It’s September 2013 and in the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica 35,000 Costa Rican fans have turned their back on FIFA.
A few months earlier, Costa Rica had appealed to football’s governing body to replay their World Cup qualifying match against the U.S – a game played in Denver during a fierce snowstorm.
“It was terrible,” the Costa Rican Federation’s president Eduardo Li told the Zona Tecnica football show. “While the match was being played, at the same time, machines and people came onto the field to clean the lines.”
You can see clips of the ‘snow game’ here:
https://youtu.be/_w6C3O17UuM
The game was a farce. Costa Rica asked FIFA to replay it but their appeal was rejected.
The Costa Rican fans were unhappy at FIFA’s decision and planned a protest when Costa Rica played the U.S. at home. The protest would start when the teams came out to the FIFA’s fair play anthem – the FIFA Hymn.
https://youtu.be/ckElCm5IJDY
The FIFA Hymn was written for the 1994 World Cup by Franz Lambard, a German composer and musician. It is played before every FIFA sanctioned international game.
But, this time, when the anthem started, 35,000 fans showed exactly what they thought of FIFA fair play promises:
It was a simple and effective protest. Fans showing FIFA exactly what they thought of them. It’s just a pity that the football season is over and fans in stadiums across the world cannot do the same to a FIFA accused of systematic corruption.
