Wednesday, June 13, 2018,17:29
Argentina 1978: 'We did not shake hands with Videla, he was a dictator'
By Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 17:29 By Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Argentina's captain Daniel Passarella (right) receives the trophy from the hands of General Jorge Rafael Videla (center) after the World Cup final match against Netherlands at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 25 June 1978. (UPI EGGITT / UPI / DPA)

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina 1978 was a World Cup that clearly mixed football and politics, so much so that Dutch players had the feeling there was no way they could beat the hosts in the final.

"Argentine people were friendly, but of course that changed before the final. We were a bit scared before that final, we even thought that the best thing was not to win it,” Netherlands striker Johnny Rep, who scored three goals in that World Cup, told dpa.

Mario Alberto Kempes was without a doubt the Argentine symbol of a World Cup that the side coached by Cesar Luis Menotti won at home in 1978. However, 36 years later the tournament is still largely marked by the dictatorship of General Jorge Videla.

"There were always comments, there continue to be and there will continue to be. Whenever one talked about the Argentina World Cup, one talked about the military, about the match against Peru, and it’s always the same topics. But the truth is that the team was very good,” Kempes said.

The striker nicknamed "Matador" admitted to dpa that players were "very isolated" in their headquarters and that for this reason they were unaware of everything that was going on under a military regime believed to have killed more than 30,000 people.

Kempes, the top scorer of that tournament with six goals and now aged 59, remains convinced that Argentina’s first World Cup was won in good faith, based on the hosts’ “hunger for victory.”

Argentina's forward Mario Alberto Kempes scores the first goal during the World Cup final match against Netherlands at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 25 June 1978. (UPI EGGITT / UPI / DPA)

Doubts persist, however, regarding Argentina’s 6-0 second-round win over Peru. The hosts and Brazil reached the round’s final day with the same number of points, but Brazil had scored an extra goal.

The "verdeamarela" played several hours before Argentina and beat Poland 3-1. The hosts knew that result when they went onto the pitch for their game, which they needed to win by 4-0. Argentina thrashed Peru in a clash in which many saw football betrayed.

No proof ever emerged, but suspicion was massive, and many talked openly of bribes and political influence at the highest levels.

"In football you win and you lose. When you win with dignity you need to be able to lose just the same,” retired Peruvian footballer Teofilo Cubillas told dpa.

"No one expected that result, us least of all. These things happen in football, but I will never accept people saying that we played to lose. I was there,” said the best player in the history of Peruvian football.

"Peruvian government pressure? No. None, none, none."

Argentina played the Netherlands in the final and beat the European team by 3-1 in a fantastic game that went into extra time. After losing the 1974 final against Germany, the Dutch team qualified for a World Cup’s decisive match for the second time in succession, despite the absence of their star player Johan Cruyff, who retired early so he did not have to play in Argentina.

"People in the Netherlands did not want us to go there, but it was a World Cup, and we had to play it. We were against Videla’s dictatorship, I insist," Rep, one the tournament’s key Dutch players, told dpa. "After losing the final we did not shake hands with Videla. He was a dictator, we did not like him."

Rep said Dutch players were “scared of the people and of the government.”

"Indeed, we could not win. We felt that on the pitch too. The referee was not totally fair. That was apparent in small things, but I think he too felt that we should not win," Rep said.

And yet the story could have been quite different if that last-minute shot from Robby Rensenbrink had shaken the net behind Argentine keeper Ubaldo Fillol instead of hitting the woodwork.