The International Association of Football Federation - Essay Example

Stasi Football Throughout the of history mankind has seemingly been guided by a sense of competition. Overtime, however, competition has evolved from a sense of survival to a source of pride and achievement. Even though cultures from all across the world have differing values and even languages, having a competitive nature is a value of the human spirit that can connect us all. Through the development of organizations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Football Federation (FIFA), platforms were created to connect people internationally in innocuous sporting competitions. The growth of nations competing in sport amongst each other brought with it the ability for countries express their national pride. In Germany’s case, post World War II, sporting spectacles such as these were significantly important in the rekindling of a sense of national identity. The power of sport was epitomized in the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final in which the heavily favored Hungarian soccer team lost to West Germany’s national team. The symbolic victory, which became known as the “Miracle of Berne”, evoked a surge of euphoria all over West Germany. Not only did this victory lift up a nation that had been both economically and spiritually shattered by the war, but also it caused the sport to become a fixated symbol in West German culture. In order to get away from the negative symbolism of Hitler and Germany, the leadership of the Federal Republic of Germany embraced the values of comradeship and adamantly revered the football team as accomplishing a victory for all of Germany. The symbolic rise of “King Football” was synonymous with the “expression of the civilization as a collective identity” (Dennis 13). Alternately, in the East, German football was just as tantamount as it was in the West by means of pride and competitiveness. Even though the average age of the team was twenty-three and the majority of the team working in a heavy machinery factory, FC Magdeburg went on to win the first any only European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1974. This victory sparked the journey towards an eventual triumphant defeat of West Germany in the World Cup finals later that year. The defeat of the West Germany football team at the hands of the East Germans, hosted in West Germany none-the-less brought a wave of admiration for the sport, and stated by German novelist Annett Groschner, “even girls became football fans” (McDougall 50). The greatest difference between the cultural implications of the sport and the two German countries lies at the hands of each government. While the ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany openly embraced football as a symbol for collective identity, the German Democratic Republic’s fixation on Olympic sports such as swimming and athletics “left limited resources for the country’s favorite game” (McDougall 51). Football, however, remained the people’s game and the most popular sport, but the communist leaders of the GDR never deemed it worthy to implement a strategy to use the sport for the nationalist and socialist cause. The “scientific” training methods of doping were heavily used in all aspects of individual athletic competition from swimming to biking, however these methods were not as easily applied to the team sport of football. Aside from their inability to win medals through the sport of football, the government wished to “separate the GDR from everything that represented the disgraced old Germany” (Dennis 41). The importance of tradition in football was something that the politicians and officials could not grasp hold of. In an effort to vanquish pre-war cultures from society, the previous ‘burgeois’ football organizations were exterminated and given new names that attempted to connect sports and recreation to “socialist folklore of factory communities’’ (Dennis 41). Classic traditions such has inheriting season tickets from one generation to the next did not exist in East Germany like it did the West, were evident of the fact that football supporters in the East were unable to attach themselves to an organization or FC. Soviet influence clashed with German values of tradition resulting in the dissolution of football clubs until late in the 1960’s. Although the GDR aimed to create a separate sense of identity from the FRG, their dysfunctional attempt to control the various football clubs and their fans led to an inverse impact on the East German football fans. The popularity of West German teams caused many from the East to claim allegiances to teams on both sides of the Berlin Wall, which was quite the opposite of the GDR’s goals to create a “separate sense of socialist nationhood” than the other Germany (McDougall 8). Even though the communist government had taken many liberties away from its citizens, one of the few that remained led to a loophole that soccer fans began taking advantage of in the late 1960’s. GDR citizens had the right to freely travel within their own country, which meant that fans of clubs to travel to away games openly. As these “away supporters” informally organized, the strict rule of GDR cause yet again another opposite effect as what it tried to maintain—“not behaving accordingly to the socialist order” (Dennis 42). The aggressive behavior and hooliganism of these illegal clubs soon caught the attention of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), who in turn posted a memorandum listing the illegal actions taking place such as: “glorification of the FRG professional football”, “taking over fan chants”, “sporting symbols of the Western European football clubs”, and even “mimicking activities of fan clubs of capitalist states” (Dennis 43). In 1965 the GDR granted citizens the “chance to join new football clubs or Oberliga teams as supporting members”, this plan seemingly backfired as the number of fan incidents of violence and derogatory chanting at matches rose. The German youths that were the basis for the fandom acted as gangs and openly fought against “rival” teams and caused public harm. Fans who openly cooperated with officials were ostracized from the rest due to the majority of them supporting the subculture of being a ‘hardcore” fan, which included drunkenly fighting and stirring up trouble. Another issue upsetting officials was that most of these fans would root for the underdog of East Germany while simultaneously maintaining support for their favored team in West Germany. Even as East Germany was victorious over West Germany in the 1974 World Cup match, some people in the GDR strongly favored the opposing country. Primarily these fans supported the West German team in opposition to the harsh control of the politics in which they lived. The nation having defined itself as being successful in sports caused the people of the state to resent the victory. Even so, GDR being the underdog in the match made it hard for those with political opposition of their nations team to not celebrate the victory. Although resistance to their own government though showing favoritism to West German football was common because of its grander scale of competition, people of the GDR themselves like the their football team were the underdogs when compared to West Germany, and the victory provided a way to lessen the feeling of inferiority. Originating with the GDR government’s lack of effort to bolster the sport of football to pursue their sense of national identity, the East Germany people were forced in the direction opposite in which those of West Germany had gone. Following the win in 1974 the GDR began consistently losing matches of importance and never made their way to the World Cup ever again while at the same time, the West German team that lost in 1974 went on to become World Champions. The political dissent that manifested through hooliganism was the essence of a growing anti-authority culture in football clubs. In order to stifle the negative influences in the football matches the Ministry for State Security (also known as Stasi or the German secret police) placed the most trusted of officers in the same stands of stadiums where the known rowdy clubs were to play. The Stasi infiltrated nearly every aspect of GDR life in order to domestically spy on its people. They are known as one of the most feared and corrupt organizations ever implemented by a government that equal organized crime. Stasi’s tactics ranged from monitoring phones, opening mail, investigating sexual behavior, and installing recording devices in homes of suspected political dissidents. It was founded based on Stalin’s theory of the “defense of revolution” (Dennis 168), and aimed at controlling the population by any means. East Germany’s Minister of State Security, Erich Mielke, symbolized the country’s corrupt, martial, and meticulous image as the Stasi Chief of Police. Mielke spied on millions, inflicted hostile kidnappings and interrogations and even imprisonment for just slight suspicion. Even though Mielke and the Stasi police were on constant search for anyone expressing state resentment, Mielke and many other members of Stasi were fervent football fans. They were such big fans that the Stasi actually had their very own football team, which was BFC Dynamo. Unlike the government officials’ view of football in the late 1940’s, Mielke believed that, “football success will highlight even more clearly the superiority of our socialist order in the area of sport” (BBC News). Aside from his political impulses Mielke was also a football fanatic, so in order to satisfy both of his virtues he decided that the best football team in Germany was due to be located in the nations capital, Berlin. He strongly felt that a strong capital correlated with a strong state and could more easily reinforce the political policies. In East Germany, when football clubs were re-allowed to its citizens to participate, were often associated with different industries and branches of the government. While some clubs represented the factory workers, Dynamo was heavily representing the nations security forces. Mielke was the founding president of the Sports Club Dynamo, and beginning in 1970 he took off on a grand scale to see his socialist-sporting dream come true. Prior to this time, officials involved in football were often behind the scenes of the events, however after Mielke’s favorite team continued to play second fiddle to Dynamo Dresden something needed to change. The first obstacle Mielke would cross came from his plan to take all of the best players from one of the better Dynamo Dresden—it just so happened that it was another Stasi football team. Nonetheless, Mielke was even feared by the people in his organization of the Ministry of Security and had very little to no problems in hand picking players from Dresden to come and play for his team in Berlin. Taking the best players and leaving the rest of the club to fend for itself caused more hatred for the already overly involved in Stasis in the life of Germans. The Berlin Football Club Dynamo with the leadership of a brutal maniac went on the win the GDRs Premier League Championship ten years in a row! This type of success from any team would bring about resentment, however the contempt for BFC Dynamo did not only come from their domination of the league but their deep connection to the GDR’s secret police. Having a corrupt Stasi boss could mean many things for a football team. One of the “benefits” though, was his ability to “steer” promising young talent in the direction of BFC. Stasi influence extended far into the sport; in order for football referees to officiate international competitions they required visas that came from one particularly unethical branch of officials—the Stasi. However, this is only a widely held idea due to know documentation ever proving this, but the Stasi were so corrupt that it is most likely. During this time there was also another Berlin team, FC Union and they were the dominant favorite. Matches between the two teams got aggressively violent within the fans, even though BFC was known has not only a Stasi team but also had some of the most violent fans. Regardless of the Stasi’s goal to rid the games of this type of behavior, a Stasi officer once stated, “whenever something unpleasant happened, it was claimed that it couldn’t have been BFC fans. Things that “shouldn’t be” were ignored or relativized.” (pg. 145, Stadionpartasanen). One of the greatest instances, though unproven, of how far the Stasi could reach is alleged in the death of Iron Foot Lutz Eigendorf. Eigendorf was a promising young player for BFC up until he defected to the Federal Republic of Germany after a friendly match between BFC Dynamo and West Germany in 1979. The defector infuriated Mielke who then placed foreign Stasi spies on close watch over Eigendorf. In March of 1983 Eigendorf died in in an apparent drunk driving accident. Close friends were very suspicious, and suspected Stasi’s hand was at work. The GDR’s fans were not the only ones to think so, at the BFC stadium at a match in 1983, fans unfurled a banner reading, “Iron Foot, we mourn you!”. Where previously Stasi officials in charge of overseeing the fans were to turn a blind eye or place the blame on the other team, this event marked a turning point in the authorities beliefs about the BFC supporters. Following the Unification of East and West Germany, the BFC Dynamo football club did whatever possible to cut the ties between them and the Stasi police force. While it did not seem like a ginormous change, the club altered its name from BFC to FC Berlin, due to the nature of Stasi culture deeply embedded within the BFC. Sadly, however it was not enough to save the football club who remains to this day playing in the lower divisions of football competition in Germany. Another event following the Unification of Germany was the release of the Stasi Files, which detailed accounts of an officer receiving large amounts of cash on the night of Eigendorf’s death as well as countless other examples of extreme action in the name of socialism, oppression, and arrogance—the range of motives for the Stasi. Deteriorating in effectiveness of the Stasi police closely correlated with the start of the demise of the Communist rule. As political tensions were beginning to rise in 1989, the desire to move to West Germany became an open and public aspiration. When the communist rule ended in East Germany so did communist football. It quickly moved to west towards the arms of their capitalist brothers. The promptness in which the GDR released its grip was evident of how quickly things may fall if not built correctly. While German football culture remains “King Sport” in Germany to this day, East German soccer versus West German soccer still leaves behind a bitter taste. Recent matches are filled with hooligans and vandals who fight all throughout game—a “wall of the mind” is said to be in place amongst them. Whereas West German Officials took advantage of the benefits that the sport of football has on society and its magnificent ability to unite people in brotherhood, the route that was dealt to East Germany continues to leave a bitter taste. The communist leaders in the GDR saw little value in the game as a whole to society, and the man with his own corrupt police force saw it as a way to satisfy his need to win. Mielke’s belief was that if he could create a team of superstars, corrupt referees, and use fear tactics to discourage players from leaving or saying anything negative about him then the world would see just how successful the socialist order of the GDR truly was. The People’s Sport is a game that truly belongs to the people; otherwise it turns away from a means of competition but rather a show. True victory in competition is not easily obtained, but though determined work ethic you can build it. Similar to the way the communist country set itself up with trying to monitor everything bad ever said about them is the way that the Stasi felt the need to control the sport of football so that they could too never truly have to compete against any one else at all. The values of sport and competition were not seen under the Stasi football system, but the culture of the sport carried on through its fans. Read More