vehicle to allow BILLIONS of former colonial subjects to disprove this myth… spitting firmly in the eye of disgusting generations of Social Darwinistic belief… the pseudo-science allowing people in the Western World to believe that we are “scientifically” smarter, more industrious, more human and just naturally better than all non-white peoples (cricket has served the same role in South Asia). Historical tidbit… Social Darwinism was a POWERFUL FORCE in the USA until a little thing called WW2 pretty much made views like this, well, finally unacceptable. Oh, these beliefs also have NO IMPACT at all in terms of being foundations for the disgusting stereotypes that exist into today’s world (remember, in order to justify the conquest, subjugation, humiliation and outright crimes against humanity, people had to work hard to convince the public that these were beasts, not humans).

So what? And, better yet, how does this involve football? Well, my cultured friends, in Congo alone, King Leopold will use these concepts of superiority to murder 10 million Congolese as they harvested rubber for Belgian exports. In 1907, German soldiers will machine gun nearly 200,000 Africans in their colony that is now Tanzania (15 Germans died in this Maji Maji Rebellion…it was only one quick rebellion too, not a long, drawn out conflict) …all because the Tanzanians didn’t want to be gang-pressed into forced labor to build roads, railroads and harvest cotton in their own land (the famine that ensued will kill upwards of 1 million more). In Kenya alone, the British rounded up Kenyans into what would now be called concentration camps, committed acts of the most unspeakable torture and killed in the 100s of thousands (these records have all been recently discovered and they document all of these heinous actions which forced the Crown to admit their guilt). That was only Kenya…Britain had a few more African colonies (and all of South Asia too). The French did the same in Northern Africa (and Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos). The Dutch dominated and abuse the peoples of the island nations in SE Asia as they dominated the world spice trade (the best Dutch players of all-time include several from Suiname- Ruud Gullit & Frank Rijkaard to name two, but when you see black players in the Orange of the Netherlands…they come from this tragic past). Spain and Portugal plundered, robbed, raped and murdered their colonies for almost 400 years while draining TRILLIONS of dollars of wealth in silver alone that helped build the “advanced societies” of Europe while these regions suffer in poverty to this day (anyone ever wonder why the Latin name for silver is Argentum 🤯?). Indian historians and economists reckon that Britain stole 45 TRILLION English Pounds worth of wealth during its colonial rule (watch this 4 minute clip where Vijay Preshad lays this out in no unceratin circumstances https://youtu.be/Sj_ficQFz1o?si=fNwEE5i187dpcOFL ). With this theft of un-imagined magnitude, Europe made the societies they have and the regions who made it possible…live in awful poverty and misery (and then claimed it was all down to their superiority & “their” savagery).

History is stupid. There is nothing you can ever learn from the past and it should never be studied.

On May 31, 2002, the former French colony Senegal squared off against their former colonial overlords on the field of sport. The very chance Stephen Biko bemoaned of never having so that black men could finally spit on the lie of black inferiority had arrived. France’s Patrick Vieira, with both parents being Senegalese, faced off against the country of his roots. When Papa Bouba Diop hit the net in the 30th minute… he did so not only for the people of Senegal, but for ALL peoples everywhere who suffered under the inhumanity of imperialism. France, despite all of their “inherent superiority”, went from this defeat to become the first WC Champion to not advance past the first round (Senegal went onto the Quarterfinals).

It wasn’t always so easy for (Former) Empires to Strike Back. In a clever, and certainly cheeky, move to be seen as progressive, the 1966 World Cup in England granted all of Africa exactly 1/2 slots in the tournament (not 1… 1/2). Seems a little like our 3/5 Compromise (stop making sense history- these are coincidences, nothing more). Africa’s first WC team was Zaire in 1974 and one of my initial soccer heroes, wee Billy Bremner, spent all 90 minutes of Scotland’s game with Zaire calling them all the N-word while kicking them into oblivion (Bremner was a hero of mine… I named a doggie after him… until I discovered he was a vile racist). In 1982, Algeria and Cameroon dazzled the world, but failed to get past the first round (albiet, wait for it, some backdoor shadiness and colluding to make certain that “deserving Europeans” advanced. The tale was again rooted in term of Social Darwinism… such great athletes, with incredible skills…. but lacking in tactical understanding and the rigid discipline of Europeans (if only they could understand this game…). This all changed in 1990 when Cameroon decked the World Champions Argentina in the opening game and went to the Quarterfinals where they ultimately fell to England after dominating most of the game (Fun Note- I watched this game live on one of those giant old satellite dishes, before the age of global telecommunications. At halftime, there was no halftime show with analysis…only a video feed of the stadium…and a live microphone that wasn’t supposed to be live. With the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon winning 1-0, 2 English commentators provided lines of permanent class: “Things are looking “dark” for England” followed by chuckles…”It’s as if England are chasing shadows”… more giggles. Imprinted on me forever.)

This pattern repeats anytime Spain plays…well, the entirety of Central & South America. Or when Portugal plays Brazil (and Portugal’s use of plantation slavery certainly has no impact on Futebol Brasiliero or Brazilian society today in general).

Wait, it gets better! World War I and Wold War II devastated the male populations of all European countries for two successive generations. When it came time to rebuild and then get back to business of being serious, industrious Europeans…there wasn’t enough Europeans to do so. Solution? Open up immigration from the colonies! England saw millions of Jamaicans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, and South Asians immigrate. Germany saw millions of Turks immigrate as Gastarbeiter– Guest Workers. France had millions of Algerians, Senegalese, Cameroonians immigrate. These immigrants REBUILT EUROPE, yet received only scorn, discrimination and hatred. However, football was a major path to integration and acceptance… as long as they scored goals. They’re French (or German, or English) until they make a mistake. As Louis- George Tin puts it: ““It was the case with tennis champion Yannick Noah, for example,” Tin says. “When he won, it was ‘France won,’ and when he lost, it was ‘The Cameroonian lost again.’ It happens all the time, including in soccer and its (France’s) national team. When the Black Blanc Beur team won, it was a win for France, and when they lost, it was “there are too many blacks in the French team.” (Black Blanc Beur- Black, White and Arab- refers to the 1998 French World Champions… their greatest ever player, Zidane is Algerian- Buer, while many were black players with colonial pasts). When three young black English players, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Sako and Jadon Sancho missed penalties in the 2020 Euro Final…the racist abuse they received online was disgusting (if only they had scored, they’d be English heroes forever).

Many of you are reading this, OK 5 of you are reading this, and thinking “Thank God the USA never did this.” Thank goodness we don’t really study history when it paints our project of human dignity, freedom and equality in painful lights. When the many revolutions that swept the Spanish and Portuguese out of the “New World”, the US swept in with policies of neocolonialism, in which we propped up military dictators (Caudillos) who began a new phase of abuse in the lives of our neighbors to the south. These peoples wanted nothing more than to follow in our footsteps to create constitutional democracies in the thinking of Simon Bolivar’s vision of Gran Columbia, where he hoped to create a United States of South America. This is when capital stepped in and said “Hold my beer!” We (and Europe) were desperate for the fruit, sugar, coffee and cacao that we cannot grow in our climates… and we certainly weren’t going to pay its full worth! We were happy to invest the equivalent of $$ billions in these infant republics struggling for survival in a world of circling sharks. Our money wasn’t meant to benefit the people Guatemala, Columbia, El Salvador, etc… it was meant ONLY for the cash crops listed above (no infrastructure for future society- only cash crops!). Leaders were put in place to protect these investments at all costs (whatever you do, DO NOT GOOGLE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS…). From there, it’s a straight line to dictator after dictator leading societies where the masses don’t matter, violence rules the day and only the elite can prosper (mostly… of European descent, cough, cough). This certainly has no connection to the human catastrophe at our border or our immigration “crisis” (I wonder, why was it OK for our European ancestors to flee feudalism, absolute monarchy and lives with no hope, but when others do so…they’re illegal? Again, DO NOT GOOGLE when we began instituting immigration laws). The painting below is Gloriosa Victoria by Diego Rivera detailing Guatemala’s experience of the CIA overthrowing it’s duly elected leader whose major sin was…nationalizing the lands in Guatemala that made United Fruit Company RICH, while decimating Guatemala (not happy with picture quality, but it shows John Foster & Allen Dulles- Secretary of State & CIA Director- shaking hands with the “hand-picked” new dictator, while President Eisenhower’s face rests on the bomb in the forefront).

This all shows itself when the USA qualifies for the World Cup. Our qualifying region (CONCACAF) consists of North & Central America and the nations of the Caribbean (the old sugar plantation slave societies). If you’ve ever heard of the US Men’s National Team players having bags of urine thrown at them during games, or if not urine being thrown, it’s batteries, or how our team hotel will have the hot water turned off as 100’s of cars gather outside the hotel to honk horns all night so that our boys can’t sleep as they try to prep for a qualifying game played in the most remote & hostile environments on offer…this is why. These are all countries that have seen invasions by the Marines in order to protect US-owned fruit operations. These are all countries who have seen their wealth drained for generations to benefit consumers in “advanced” countries, while their people have no choice for survival but to labor in debt peonage to the tiny handful of landowners backed by the military dictator (the enitre country and all the land of El Salvador at one point was owned BY 13 FAMILIES…who got that land by doing the bidding of the Caudillo, backed by US money and weapons). Guess what happens to anybody who tries to upset that status quo? Remember, I told you, under no circumstances, should you Google School of the America’s… When the public hears of these scenarios playing out, their first thought is, “Yup sounds right… backwards, poor people acting like barbarians” and yet I’m betting close to 95% of our public has never heard of the Banana Republic Wars (no, it’s not two rival franchises trying outsell tropical shorts). Or that Hawaii “became” American because Sanford Dole of Dole Fruit fame didn’t want to pay tariffs on his fruit, so he organized a coup to overthrow the last monarch of Hawaii, Queen Liliuokalani, and absorb it into US territory (the Hawaiians voted against becoming a state…didn’t matter, wasn’t about them. And if you’ve ever been to Hawaii, good luck finding any actual Hawaiians. Seems like indigenous people have a bad habit of falling into “hard times” around our lot).

I hear all the time, “Man, Jon, why are soccer fans so crazy?” It will never make sense unless you understand history. These aren’t just games when your opponent annihilated your society. I get Michigan and Ohio State are bitter rivals, but Michigan never enslaved Ohioans. Cleveland never invaded Pittsburgh with small pox before forcing the good people of Pittsburgh on death marches to harvest silver.

So, once again, we see that history is stupid and there is nothing we can ever learn about our current world by studying stupid things like the past (especially if it involves “them”).