Politics, as Usual, Is Ugliest of Games
Those whose imagination does not stretch beyond a short fly ball or an underthrown pass find it difficult to grasp the degree to which international politics can affect a sport such as soccer.
But it does, and in the past week political ineptitude in Washington and political skulduggery in Abuja, Nigeria, threatened to ruin not one but two continental championships.
On Wednesday, at Anaheim Stadium, the third CONCACAF Gold Cup for the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean will begin--but only because a couple of astute diplomats, Henry Kissinger included, were able to open some doors that otherwise might have remained closed.
Next Saturday, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the African Nations Cup will begin--but without defending champion Nigeria because not all the sporting and political weight of the continent could persuade the country’s military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, to allow Nigeria’s team to participate.
As a result, on Saturday Guinea was named to replace Nigeria in the Jan. 13-Feb. 3 championship, the first to be played in South Africa. But sympathies have to lie with Nigeria’s players, who desperately wanted to compete, and its fans, who wanted to see them do so.
Abacha claimed that Nigerian players could not be adequately protected during the tournament, but his real motive was to embarrass South African President Nelson Mandela, who has vocally denounced Abacha’s hanging of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental activists last Nov. 10.
“It appears to be a cynical attempt to use the Nigerian national team as a political pawn in its strategy to prevent movement toward democracy,” said a statement issued by the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party.
Abacha even tried to bribe his countrymen by offering the team a $10,000 consolation prize for missing the tournament. To his credit, Nigeria’s captain, Augustine Eguavon, said his team would rather play.
“We have our prestige [as Africa’s leading soccer-playing nation] to protect,” he said.
Forward Samson Siasia was even more outspoken. “I’m ready to buy bullet-proofs to play,” he told Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Their protests, and others, were in vain as Abacha rejected all appeals, just as he had in the case of his executed adversaries.
The Nigerian people are bitterly disappointed by it all, but equally powerless, given the circumstances. But they will recall this moment.
The Romans used bread and circuses to control their people, and Abacha, although he might be unable or unwilling to understand it, has sown the seeds for his eventual overthrow by taking away Nigeria’s circus.
Meanwhile, under the big tent along the Potomac, things were far less dire but no less complicated. While Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and their cohorts kept the government shut down with their dreary budget battle, the effect--in soccer terms--was being felt as far south as Rio de Janeiro.
The government shutdown meant U.S. embassies were unable to issue visas, and the closer the Jan. 10-21 Gold Cup approached, the more acute the problem became.
The United States and Canadian players did not need visas, and most of those from Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador already had theirs. But trouble was brewing in Honduras, Guatemala, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and, especially, Brazil, which threatened to withdraw if the visas were not forthcoming.
It all added up to a long week for Chuck Blazer, the normally genial general secretary of CONCACAF, who called in some politically powerful allies to help resolve the situation.
“The problem really came up when the different countries came back to work after the holiday weekend and went in to try to get the visas,” Blazer said. “So Tuesday was the first time we really became aware that we had a problem.
“We spoke to Henry [Kissinger’s] office on Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning he had sent a letter off to Secretary [of State Warren] Christopher advising him of the situation, purely as a fan and a friend, and letting him know the ramifications of it.
“Henry also made a number of calls to the White House, and we had other friends, including the guy who was [involved in] this whole shutdown, an old-time soccer guy [John Koskinen, a deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget and head of the Washington venue for World Cup ‘94].
The next few days gave Blazer a close-up course in diplomacy.
“What I’ve gone through has been a very interesting experience in dealing with the federal government,” he said.
By Friday, all was resolved.
“It was a really sticky situation,” Blazer said. “There was a significant amount of grief, rescheduling flights and so forth and the costs associated with that. But we’re just happy everything is back on schedule.”
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Soccer Notes
The Tampa Bay Mutiny achieved a long-sought goal by acquiring Colombian midfielder Carlos Valderrama, giving Coach Thomas Rongen a playmaker to build a competitive team around. . . . Major League Soccer added the final piece to its coaching puzzle when the New England Revolution signed Ireland’s Frank Stapleton as coach. The breakdown of the 10 coaches shows three from England, two from the United States and one each from Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and South Africa. . . . Eight Californians are among the 30 players invited by Coach Tony DiCicco to the U.S. women’s Olympic team training camp near Orlando, Fla. They are goalkeeper Mary Harvey of Los Altos, defenders Joy Fawcett of Huntington Beach and Lorrie Fair of Los Altos, midfielders Julie Foudy of Mission Viejo, Tisha Venturini of Modesto and Tiffany Roberts of San Ramon, and forwards Brandi Chastain of San Jose and Shannon MacMillan of Escondido. . . . FIFA on Monday will name its world player of the year for 1995. The finalists are George Weah of AC Milan and Liberia, Jurgen Klinsmann of Bayern Munich and Germany and Paolo Maldini of AC Milan and Italy.
