A kick-off for Qatar

The Most Incredible World Cup Stories captures the rambunctious, funny, controversial and the human side of football and offers a great deal of entertainment to football fans ahead of the World Cup

The Most Incredible World Cup Stories

Author: Luciano Wernicke

Publisher: Niyogi Books

Pages: 240

Price: Rs 595

When was Extra Time first allowed in a World Cup football match? Did you know the legendary Johan Cruyff nearly didn’t play the 1974 tournament because of a commercial sponsorship dispute? Or that Diego Maradona was dropped from the Argentinian team in what would have been his World Cup?

This is all part of a book of trivia, anecdotes and legends that Uruguayan sports journalist Luciano Wernicke has presented to get fans in the mood, if that were needed, ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, played for the first time over November-December. As he points out, the barrage of facts and statistics are extremely boring and can be accessed on FIFA’s website. His book, he says, attempts to take a tour of each of the World Cup not only through some unforgettable clashes and records but some “surprising anecdotes and passionate feats that show the humane side of the world’s most popular sport”.

Mr Wernicke largely lives up to his promise but the book title, The Most Incredible World Cup Stories, oversells the proposition. There few “incredible” stories; the book mostly comprises an amiably eccentric bunch of yarns and factoids covering each tournament since the inaugural one in Uruguay in 1930.  Some are well known, especially as you approach the more recent tournaments, and several facts can as well be accessed from the internet.

That doesn’t detract from the entertainment value of the book.

Mr Wernicke tells us, for instance, that in the first World Cup played 92 years ago, no substitutes were allowed, and half time, in the rulebook was a minimum of five minutes and a maximum of 15 minutes “as the referee sees fit,” the start of discretionary powers that created enduring controversies over refereeing decisions ever since. Indeed, the clash between Argentina and Mexico saw the award of three penalties in a single game, a record that is yet to be surpassed in World Cup history.

Stories centred on the political and social background against which some of these tournaments were held make the most interesting reading. Italy 1934 is one of them. Like Hitler, Benito Mussolini liked to equate his muscular brand of politics with sporting prowess and duly pressured FIFA to hold the World Cup in Italy. II Duce also took personal interest in the fortunes of the Italian team, fortifying it with four Argentines and one Brazilian player, none of whom had spent the regulation three years in their new homeland before qualifying for a place on the team.

No surprise, politics was never far from this first Italian edition of the tournament. Partway through, Rudolf Gramlich, a German midfielder and a tanner by profession, received news that the Jewish-owned shoe factory at which he worked had been confiscated by the Nazis. He rushed to Frankfurt to try and save the business and his job.  He failed, but as a member of the “Aryan race” was not unemployed for long, joining the SS soon after. Thus, as Mr Wernicke writes eloquently, “the midfielder went from victim to victimiser”.

This book mentions the disqualification of the Indian team in the Brazil 1950 edition because they played barefoot. This story, repeated countless times by Indians with indignant pride, is controversial principally because it is not officially recorded. Sepp Blatter flatly said he had never heard of it when it was mentioned during his India visit. But Mr Wernicke provides background that adds credibility to the claim.  He said the Indian team participated in the 1948 Olympic Games, playing just the one match barefoot and losing to France.

A personal favourite is the story of Garrincha, the gifted Brazilian midfielder who played a key role in Pele’s superstardom. For Sweden 1958, the team hired a psychologist who deemed Garrincha’s IQ extremely low. Together with the fact that his feet turned inwards, one leg was 6 cm shorter than the other and his spine was twisted, Garrincha was in danger of being dropped from the side, had it not been for the intervention of his colleagues. Indeed, he has an incredible record, winning 57 of the 60 games he played in national colours and losing just one. But the low IQ score was justified. In Sweden, Garrincha bought an expensive transistor radio not realising that it would never work in Brazil.

To answer the questions in the first paragraph. Extra time was first allowed in Italy 1938 in a match between Austria and France. As for Cruyff, the controversy foreshadowed the commercialisation that bankrolls modern football. The great exponent of “total football” was sponsored by the sportswear company Puma, whereas the Dutch team was sponsored by its deadly rival, Adidas. Eventually, it was decided that Cruyff would wear the national team jersey but without the Adidas logo. And Maradona, just 17, was one of three players whom Cesar Menotti decided to drop for the Argentina 1978 edition because the official list allowed only 22 players.

This book captures the rambunctious, funny, controversial and essentially human side of football to the full. It is a pity it is not better produced. It reads like a poor translation that has escaped editorial intervention. Several passages require re-readings to figure out what’s being said. Such gems as “he blowed his whistle”, “But that afternoon the English played very bad”, “The intensity of the actions and the high temperature motivated the Austrian goalkeeper, Kurt Schmeid, to finish the game almost fainted” and someone “fliped” a coin do not enhance its qualities. No doubt, Mr Wernicke will add stories from Qatar 2022 to his repertoire. Hopefully, the publishers will have found an editor and proofreader by then.