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The World Cup and Global Politics

07/08/2014

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I assure you it is much, much more important than that", Bill Shankly, the legendary former Liverpool-manager once said. In fact, football mobilizes collective emotions second to no other global game. It can inspire revolutions and cause wars as well as having the capability to create peace and lift entire nations. The "Football War" between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 is arguably the most famous example of the sport's wider implications.

That is why we ask our experts on Global Matters this week: Are football and the current World Cup worth being debated in terms of International Relations?

The first answer comes from Dorothea Schäfer. She says that football is a big business in the entertainment industry and asserts that we should focus on "whether FIFA has too much power and makes governments of emerging countries to waste money for huge arenas which afterwards have no benefit at all for the countries".

Join the debate at www.global-matters.org.

_{Photo: Paulisson Miura//Creative Commons}