Sport, football, politics: an explosive cocktail?

Will or will not watch the FIFA World Cup in Qatar? The question is legitimate for several reasons that we know, but the politics that mixes football and sport is nothing new. The Olympic Games and major football competitions are often the subject of political debate, firstly because these competitions are often mega popular. At certain times, in certain countries, these were even conditions of peace. When the Olympic Games were reborn in 1896, the objective was also to pacify tense international relations. Conversely, the Olympic Games have sometimes created great tension. Let us remember the 1936 Olympics, organized by Nazi Germany as a huge propaganda operation, France was torn over the participation of French athletes. There will even be a vote in the National Assembly to say whether or not France is funding the trip of the 200 athletes to Berlin, and the vote is amazing (with our eyes of 2022, it is always important to put yourself back in the context) and I also recall this anecdote in tribute to Pierre Mendès-France who died just forty years ago: during this vote in parliament, only one man voted against, faithful to his principles: Pierre Mendès-France. But sometimes a single match is enough to stir up tensions, between communities or between countries. In this regard, we could mention Peppone and Don Camillo (the Dynamo of Peppone, communist mayor, against La gaillarde du curé). More seriously, let’s remember the France-Germany match in the 1982 World Cup. No one has forgotten the image of these two people from Lorraine on all the screens in the world: Michel Platini who is holding the hand of Patrick Battiston, lifeless, on the stretcher, after a dirty blow from the German goalkeeper. The sporting event had subsequently taken on some political allure, with historical allusions: injured France against brutal Germany, sending us back to dark moments in our history. The politics that mixes with sport, we also find it in the choice of the names of stadiums in France, Jacques-Chaban-Delmas stadium in Bordeaux or Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille… which they have the indelicacy to rename recently Decathlon-Arena-Pierre-Mauroy stadium. In Lorraine, the main stadiums are not tied to politics: Marcel Picot was an entrepreneur and sports fan behind the construction of the stadium; as for the Colombière stadium in Epinal, it is quite simply that in the past a breeding of pigeons and doves was housed here. Whether or not we watch the World Cup in Qatar, we still hope that France will not be the turkey of the farce of this competition under a bell that it has so wanted and promoted so much.