Mexico 1970: football and multiple forms of modern nation-building during the 1970 World Cup

ABSTRACT

From 1940 onwards, Mexico experienced economic growth and appeared politically stable. For more than three decades, the Mexican Government tried to disseminate the achievements of the ‘Mexican miracle’ through cultural diplomacy. Sport was one of the many avenues used to present modernity and development. The 1968 Olympic Games and the 1970 World Cup were only two years apart; nevertheless, the people behind their organization and the strategies they implemented were different. The 1968 Olympic Games was an ambitious governmental project to reshape the image of Mexico. In contrast, the 1970 World Cup displayed a different image of modernity. The organizers used television broadcasts to sell football both domestically and abroad. The organizers’ control over professional football and television broadcasting in Mexico influenced the changes that resulted from the World Cup. The study of the people and ideas behind Mexico ’70 is relevant to understanding the development of the Mexican television complex and its repercussions on the public sphere, while it also sheds light on how local networks contribute to the commercialization and commodification of football.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the author.

Notes

1. Among the studies on Mexico ’70 we can find: Brewster and Brewster, ‘“He Hath Not Done This … ”’ and Sotelo, Crónica del fútbol mexicano. Another important perspective on football networks is women’s participation. For a history of women’s football in Mexico and Latin America, see: Elsey and Nadel, Futbolera.

2. NA, ‘México promueve la paz universal’, La afición, 1 November 1964, 3.

3. Manzo, ‘Visualising modernity’, 175. For a study on the corporatist networks behind the South African World Cup, see: Cornelissen ‘Football’s Tsars’, 131–143.

4. FIFA Archive (hereafter FIFAA), Helmut Käser to the Mexican Football Federation, 27 September 1962.

5. Just as for any revolutionary process, the chronology has been contested. The Mexican revolution began in 1910, but the conflicts and restructuring of the state continued for several years.

6. For studies on the use of sport in the post-revolutionary period, see: Angelotti, ‘Deporte y nacionalismo en México … ’, 1–32; Chávez, ‘Construcción de la nación y el género … ’, 43–58; Sacristán, ‘Para integrar a la nación’.

7. Hygiene campaigns had a history prior to the Mexican Revolution. For a study of these, see: Garrido. Para sanar, fortalecer y embellecer los cuerpos.

8. Brewster and Brewster, ‘Football in Mexico’, 200.

9. Torres, ‘The Latin American “Olympic explosion” of the 1920 s’, 1088–1111; McGehee. ‘The origins of Olympism in Mexico’, 313–332; ‘The rise of modern sport in Guatemala … ’, 132–140.

10. Goldblatt, The Ball is Round; Mason, Passion of the People?

11. Wood, ‘Reading the Game’, 266–284; Brown. ‘British Informal empire and the Origins of Association Football in South America’, 169–182.

12. Brewster and Brewster, ‘Football in Mexico’, 543.

13. Ibid., 545.

14. Ibid., 544.

15. For an analysis of the Pan-American Games, see the special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 33, 2016. Concerning the use of sports events for diplomacy, see Dichter and Johns, Diplomatic Games.

16. FIFA, Antonio Ortiz to FIFA, 4 September 1962. In this letter, the secretary of FEMEXFUT confirms Mexico’s intention to organize the 1970 World Cup. In the letter, Ortiz also suggests that this was first stipulated in a document sent to FIFA in 1958.

17. Gillingham and Smith, Dictablanda.

18. It is important to highlight that, as leading figures of radio and television broadcasting, Emilio Azcárraga Milmo and Romulo O’Farrill Jr were part of the Radio and Television Section for the XIX Olympic Games. Their goal during the XIX Olympiad was to ‘create a profound and positive collective consciousness in all Mexicans to make the capital the most important host destination in the history of the modern Olympic Games’. Zaragoza, ‘Muy adelantados se encuentran … ’ in La Afición, 28.

19. ‘Tópicos: Televisa’, Excélsior, https://www.excelsior.com.mx/topico/televisa (Accessed on 22 February 2019). In 1973, Telesistema Mexicano and Televisión Independiente de México merged, forming Televisa (Televisión Vía Satélite), and a stronger television broadcasting industry came to existence.

20. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 2, 16, Dirección de Asuntos Culturales (Hereafter, DAC), Box 93–1(2ª), Archivo Diplomático Mexicano (Hereafter, ADM).

21. Brewster and Brewster, Football in Mexico, 547.

22. Ventura, México 86, 33 in Brewster and Brewster, ‘“He hath not done this for any other country”’, 204; Vonnard and Quin, ‘Did South America foster European football?’

23. For an analysis of the repercussions of television in the commercialization of sport, see: Barney, Wenn, and Martyn, Selling the five rings.

24. After the 1970 World Cup, Cañedo became the founder and president of the song festival of the Organización de la Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI). Cañedo’s association with João Havelange grew stronger as the years went by. Havelange had represented Brazil at the 1936 Olympics and studied law. A few years later, he became the president of the swimming federation and then the Brazilian Confederation of Sports (CBD). Havelange was a member of the IOC from 1963 until 2011 when he resigned due to ‘health reasons’, although there are claims that this might have been due to FIFA’s scandals of corruption at the time. Havelange toured the world lobbying for votes. His campaign was built around inclusion in FIFA’s activities. This resonated with the newly independent states. For an analysis of sport directives and their trajectories, see: Bayle and Clastres, Global Sport Leaders as well as Vonnard and Sbetti, ‘João Havelange’.

25. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 3, ‘World leaders for 1970,’ 16. DAC, Box 93–1(2ª), ADM.

26. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 4, ‘World leaders for 1970. Ramón Alatorre,’ 16. DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

27. Brewster and Brewster, ‘Football in Mexico,’ 547.

28. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 3, ‘Magic Words: The Aztec Stadium’, 6. DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

29. Ferrer, ‘Protección a la arquitectura colonial … ’ in La Afición, 5.

30. FIFAA, J. Antonio Ortiz to FIFA, 4 September 1962.

31. Zaragoza, ‘El deporte es la máxima expresión de la universalidad … ’, in La Afición, 7.

32. Castro Valle, Mexican Embassy in Czechoslovakia, to Jesús Cabrera Muñoz Ledo, Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, 15 October 1969, DAC, B93-1 (4ª) 1970, ADM.

33. ‘32nd & 34th FIFA Congresses’, FIFA.com, http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2013/m=2/news=african-emergence-32nd-fifa-congress-rome-1960-and-34th-congress-tokyo-1-2014923.html (Accessed on 20 May 2018).

34. Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA, 885.

35. The executive members from Latin America were Uncula (Uruguay), Murgel (Brasil), Carbonell (Colombia) and Cañedo (Mexico).

36. FP, ‘Comenzaron los trabajos preliminares … ’ in La Afición, 7. The article also reports the risk that cycling and football be withdrawn from the Olympic programme given their open commercialization. For an analysis of Africa’s boycott of the 1966 World Cup as well as the politics of African football see: Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA, 885–888.

37. NA, ‘Salieron ayer los delegados mexicanos … ’, La Afición, 4.

38. The Mexican delegation was made up of: Antonio Obregón, Ignacio Gómez Urquiza, Alberto Gómez Obregón, Jorge Antonio Plata, Jenaro Pérez González, José Jaime Morales, Joaquín Soria Terrazas, Benjamín Joaquín Soria Terrazas, Benjamín Burillo, Luis Gutiérrez, Jesús Soria and Jesús Escartín. Garduño, ‘Redoblaremos nuestros esfuerzos … ’, 4.

39. Brewster and Brewster, ‘He Hath Not Done This … ’, 209. In 1969, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) signed a contract to broadcast the World Cup. Rodolfo Usigili, Mexican Ambassador to Norway, to Jesús Cabrera Muñoz Ledo, Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, 27 June 1969, DAC, B93-1 (4ª) 1970, ADM.

40. FIFAA, ‘FIFA World Cup host announcement decision,’

https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/mencompwc/51/97/81/fs-201_13a_fwc-bidding.pdf (Accessed on 24 March 2018).

41. Barham, ‘Heat, not Height, the Scourge’, 16.

42. Eduardo Terrazas, interview with the author, Mexico City, 15 December 2019.

43. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 1, 7.DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

44. IPS, ‘México 86, Havelange y Cañedo, próspera hermandad … ’, El País.

45. DAC to Guillermo Cañedo, 29 July 1969, DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

46. Ramón E. Alatorre, OCMX70 to José S. Gallastegui, Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, 6 February 1970, DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

47. Ibid., 22.

48. NA, ‘Historia’ in Chivas de Corazón, https://www.chivasdecorazon.com.mx/club/historia (Accessed on 12 January 2019). For an anthropological study of the club, see Fábregas Puig, and Gómez Barbosa, Lo sagrado del Rebaño.

49. The presidents of Club Toluca from 1963 to 1970 were Alfonso Lechuga, Santiago Velasco Ruiz, Eduardo Monrroy Cárdenas and Alfonso Faure. It is very likely that it was Velasco Ruiz who negotiated having Toluca’s stadium as a World Cup venue. NA, ‘Historia del Club Toluca’ in FEMEXFUT, http://www.femexfut.org.mx/portalv2/secciones.aspx?s=991&n=21596 (Accessed on 18 January 2019).

50. Pedroza, ‘“¡Quinto piso!”’.

51. Garduño, ‘El plan expuesto por Cañedo … ’, 7.

52. NA, ‘México, Monterrey, Guadalajara Firmes … ’, La Afición, 3.

53. Silvio Závala, Mexican Ambassador in France to Jesús de Cabrera Muñoz Ledo,Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, 2 May 1969. DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

54. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 4, 9–10. DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

55. Hopcraft, ‘The Man Who Can’t Lose’, 10.

56. Manzo. ‘Visualising modernity’, 174.

57. Brewster and Brewster, Representing the Nation, 160.

58. Organizing Committee, World Cup, Bulletin 1, 15. DAC, B93-1(2ª), ADM.

59. For a study of João Havelange’s trajectory, see: Vonnard and Sbetti, ‘João Havelange’ in Bayle and Clastres,Global Sport Leaders.

60. FIFA, ‘12 new honors’ on FIFA.com, 17 September 1998, https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=1998/m=9/news=new-honours-71483.html (Accessed on 6 June 2018).

61. McOwan, ‘João Havelange obituary’.

62. For an account on displays of nationalism during the 1986 World Cup, see: Monsivais, ‘¡¡¡¡Goool!!!!’in Entrada Libre.