{"id":630,"date":"2026-07-16T17:07:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=630"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:07:55","slug":"root-for-spain-for-their-play-and-their-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=630","title":{"rendered":"Root for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The World Cup is politics by other means. Not even Olympic competition imbues a game with politics quite like the World Cup. This is not only because\u2014to state the obvious\u2014that it\u2019s a tournament that pits country against country and where tensions and hostilities play themselves out on the pitch. It\u2019s that the whole world is watching. In an age of polyculture, when our focus is divided into a million pieces, each piece competing for slivers of our time, nothing unites the world\u2019s eyeballs like the World Cup. This makes it political. Every nation\u2014and every world leader\u2014knows that victory will not only feel like a soccer triumph but a national triumph. Winning the World Cup gooses the political commodity in the shortest supply in 2026: hope.<\/p>\n

Read more A Modicum of Justice for Ronni Karpen Moffitt<\/a><\/p>\n

Even by World Cup standards, this year\u2019s final is especially fraught with politics. We have the defending champion Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player to ever take the pitch. And we have a team from Spain that plays a more beautiful game\u2014a team approach consisting of quick passes, impenetrable defense, and blinding speed. They are opposites. Everything Argentina does is aimed at freeing up, creating space, and physically protecting the 39-year-old Messi. Everything Spain does is about involving all 11 players, its whole greater than the sum of its parts<\/p>\n

This style of play bluntly mirrors the leaders of the two countries\u2014and this matters, because as stated above, the country\u2019s leader that claims the win will also get a boost. In Argentina, that means President Javier Milei. The bombastic Milei should be very familiar to us in the United States and not only because he is so openly corrupt. Milei is an oligarch committed to severe austerity, retrograde social policies, and an \u201cenhanced\u201d security state to quell internal dissent. He also maintains close ties to the rest of the international authoritarian right. He is a favorite of Israel\u2019s war-criminal-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu was asked on a recent podcast if he was rooting for Messi, he said, \u201cNo, before Messi\u2014Milei. He\u2019s a superstar.\u201d Milei is also, suffice it to say, a dear ally of our own emotionally erratic despot, Donald Trump. The thought of them joining together on the field and raising the FIFA championship trophy together is nauseating.<\/p>\n

Read more Will Climate Voters Turn Out in Pennsylvania?<\/a><\/p>\n

If Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, takes the pitch after a Sunday victory, there is still a chance that Trump would join him. Trump despises S\u00e1nchez, who is also the secretary-general of the Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE). There are many reasons for his enmity, but recently Trump\u2019s rage escalated dramatically when S\u00e1nchez refused to let the United States use Spain\u2019s military bases to launch attacks against Iran. Now Trump, ever the fascist fantasist, is threatening to cut off trade with Spain. But Iran is only the latest reason for a Trump tantrum. S\u00e1nchez, unlike Milei, opposes US military aid to Israel, has called Israeli military operations in Gaza \u201cthe greatest genocide this century has witnessed,\u201d and restricts fuel and military trade to Israel. S\u00e1nchez also believes in investing in renewable energy, the importance of immigration, and state spending. This is not to say that S\u00e1nchez is perfect. His family and party are facing corruption allegations, and perhaps he should be pressing harder, especially against an ascendant far right. But Milei and S\u00e1nchez, certainly in the eyes of our own regime, could not be more different, and the political benefits of their country winning the World Cup will have far different real-life implications.<\/p>\n

If there is one political reality that both S\u00e1nchez and Milei share, it is that neither enjoys firm majority approval in their countries. Both are considered polarizing, and both face sizable opposition. Given the facts, rooting interests should be obvious. Support Spain because their collective style of play\u2014instead of gearing everything they do around one singular player\u2014is better for the sport. Fans should also support Spain because Milei will swallow his tongue if Argentina loses and Donald Trump\u2019s mottled face will fume. Trump may even stay away from the award ceremony, his petulance outweighing his ego. The political benefits would flow away from Milei and his already weak regime. And S\u00e1nchez\u2014and everything he represents even with all its imperfections\u2014will get some wind at his back. This is all worth rooting for on Sunday. I wish the world was not like this. I wish a soccer game would not buttress a fascist agenda or give wings to a social democratic one, but this is where we are, and we should cheer accordingly.<\/p>\n

Read more The Students Betting on a New Democratic Party<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\nRoot for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Root for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-16T17:07:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Root for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-16T17:07:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630\"},\"wordCount\":818,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/4fdb97041f77b29da3a6d5b790a764f9.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=630\",\"name\":\"Root for Spain for Their Play and Their Politics - 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