The Making of a Global FIFA: Cold War Politics and the Rise of João Havelange to the FIFA Presidency, 1950–1974

Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2023

The Making of a Global FIFA

Cold War Politics and the Rise of João Havelange to the FIFA Presidency, 1950–1974

Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui
Translated by: John Ellis-Guardiola

Volume 1 in the series RERIS Studies in International Sport Relations

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110759907

About this book

In 1974, the Brazilian sports official João Havelange was elected FIFA’s president in a two-round election, defeating the incumbent Stanley Rous. The story told by Havelange himself describes a private odyssey in which the protagonist crisscrosses two thirds of the world canvassing for votes and challenging the institutional status quo. For many scholars, Havelange’s triumph changed FIFA’s (International Federation of Football Association) identity, gradually turning it into a global and immensely wealthy institution. Conversely, the election can be analyzed as a historical event. It can be thought of as a political window by means of which the international dynamic of a specific moment in the Cold War can be perceived. In this regard, this book seeks to understand which actors were involved in the election, how the networks were shaped, and which political agents were directly engaged in the campaign.

Author / Editor information

Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui, Federal Institute of Brasília, Brazil.

Reviews

“Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui's book sheds original light on an institution that is often analysed in the field of sports history, but whose leaders are still little known. Based on research in completely original archives (notably outside from Europe), Luiz Burlamaqui invites us to better understand the trajectory of Joao Havelange, one of the most influential sports leaders of the 20th century and surely one of the most active promoters of the commercialisation of the game. A valuable read for scholars, students in Sport history and in Business history, and also obviously for football enthusiasts.” – Gregor Quin, Professor of History,University of Lausanne.

***

“Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui skilfully recounts not only the ambition of a man and a country but also the role played by sport in North-South relations. It allows us to better understand the complexity of the man of power that João Havelange was. A must-read book that was missing from the historiography of football and Brazil.” – Paul Dietschy, Professor of Contemporary History, Université Franche-Comté, France.

***

“Result of a dense, original, and recognized thesis defended in Brazil, this book gains with this translated version a necessary breadth and a well-deserved international reach. The book shows the other side of Pelé, great international icon engineered by Brazilian football during the 20th century, by analyzing the meaning and role of sports leader and decade-long FIFA president, João Havelange. The contrast, so to speak, between Pelé, a Black man, and Havelange, white and blond-haired, illustrates a dear idea to the national imaginary—that of the so-called Brazilian racial democracy, which had in football one of its most powerful means of diffusion, affirmation and embodiment, especially in the decanted figure of “king” Pelé. 　
But by following the meanderings of a trajectory and by unveiling the intricate strategies to garner national and international power at the head of a series of sports institutions, whose apex would be the election-win of FIFA in 1974, this book examines another, much less visible and much more insidious, controversial and hidden, persona: João Havelange. 　
The young and talented historian Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui goes far beyond dissecting a biography or investigating an event. Based on state-of-the-art debates about the political history of International Relations during the Cold War and equipped with primary sources from archives of several countries in South America and Europe, Burlamaqui retraces the vicissitudes of a plot that allowed a former Olympian to climb successive positions within this network and reach the top of the sports power scale, enlarging this same structure since the 1970s and transforming football into a planetary phenomenon, full of contradictory senses and power struggles dear to the political economy.　
As one of the most important works produced by the Brazilian Academy in football studies, its English version will undoubtedly constitute, from now on, an unavoidable international reference for researchers who want to understand, in light of the best historiography and solid social theory, the construction of football’s global power and, consequently, the singularity of FIFA’s institutional history during the 20th century.” – Bernardo Buarque de Hollanda, Associate Professor, Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV-CPDOC).　

***

"Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui’s study of the charismatic Brazilian’s rise to power against the backdrop of the Cold War reveals the origins of the
sport’s commercialization and its inevitable utilization in politics. [...] Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui’s study may be intended as a contribution to understanding the intricate commercialization
of football, but it remarkably demonstrates just how integral the sport can be in potentially speeding up or attempting to delay historical processes such as decolonization in a global
setting." Martin J. Kozon in: Journal of Sport History, Spring 2024

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
List of abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Foreword by Barbara J. Keys Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 English stiffness: a political history of FIFA during the long sixties, 1959–1971 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter 2 The administrator: politics and ideology in the making of a social legacy (1916–1970) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Chapter 3 “A Blonde Pelé”: business organization, political propaganda, and the 1970 World Cup Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Chapter 4 At the heart of the Brazilian miracle: casing and political propaganda in Havelange’s election as the president of FIFA (1971–1974) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Chapter 5 The world that we had lost. FIFA political crisis and the making of a new international football order, 1971–1974 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Conclusion: a new international football order? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Annex: honors received by Havelange between August 1970 and July 1974 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Original publisher: Editora Intermeios, São Paulo 2020
Audience: Academics in the fields of cultural studies and history of sport, Latin American history, cold war and transnational history.
Pages
- Front matter: 13
- Main content: 243
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 14
- Coloured Illustrations: 1
- Tables: 1
Keywords: FIFA; cold war; football history; sport history

eBook

Published: February 20, 2023
ISBN: 9783110759907

Hardcover

Published: February 20, 2023
ISBN: 9783110759686

The Making of a Global FIFA

Cold War Politics and the Rise of João Havelange to the FIFA Presidency, 1950–1974

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