Le foot, un enjeu de puissance | Le Dessous des Cartes | ARTE

It's great to have you back for this new episode of "Behind the Scenes."

Our photo of the day was taken in 2018.

The image shows the FIFA president presenting the World Cup hosting rights to the Emir of Qatar, with Vladimir Putin present.

Beaming with joy after winning the bid to host the 2022 cup.

The World Cup, held in Russia in June and July of 2018, had a big impact on the French, of course, since they were crowned world champions, but it wasn't just that.

She has also been helpful to the Kremlin leader, who has spared no expense to present Russia as a modern, normalized country that knows how to host. (The expression "n'a pas lésiné sur les moyens" literally means "didn't skimp on the means", but it is commonly used in French to mean "spared no expense" or "went all out.")

As you can see, today we're exploring the triple geopolitical dimension of football. It's a powerful tool for leaders, who use competitions to showcase their strength. For the people, it's a cathartic escape from daily life, offering a chance to channel their energy into cheering for their team rather than engaging in conflict. And on the global stage, football provides a platform for sending powerful messages. Remember the Pussy Riot activists, who ran onto the field at the Moscow stadium to demand the release of political prisoners?

You'll see, football, perhaps more than any other sport, is deeply intertwined with geopolitics.

And we're going to see that right away with our cards.

First, consider this: there are more football teams on the planet than there are countries recognized by international law.

There are 193 countries that make up the United Nations, while FIFA, on the other hand, has 211 teams.

So where does this difference come from? Here are some examples to help you understand.

The UK is one country, but it has four teams: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Similarly, New Caledonia has a team independent from France, and Hong Kong doesn't play with China.

While the Palestinian territories only have observer status at the UN, they are recognized as Palestine within FIFA and are considered a national team.

In short, it's clear that a football team is a big part of a nation's identity.

Let's see how this sport has taken the world by storm.

The story begins in the United Kingdom during the second half of the nineteenth century, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.

And more specifically, on October 26, 1863, in a London tavern, delegates from the capital's football clubs established the Football Association and specifically banned the use of hands in the game.

Born in the aristocratic public schools (the term "public school" in Britain refers to private, elite schools) to channel students' aggression, football would spread to the factories and working-class neighborhoods of London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow, becoming the favorite sport of the working class.

In 1884, the first women's football club, the British Ladies' Football Club, was founded in London.

According to English sailors, football quickly spread across Europe, traveling from ports like Le Havre all the way to Istanbul.

Students and merchants also pack a soccer ball in their luggage, and soon, they start playing across the entire continent, from Paris to Moscow.

In 1904, in Paris, federations from seven European countries founded FIFA, aiming to develop football worldwide.

Because football followed the commercial expansion of the British Empire, it is played notably in Argentina and Uruguay, South Africa, Uganda, India, and Japan.

But there's no doubt about it, Latin America is quickly becoming the second cradle of football.

In 1930, Uruguay hosted the first World Cup, with thirteen countries participating.

This diplomatic recognition allows this small territory to exist between Argentina and Brazil, its two powerful neighbors.

Brazil, by inventing the beautiful game, will become one of the great homelands of football.

As for Argentina, it would later give the world Diego Maradona, one of the most popular legends in the sport.

In Europe, war is looming, and football is becoming a political issue as totalitarian regimes rise to power.

In 1934, the World Cup, hosted and won by Italy, was a major propaganda event for the fascist regime and a huge diplomatic victory for Mussolini.

However, during the same period, stadiums can also be places of resistance.

So Spartak Moscow, a club from a working-class neighborhood in the Russian capital, takes on Dynamo, the club of Stalin's political police, on the field.

These victories would cost the founder of Spartak, the Star Austin brothers, twelve years in the gulag.

Modern football, increasingly popular, is at the heart of new battles.

So, in May 1958, the Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) formed a team, the "Eleven of Independence," who would represent the colors of the future state across the globe.

Banned by FIFA, these footballing ambassadors, featuring talents from major French clubs and the national team, played 80 international friendly matches between 1958 and Algeria's independence in 1962.

The Algerian national anthem will be played at every game.

With television, everything will change.

Football viewership has skyrocketed.

Live broadcasts of games create a massive virtual global stadium.

Broadcast rights, merchandise sales, and sponsorship deals from major multinational companies bring in big money for FIFA, now headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and for the clubs.

Football has become a global business.

And the crown jewel of football is, of course, the World Cup.

The organization of the World Cup since its inception reflects the diplomatic and economic stakes of the most watched sport in the world today.

Once a stronghold of major European and Latin American footballing nations, the World Cup has expanded beyond its traditional geographic reach to conquer new markets.

United States, with the 1994 World Cup, Japan and South Korea in 2002, South Africa in 2010, Russia in 2018, and Qatar in 2022.

Thanks to these new audiences, television rights have increased from 1.4 billion dollars in 2006 to 3 billion dollars in 2018.

While the event brings in a fortune for FIFA, the necessary investments don't always pay off for the host country.

For example, South Africa is left with huge stadiums that are half empty.

Qatar, which as we've said is hosting the World Cup in 2022, doesn't have these kinds of financial concerns. Let's see why.

A small but extremely wealthy oil-rich emirate on the Persian Gulf, it has been actively pursuing a sports diplomacy strategy for over a decade, pouring billions into sponsoring the FC Barcelona jersey and especially buying out Paris Saint-Germain, acquiring star players like Brazilian Neymar, Frenchman Mbappé, and Argentine Messi.

The World Cup is the pinnacle of this soft power strategy.

This allows Qatar to forge international alliances and exert influence, particularly against Saudi Arabia, which bought Newcastle FC. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) owns Manchester City. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi accuse Qatar of having ties to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood (a global political and religious movement), and even imposed a blockade from 2017 to January 2021.

The forced labor of millions of migrant workers to build eight giant, air-conditioned stadiums has tarnished Doha's image as a modern, human rights-respecting country.

According to the NGO Amnesty International, thousands of people are believed to have died on construction sites for the World Cup in Qatar over the past ten years.

It's clear that football has become a soft power tool for nations, especially during the World Cups. The importance of this major event is evident in Qatar's efforts, which spared no expense to be chosen as the host, leading to strong suspicions of corruption.

Back in 2015, nine executives from the company were indicted following an FBI investigation.

In short, it's the dark side of football, the football business, which also unfolds in all its extravagance during the transfer window, the big market for professional players.

And that's what we're going to see now.

Since the early 1990s, the cost of buying players has been skyrocketing, reaching record highs today.

From 2011 to 2020, over 41 billion euros were spent on transfers worldwide.

Brazil is by far the biggest supplier of players, and European clubs, especially those in the English Premier League, spend the most.

China also spent a fortune on foreign players for several years.

However, today, Chinese Super League clubs and the Beijing government are prioritizing the creation of training centers across the country.

And in 2030, Xi Jinping's ambitious China hopes to host the World Cup on its soil.

However, football isn't just for the powerful and the billionaires.

It's played everywhere, by everyone, from neighborhood clubs to vacant lots.

His most ardent supporters are often those who feel left behind.

For example, in Egypt in January 2011, the hardcore fans of the two rival Cairo clubs, Al-Ahly and Zamalek, joined forces with political activists in Tahrir Square.

Seasoned in battling the police forces they regularly face in stadiums, these underprivileged individuals will be at the forefront of the effort to oust President Mubarak.

Finally, there's women's football, which has been booming in recent years and is changing the world of soccer.

Like American soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who has won two World Cups with the US Women's National Team and was awarded the Ballon d'Or in 2019.

A committed player who kneels with her teammates to protest police brutality against Black people and who fights for equal pay between male and female soccer players.

That's it for this geopolitical take on football.

The conversation mainly focused on men's soccer, even though we acknowledged that women's soccer is slowly but surely progressing around the world.

The tournament is attracting more and more fans, the number of registered players in federations is growing, and women's salaries are rising, even though the gap with men's salaries remains vast.

This is an opportunity to acknowledge those countries that have already achieved pay equity, including Ireland, England, Australia, Brazil, Finland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and since September 2021, the United States, where the same contracts are now offered to both men and women playing on the national team.

We put together this program with Pascal Boniface, one of whose books you can see here.

And that wraps up this new edition of "Behind the Scenes." Be sure to join us next week, same time, same place.

And until then, don't forget our website, Arte.tv.

See you soon.