Delving into the history books, glazing over a 96-year story of international football’s top-tier event, not much looks out of place in analysing Iraq’s triumvirate of one-goal defeats at the 1986 World Cup. Nor Argentina’s disappointing second group stage exit in 1982, when Diego Maradona first flirted with the globe’s greatest stage. Yet their significance, some four decades on, is now pertinent as the tournament takes place in the United States.
Back then, Argentina and Iraq were two countries competing in the World Cup while embroiled in international warfare. Argentina surrendered in the Falklands War just one day after Spain ‘82 started and, mercifully, did not draw any of the three British teams taking part, while Iraq were in the midst of an eight-year war with Iran at Mexico ‘86. Tension between the two remains ubiquitous. Yet beyond civil conflicts, there have been no comparable examples since. “Football unites the world,” is the tired slogan continually belted out by Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Well, not this time.
