After the final: The political economy of football

Economist Yalçın Küçük used to say, “Football is known as a working-class game. There are valid reasons for it being known this way. Football and the working class emerged on the stage of history in the same country.” Kurthan Fişek continued, “Like all team sports, football is an invention of the Industrial Revolution. It begins in 1832. The rising bourgeoisie invented football to prevent workers from pouring into the streets,” acknowledging that football is at the heart of capitalist relations.

When Spain won the cup after the final match, didn't the Palestinian-supporting Spaniard Lamine Yamal, who gave the cold shoulder to Trump, and Trump's attempt to get into the frame while the cup was being lifted, confirm both Yalçın Küçük and Professor Kurthan Fişek, in your opinion?

Didn't the praise heaped upon Spain after the match hide the fact that King Felipe VI of Spain was at the ceremony? Even if eyes were looking for Pedro Sanchez, it is still, in a way, a monarchy there. It has been 200 years since the 1830s when Argentina gained independence from Spain, but neither the competition of football nor the ambition of politics has diminished...

The only thing that has changed is the effect of capitalist relations within the dynamics of economic development on both finalist countries. With its vast resources, Argentina was a top-10 welfare country until the end of the 19th century, contrary to Spain's illusions in security-oriented policies dating back to the 14th century. Then it succumbed to the influence of scientific inventions born from the industrial revolution. Today's Argentina is a country of people who are a bundle of nerves, struggling with inflation and governed by neoliberal far-right politics. As we understood from the match, it reflected well the political economy that blunts its creativity with the emotional pressure of the cups it won before...

POOR CHILDREN AND FOOTBALL

At this stage, we were not expecting a recital from Lionel Messi, because despite his advanced age (39) for football, he seemed to put his seniority ahead of team spirit. Since a significant portion of the team plays in European leagues, the fact that the cup was in the Americas showed the difficulty of pulling the team together without Messi. Whereas Spain was more inclined to be a team, reaping the rewards of low inflation (3.2 percent) and investments in high technology. Because it has crowned its successes both in the national team and at the club level in the youth and senior categories in Europe, where they have been playing together for a long time.

Moreover, if we said monarchy, it's not that much. Wouldn't you think that the socialist government's determination to win over immigrants and the fact that it has raised the wages of the working class and almost gotten rid of informal labor would reflect on football? I think not... The team, which includes players like Yamal and those of Moroccan descent, is blended with the immigrant fusion of the working class. Don't mind former Prime Minister M. Rajoy... Before the France match, he had claimed that Spain was more “authentic” compared to the French team composed of immigrants. The truth is that almost all of them are children who grew up in the working class. I had only heard of the Italian Kaka as a rich kid who advanced in football. Apart from this outlier, everyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo, is from the poor team.

Behind the footballers who work for millions of euros by playing at such a high level, millions of poor football candidates are waiting for their turn. Among them, a lucky group of footballers, not even numbering a thousand, will benefit from this football toy.

The current influence of football and its ability to drag masses along corresponds to about 100 years after the emergence of the working class. Why football, which was born and developed with the working class, became popular about 100 years late can be explained by politics. Politics loved football. Today, a politician visiting a city in our country comes to the podium to give a speech wearing the scarf of that city's football team. The reason is clear; that is what is popular. In fact, football is the popular one, and politics follows it.

Trump's attempt to get into the frame while the Spanish team was receiving the cup, and the Spanish Football Federation's straightening of the frame to exclude him, are reflections of football's popularity in the hot fire of politics. This competition will continue because it is still the working class's game that creates the storm of excitement that cannot be explained by the filling of stadiums or the rise in television viewing rates. It is a space where they relax, and where they are equalized both while playing and watching.

It is interesting, of course, that the halftime show was extended in the 2026 cup organized by the USA to make room for artists. Just as interesting is TRT1's failure to count Gustav Dudamel, the Muppet Show, Madonna, Shakira, and J. Bieber as artists, and its rush to make money from the commercials it repeated thousands of times instead of bringing them together with its own people during these moments. Yet, this short halftime entertainment, which can be watched on YouTube, was a pleasant show that relieved the match stress for the working class.

Moreover, even if everyone knows that we would not miss such an opportunity culturally if this great organization were held in these lands one day, it is strange that TRT cannot grasp it. Affected by this spectacle and interest (even if not towards him), Uncle Donald said, “The next cup should be held in the USA and I must be there again.” I think he can only see it in his dreams, but this idea reminded us once again that he is within a football management that is a servant of FIFA...

IT WAS A NIGHTMARE

Returning to the final, the success in football of Spain, which has learned lessons from security-oriented policies as the nightmare of Europe for 300 years (between the 14th and 17th centuries) and is relatively egalitarian by reconciling with immigrants, with a minority socialist government, is important. Argentina has Maradona, tango, Che, Neruda, Solana, and vast commodity resources. It also has 3 cups. It won the last one in 2022 by beating France with its own merit. However, the administration of the government, which is a collaborator of the USA and did not learn lessons from fascist junta regimes, made this great football country irritable in the final.

Even obtaining a 20 billion dollar low-interest reserve facility from the US Treasury to buy time for the Milei administration did not help. Because neoliberalism is in a vortex too deep for Milei to solve. Even if the inflation at around 30 percent was achieved through the relative improvement of foreign capital flow, there is nothing “new” and egalitarian inside Argentina.

Therefore, it was also strange for them to give the cup to Spain, which was “crucified” by the US administration within NATO for its stance on the Palestinian issue and for not allowing its bases to be used in the Iran war. It is possible to extract the essence that “football is as real as life” and “it is the most important entertainment of the working class” from this strangeness..