Editing 1978 FIFA World Cup (section)

===Political turmoil and human rights===
A controversy surrounding the 1978 World Cup was that Argentina had undergone a [[1976 Argentine coup d'état|military coup]] of its democratic government only two years before the cup, which installed a dictatorship known as the [[National Reorganization Process]]. Between the time that the military junta took over the government and the time the World Cup started, foreign journalists were concerned about how Argentinian newspaper reporters and editors were being treated by the regime, in attempting to get leftist members out of the picture. The new government targeted any parts of society that they saw were trying to undermine them.<ref name=":02"/> Less than a year before the World Cup, in September 1977, Interior Minister General [[Albano Harguindeguy]], stated that 5,618 people had recently disappeared. The infamous Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (known by its acronym [[Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy|ESMA]]) held concentration camp prisoners of the [[Dirty War]] and those held captive reportedly could hear the roars of the crowd during matches held at River Plate's Monumental Stadium, located only a mile away;<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6347c16-3f2a-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611233444/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6347c16-3f2a-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.html|archive-date=11 June 2010|title=But Was This The Beautiful Game's Ugliest Moment?|first=David|last=Winner|newspaper=Financial Times|date=21 June 2008|access-date=15 June 2014}}</ref> prompting echoes of Hitler's and Mussolini's alleged political manipulation of sports during the [[1936 Berlin Olympics]] and [[1934 FIFA World Cup]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jun-28-fg-mundial28-story.html |title=Argentina's bittersweet win |newspaper=LA Times |access-date=7 April 2010 |first=Patrick J. |last=McDonnell |date=28 June 2008 }}</ref> Also, the junta practiced censorship since it was established, which encouraged less reports on the real situation in Argentina. This was done as an attempt to change the character of the Argentinian people.<ref name=":02"/>

Just months before the World Cup, the Argentinian regime launched a campaign to silence any disapproval of the government from the people. However, over the course of the tournament, the regime ceased the operation to avoid giving off their authoritarianism and receiving criticism from all over the world, but international newspapers and human rights organizations have already criticized Argentina as host for the next World Cup.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Scharpf |first1=Adam |last2=Gläßel |first2=Christian |last3=Edwards |first3=Pearce |date=August 2023 |title=International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies: Evidence from the 1978 FIFA World Cup |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/international-sports-events-and-repression-in-autocracies-evidence-from-the-1978-fifa-world-cup/19FA0D5B0DD55259AA6A3E4FEBB7978A |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=117 |issue=3 |pages=909–926 |doi=10.1017/S0003055422000958 |issn=0003-0554}}</ref>

The military forces that had control over Argentina at the time wanted to hold that power for as long as they could, but with a different perspective. The use of repression, torture, kidnapping, and assassination was becoming an everyday reality, with 30,000 people murdered between 1976 and 1983, the end of the dictatorship.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=National identity and global sports events: culture, politics, and spectacle in the Olympics and the football World Cup |date=2006 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-6615-5 |editor-last=Tomlinson |editor-first=Alan |series=SUNY series on sport, culture, and social relations |location=Albany, NY |editor-last2=Young |editor-first2=Christopher}}</ref> People wondered why FIFA would allow the World Cup to go on under these circumstances and that 15 other countries, most of which are old democracies, would participate in the tournament. However, it is simply because of the dominant notion that football or soccer, or any sport for that matter, belong to civil society, giving the assumption that state policies wouldn't interfere with the passion and enthusiasm of fans.<ref name=":1" />

From Will Hersey's article "Remembering Argentina 1978: The Dirtiest World Cup of All Time":<blockquote>The other teams in Argentina and Hungary's group were the much-fancied France and Italy, establishing the tournament's toughest qualifying section. After the victory against Hungary, one junta official remarked to [[Leopoldo Luque]] that "this could turn out to be the group of death as far as you are concerned." It was delivered with a smile.

"Uppermost in my mind was that earlier that day, the brother of a close friend of mine had disappeared", recalled Luque. "His body was later found by villagers on the banks of the River Plate with concrete attached to his legs. At that time, opponents of the regime were sometimes thrown out of aeroplanes into the sea."<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

====Protests====
Because of the political turmoil, some countries, most notably the [[Netherlands national football team|Netherlands]] and [[Swedish national football team|Sweden]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=1602&grupp=3137&artikel=865141|title=Hett debatt om VM i Argentina 1978|lang=sv|publisher=[[Sveriges Radio]]|access-date=1 October 2024}}</ref> considered publicly whether they should participate in the event. Despite this, all teams eventually took part without restrictions. However, most notably, Dutch star [[Johan Cruyff]], who won the [[Golden Ball (FIFA World Cup)|Golden Ball]] in the previous [[1974 FIFA World Cup]], refused to take part in the 1978 World Cup, even though he earlier participated in the [[1978 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4|1978 FIFA World Cup qualification]]. Allegations that Cruyff refused to participate because of political convictions were denied by him 30 years later—he and his family had been the victims of a kidnapping attempt a few months before the tournament. Several criminals entered his house in Barcelona at night and tied him and his family up at gunpoint.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/apr/16/newsstory.sport15 |title= Kidnappers made Cruyff miss World Cup |work=The Guardian |location=London | date= 16 April 2008 |access-date=20 June 2008 | first=Paul | last=Doyle}}</ref> One player, [[Ralf Edström]], was arrested for speaking to someone in [[Buenos Aires]]; however, the Argentine military released him upon recognizing that he was a Swedish footballer, not an ordinary person.

Amnesty International announced their strategy for Argentina in 1978. After their awareness that urging people away from the World Cup could produce counter-sympathy for the junta, they launched a campaign that would teach journalists to write about the tournament but based on the regime, along with the slogan "Football yes, torture no." They hoped that the journalists would turn their eyes away from the matches and look at what's going on in their society to educate their readers on the reality of Argentina.<ref name=":02"/> 

Paris was a center of unanimity for the victims of the Argentinian dictatorship, which launched a campaign to boycott the 1978 World Cup. In the city, they made posters, publications or any kind of information that expressed opposition to the World Cup under a dictatorship. The first calls to boycott were published in the daily ''Le Monde'' in October 1977. Later, a boycott committee was organized, which brought together human-rights militants and left-wing activists. This organization came to be known as COBA, a French acronym for, "Committee for the Boycott of the World Cup in Argentina." It wasn't long before the COBA had established a strong base of unity and protest throughout France, with more than 200 local COBA committees created in major cities and provinces.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rein |first=Raanan |title=Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines ? essays on ethnicity, identity, and diaspora |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-17913-4 |series=Jewish identities in a changing world |location=Leiden}}</ref>