Soccer in Sun and Shadow

Happiness

Five thousand journalists from all over the world, a sumptuous media center, impeccable stadiums, gleaming new airports: Argentina was a model of efficiency. Veteran German reporters confessed that the ’78 World Cup reminded them of the ’36 Olympics in Berlin when Hitler pulled out all the stops.

The cost was a state secret. Many millions of dollars were spent and lost — how many, it was never known — so that the smiles of a happy country under military tutelage would be broadcast to the four corners of the earth. Meanwhile, the top brass who organized the World Cup carried on with their plan of extermination, for reasons of war or just to be sure. “The final solution,” as they called it, murdered thousands of Argentines without leaving a trace — how many, it was never known. Anyone who tried to find out was swallowed up by the earth. Curiosity, like dissent, like any question, was absolute proof of subversion. The president of the Argentine Rural Society, Celedonio Pereda, declared that thanks to soccer, “there will be no more of the defamation that certain well-known Argentines have spread through the Western media with the proceeds from their robberies and kidnappings.” You could not criticize the players, not even the manager. The Argentine team stumbled a few times in the championship, but local commentators were obliged to do nothing but applaud.

To make over its international image, the dictatorship paid an American public relations firm half a million dollars. The report from the experts at Burson-Marsteller was titled What Is True for Products Is Also True for Countries. Admiral Carlos Alberto Lacoste, the strongman of the World Cup, explained in an interview: “If I go to Europe or to the United States, what will impress me most? Tall buildings, huge airports, terrific cars, fancy candies…”

The Admiral, an illusionist skilled at making dollars evaporate and sudden fortunes appear, took the reins of the World Cup after the previous officer in charge was mysteriously assassinated. Lacoste managed immense sums of money without any oversight, and because he wasn’t paying close attention, it seems he ended up keeping some of the change. Even the dictatorship’s own finance minister, Juan Alemann, took note of the squandering of public funds and asked a few inconvenient questions. The Admiral had the habit of warning: “Don’t complain if later on somebody plants a bomb…”

A bomb did explode in Alemann’s house at the very moment when Argentineans were celebrating their fourth goal against Peru.

When the Cup was over, in gratitude for his hard work, Admiral Lacoste was named vice president of FIFA.