Scoring at the World Cup Goal

Ambassador Abdul Mahmoud Abdul Halim

It was striking for the thousands who witnessed the World Cup final match inside the stadium in New Jersey, and for the millions who watched it around the world, as the players entered the field accompanied by children, to see the Argentine global star Lionel Messi holding the hand of a Black child.

This appeared to be a response to the recent escalation of the campaign against that country, branding it with abhorrent racism. This campaign stemmed from the fact that Argentina, along with Israel and the United States, were the three countries that voted last March against a draft resolution before the United Nations General Assembly condemning the enslavement of Africans and their transatlantic trade as one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. Furthermore, a lengthy article in the British newspaper The Guardian reviewed Argentina’s self-perception as a European entity and the systematic policy of whitewashing it practiced to eliminate its African population, which constituted a significant percentage of the population. The England-Argentina match served as a reminder of the Falklands War and the crushing defeat suffered by Argentina, a team that did not include a single Black player in its ranks. Unlike the national teams of France and England, whose formation and structure reflect openness, tolerance, and multiculturalism.

Although FIFA regulations prohibit mixing sports and politics, the latter has continued to infiltrate sports arenas, as evidenced by several previous World Cup matches, such as the show of solidarity with Palestine, and the actions of two Albanian players on the Swiss national team who raised the Albanian eagle after scoring two goals against Serbia during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The match ended with the final whistle of the Slovenian referee, and the trophy was awarded to the Spanish national team, which received a legendary welcome in its homeland. Discussions continue regarding the positive and negative aspects of the 2026 World Cup, which, for the first time, featured 48 participating teams and was co-hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the United States. It was the largest in terms of revenue, resources, and prizes, but it also had its drawbacks. Among the most significant were US interference in technical matters, such as the case of their suspended player, the exclusion of the Somali referee and his ban from entering the United States to participate, and the rude treatment some delegations received upon arrival. These issues will likely continue until the next World Cup, in 2030, will be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. This year’s tournament will mark the centenary of the World Cup, with three opening matches to be held in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. The 2034 edition will then move to Saudi Arabia.

Since the English perfected the game, organized it, and introduced it to their schools in 1710, and with the establishment of the English Football Association in 1863, and the first international match in history in 1872 between England and Scotland in Glasgow, the beautiful game has captivated the world. This was especially true after the founding of FIFA in May 1904 in Paris by seven founding fathers: France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Under the leadership of Frenchman Jules Rimet, after whom the World Cup is sometimes named, FIFA organized its first international competition in Uruguay, which they won in 1930. Thirteen teams, seven from South America, four from Europe, and two from North America…

Since then, FIFA’s membership has expanded, its empire swelling to 211 members, surpassing the 193 members of the United Nations. FIFA’s membership includes autonomous regions, islands, and entities not recognized by the UN, such as Taiwan and Chinese territories like Hong Kong. The United Kingdom is also represented in FIFA by four teams: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Many people may have heard of Curaçao for the first time in the 2026 World Cup. This island in the southern Caribbean, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, lost to Germany and Ivory Coast and drew with Ecuador. Curaçao has also served as a point of escape for Venezuelans fleeing the recent unrest in the country.

This brings to mind that some Western powers still maintain an overseas presence, such as France on Mayotte, the largest island in the Islamic Republic of the Comoros, whose inhabitants voted to remain part of France, in addition to its presence on Réunion Island. This raises the question… Some question the participation of countries and islands whose locations on a world map are difficult for many to pinpoint, while countries like China and India are absent, despite the latter being one of the most important colonies of the British Crown. One of the most likely reasons for the insufficient promotion of football at the time was that the British administration saw cricket as appealing to the tastes and desires of the elite and upper classes, and thus focused on it. Perhaps they were intimidated by the mass appeal that football generates. I don’t find the reasons suggesting that India’s failure to emerge as a global football powerhouse stems from its insistence on the game’s superstition and its demand that its team not wear shoes but come barefoot are accurate, especially considering that it qualified in 1950 but did not participate. China, on the other hand, has historically focused on individual Olympic sports and achieved global successes. There is also current interest in developing football. The fame of Indian cricket star Tendulkar and Pakistani Imran Khan, who became Prime Minister of Pakistan and previously led his country to victory in the Cricket World Cup, is no less than that of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé in football. Furthermore, cricket is often used to reduce tensions in India-Pakistan relations. The same role that ping-pong diplomacy played in Sino-American relations…

Harvard political thinker and proponent of soft power theory, Joseph Nye, elaborated in his book “Soft Power” on the effectiveness of winning hearts and minds through the use of soft power rather than force and coercion. Sports are considered a vital and fundamental element of this power.

He promoted culture, music, and literature, suggesting that the dialogue of musical instruments is more impactful than the exchange of weapons of mass destruction.

Opinions varied regarding the extent to which the United States succeeded in winning hearts, especially as it came to the World Cup with its mind preoccupied by its Middle Eastern wars and its attempts to breach the defenses of the Strait of Hormuz, revealing its crudeness and political interference in artistic matters. As flight attendants began explaining safety procedures to the returning delegations, one player refused to leave, fearing for his life after receiving death threats. This was Colombian striker Campazz, who was threatened for missing a sure goal in his country’s match against Switzerland. This brought to mind the assassination of Colombian defender Andrés Escobar after the team’s return, following his own goal in the 1994 World Cup match between Colombia and the United States, hosted by the US in Pasadena, California.

In the realm of soft power, Sudan takes pride in highlighting and promoting the role of sports in combating apartheid when the South African national team was barred from participating in the first CAF tournament in Khartoum in 1957, which saw the establishment of the Confederation of African Football. We congratulate Spain on their well-deserved victory, a victory of excellence, diversity, and high ambition. The ball fired by Spain’s striker Torres into the Argentinian net, capitalizing on a pass from Lamine Yamal, not only found its way into the net but also rekindled a brilliance that illuminated the entire Iberian Peninsula. It was another conquest of Amoria. A conquest, whose sword drives a point home, better than literary works

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