‘Filip’ or flop? Managing public relations and the Latin American reaction to the 1966 FIFA World Cup

ABSTRACT

The 1966 FIFA World Cup has become part of the iconography of its hosts and champions, England. Extant literature has tended to focus on the cultural and symbolic legacy of the tournament, or engaged with diplomatic relations between Britain and North Korea. Contrastingly, we use archival sources from footballing and government institutions to explore the less studied topic of how the tournament was reported and perceived in Latin America, where England had commercial interests and influence, but where there were allegations that FIFA, the FA and even the UK government manipulated the tournament to the advantage of England and other European teams. We provide fresh perspectives on the social and cultural significance of the 1966 FIFA World Cup by analysing how the tournament’s organizers attempted to manage the situation and resulting negative public relations, and how 1966 fits within longer-term footballing and diplomatic relations between England and Latin America.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Tennent and Gillett, Foundations of Managing Sporting Events; Gillett and Tennent, ‘Dynamic Sublimes’; Tennent and Gillett, ‘Opportunities for all the Team’; Gillett and Tennent, ‘Shadow Hybridity’; Gillett, Tennent and Hutchinson ‘Beer and the Boro’; Warwick, ‘Northernness’; Hughson, England and the 1966 World Cup; Porter, ‘Egg and chips’; Critcher, ‘England and the World Cup’; Mason, ‘England 1966 and all that’; Mason, ‘England 1966ʹ; and Dietschy, ‘Making football global?’.

2. Tennent and Gillett, Foundations of Managing Sporting Events, 36–38; Howell, Made in Birmingham, 142–145.

3. Tennent and Gillett, Foundations of Managing Sporting Events.

4. Although many people who identify as Latin Americans reside in the USA and elsewhere, in this paper we are concerned with the countries of Latin America, rather than ex-patriot Latino/Hispanics and their descendants living in other countries.

5. Dietschy, ‘Making football global?’, 279. Mason, Passion of the People?, 1–44.

6. See Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 243–274.

7. Russell, Smith and Tennent, ‘Adolf Berle’s Critique of US’.

8. Most notably in Argentina, where nationalist politicians exploited the unpopularity of the British owned railways; and Lewis, Argentina, 131–132.

9. Miller, Britian and Latin America, 179–233.

10. Wilkins, ‘The free-standing company’; Jones, International Business in the Nineteenth Century; Miller, Britain and Latin America.

11. Jones, ‘Institutional Forms of British’, 34.

12. Mac OnIomaire and Gallagher, ‘Irish Corned Beef’, 29.

13. Lewis, Argentina; Boughey, ‘British overseas railways’; Miller, Britain and Latin America, 133–137.

14. Miller, ‘British Free-Standing Companies’.

15. Miller, Britain and Latin America, 162–164.

16. Ibid., 136–137.

17. Zepeda, ‘Argentina’, 102.

18. British Library – holdings: 1892–1974 General Reference Collection MFM.MF1327; 1975–95 General Reference Collection LOU.F1327.

19. Driver and Martins, ‘Views and Visions of the Tropical World’, 5–17.

20. Mignolo, The Idea of Latin America, xvii.

21. Doyle, ‘The Problem of Thor Bridge’.

22. Martins and Driver, ‘The Struggle for Luxuriance’, 59–74.

23. Fleming, Live and let die.

24. The cartoon was drawn by Jørgen Mogensen and Cosper Cornelius and ran from the late 1940s until the 1980s. It appeared in newspapers around the world including in the UK, France, USA and Australia. Nuttal, ‘Pesto = Alfredo = Moco’. An example of a British newspaper that carried Alfredo daily at the time of the 1966 tournament was the Manchester Evening News, 1966, passim.

25. Mason, Passion of the People; Brown, ‘British informal empire’, 172–73.

26. Vonnard and Quin, ‘Did South America Foster European Football?’.

27. Thomson, ‘This Spirit can win World Cup’.

28. Chisari, Age of Innocence, 260.

29. Elsey, ‘Football at the “end” of the world’, 176–77.

30. Tennent and Gillett, Foundations,129–33.

31. Chisari, Age of Innocence, 316–317.

32. The National Archives, UK (TNA), FO371/184,938, Sport: Problems of Hotel Accommodation for the World Cup.

33. TNA FO953/2334, telegram no. 1670.

34. TNA FO953/2334.

35. Robinson et al., ‘1966 Uncovered’, 163–164; and Shiel, Voices, memory of C. Poole, 88–89, 92.

36. FIFA TV, ‘At the Start of the England-Argentina Rivalry’.

37. TNA FO 371/184,669, Letter from Chancery, British embassy in Argentina, to American Department, Foreign Office, 5 August 1966.

38. ‘Football: Foul Statistics – From London Without Much Love’, The Review of the River Plate CXL, no. 30 July 3610, 1966, 146–47.

39. TNA FO 953/2334, Foreign Office Telegram no. 555 to Buenos Aires.

40. TNA FO 953/2334, Memo, Confidential: From Foreign Office to Buenos Aires, 8 August 1966.

41. Howell, Made in Birmingham, 173.

42. TNA FO 953/2334, Confidential Memo from La Pas to the Foreign Office, 2 August 1966.

43. Pelé and Fish, ‘A False Confidence’, 259.

44. Banks, ‘Kicked out of the Cup’, 287.

45. Pelé and Fish, ‘Throwing in the Towel’, 259; ‘Football: Foul Statistics – From London Without Much Love’, The Review of the River Plate, vol. CXL No. 30 July 3610, 1966, 146–47.

46. TNA FO 953/2334, Letter from J. W. R. Shakespear, British Embassy, Rio de Janeiro, to G. S. Littlejohn Cook, Joint Information Policy & Guidance Department, Foreign Office. ‘President of F.I.F.A. denies charges.’ Times [London, England], 26 August 1966: 5; Pelé and Fish, ‘A False Confidence’; Pelé and Fish, ‘Throwing in the Towel’.

47. TNA FO 953/2334, Telegram no. 1670 to Rome.

48. TNA FO 953/2334, Translation, ‘Brazil and the World Cup, ‘Diario de Noticias’, 26 August 1966.

49. TNA FO 953/2334, Letter from John Shakespear to Caroline Petrie, Joint Information Policy and Guidance Dept., 15 September 1966; Letter from D M H Young to Denis Follows, 5 October 1966.

50. TNA FO 953/2334, Letter from Denis Follows to D M H Young, 7 October 1966; Letter from D M H Young to Denis Follows, 14 October 1966.

51. TNA FO 953/2334, Letter from J W R Shakespear, 14 October 1966.

52. Banks, ‘Kicked out of the Cup’, Pelé, 287.

53. Polley, ‘The Diplomatic Background’; Tennent and Gillett, Foundations of Managing Sporting Events, 42–48.

54. TNA FO 953/2334, Draft Telegram to Rome, 1670, Telegram to Buenos Aires, no. 537. Goodwin, ‘Anglo-Argentine Commercial Relations.’ 30.

55. TNA FO 953/2334, ‘La Copa Mundial, or The Twist in Willie’s Tale’, letter dated 27 July 1966, from the British Embassy, Montevideo to the Foreign Office.

56. TNA FO 953/2334, letter dated 5 August 1966, from Miss P. E. Hutchinson, the British Embassy, Lima to David F. Duncan at the Foreign Office.

57. TNA FO 953/2334, letter dated 4 August 1966 from D. C. Crichton, British Embassy, La Paz, to Foreign Office.

58. TNA FO 953/2334, Circular IPG 2/546/2, Miss J. C. Petrie, dated 12 August.

59. TNA FO 953/2334, letter dated 5 August 1966 from Leonard Scopes, British Embassy, Asuncion, to Miss J. C. Petrie and letter dated 30 August 1966 from D. M. Spedding, British Embassy, Santiago to Miss J. C. Petrie. The 5 August letter would seem to be misdated as it refers to Petrie’s correspondence of August 12 – it arrived in London on September 14.

60. Miller, ‘British Free-Standing Companies’, 243.

61. TNA FO 953/2334, letter dated 25 August 1966 from Geoffrey Kirk, British Embassy, San Salvador, to Miss J. C. Petrie.

62. Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 627–640.

63. Miller, Britain and Latin America, 227–230.

64. Searcey, ‘Bobby Moore and the Bogota Bracelet’.

65. Orihuela, ‘Military Tactics’.

66. BBC Sport, ‘Argentina FA fined £20,000’.

67. Waterson, ‘Columbian Ambassador complains about Sun’s “GO KANE!” front page’.

68. Sunday Express online, ‘Gary Lineker Says Diego Maradona is “Good With His Hands”’.

69. Burt, ‘Why South American strikers are best in Premier League’.

70. Gaines, ‘Here are all 3 times Suarez has bitten opponents’.