No Place for a Left-winger: The Historical Relationship Between Football and the FARC in Colombia

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and football in Colombia. It argues that until the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos, the FARC had been excluded from being part of the national ‘us’ when celebrating successes of the national men’s football team. In fact, sporting nationalism projects articulated around World Cup successes in 1962, 1990, 1994 and the Copa América in 2001 projected the national football team as being symbolically representative of a nation against an ‘other’ that was Colombia itself. This other was the ‘Narcolombia’ of the FARC, drug traffickers, violence, terrorism and criminality that had become notorious internationally, and was the image most associated with the country. This rhetorical positioning shifted under Santos, when football became a bridge to allow the FARC back into the nation given the political backdrop of the peace negotiations between the government and the FARC.

KEYWORDS:

• Colombia
• FARC
• football
• sporting nationalism
• sport for development and peace
• President Juan Manuel Santos
• FIFA World Cups

Notes on contributor

Peter J. Watson did his PhD thesis at the University of Sheffield on the use of football for nation building in Colombia during the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018). He has lectured on Latin American History, Politics, Literature, Film and Culture at the University of Leeds and is currently working at the National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy (NCELP), based at the University of York. His research interests include the history of Latin American sport, Sport for Development and Peace and cricket history.

Notes

1 The shirt of the national team displayed the hashtag #UnidosPorUnPaís (#UnitedForACountry), as an added message and symbol of unity.

2 Colombia had been losing 1–3, so the recovery to draw the game was seen as a heroic comeback. It featured the first (and still only) goal scored direct from a corner in a World Cup. The highlights of the match are regularly repeated on Colombian television, helping it become a national myth.

3 All translations from Spanish in this article are my own.

4 This caricature can be seen as one accompanying the online article ‘La caricatura social: moda y transgresiones’, by Beatriz González Aranda, http://www.banrepcultural.org/la-caricatura-en-colombia/texto19.html

5 Goals scored by Colombia on the Caracol television and radio broadcasts were followed by a salsa style jingle associated with the Caribbean region. Another jingle went ‘Sí, sí, Colombia, sí, sí Caribe (yes, yes, Colombia, yes, yes, Caribbean).

6 Gabriel García Márquez described the win as being one of only three important things that had happened in Colombia in the twentieth century (Campomar, 2014: 422). Additionally, the film Golpe de Estadio by Sergio Cabrera portrayed how football could transcend the Colombian conflict. It showed how guerrilla forces and state forces arranged a truce to watch the match together on the only television in the local town. Although this was a fictional account, former FARC combatant Jairo Camargo claimed that such an event actually happened in the department of Cauca. The interview can be heard here: http://unradio.unal.edu.co/nc/detalle/cat/de-porte-academico/article/deporte-paz-y-reconciliacion-iv.html.

7 FIFA named Colombia as hosts of the 1986 World Cup in 1974 after strong lobbying from President Misael Pastrana. However, following FIFA concerns about security and infrastructure, President Belisario Betancur on 25 October 1982 announced that Colombia would no longer host the tournament.

8 All data comes from analysis conducted as part of my PhD thesis. This particular chapter quantitatively and qualitatively analysed speech and Twitter content. Words and themes were collected at ‘nodes’ to see how often these words and themes were mentioned. The study also allowed me to see how often these words and themes appeared in close proximity to each other.

9 This speech was Santos’ first official speech having won the 2014 presidential election, a delivered wearing the Colombian football shirt.

10 The white shirt worn for the Copa América was seen regularly in organized events in favour of the ‘Yes’ vote for the plebiscite. In the ‘No’ events, the yellow shirt prevails, unsurprisingly.

11 The FARC were happy for these matches to take place, but the Santos government was less keen. Though they supported the idea of football matches for peace, they believed the matches should take place after a peace agreement had been signed (Shock, 2 June 2016)

12 The name commemorates the film referred to earlier in footnote 6.

13 A few examples of such pieces include: ‘Colombia’s Farc guerrillas turn to football as route back into society’, The Guardian, 11 October 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/11/colombia-football-farc-la-paz-fc [accessed 23 September 2019]; ‘in Pictures: A look at rebel life as historic Colombia - FARC peace deal is signed’, ABCNews, 24 August 2016, https://abcnews.go.com/International/pictures-rebel-life-historic-colombia-farc-peace-deal/story?id=41634333, [accessed 23 September 2019], ‘Colombian rebels prepare for peace; play football’, AP Archive, 17 November 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8StFFrxw5Bo [Accessed 23 September 2019].

14 Interviews with the Coldeportes coaches who were working in the ETCRs quoted in this article Bibiana Graciano, Juvenal Tangarife and Paulo Martínez, took place during a 2-day event hosted by Coldeportes on 22–23 October. All the coaches spoke about their experiences as part of the structured events of the day. The event was designed to provide a way to hear about the experiences, problems, solutions, successes and opinions that the coaches had. Clara Luz Roldán, the director of Coldeportes (2016–2018), was present on the second day of the event.