The FIFA World Cup is truly an event which unites the world. I stumbled across this animation by Renske Mijnheer, which illustrates that the World Cup is more than nations just battling each other in football for a gold trophy. There are underground complexed issues like racism, which has been floating around football and the World Cup for a while. An example of racial tension in soccer is in 2006, while playing for the German team FC Sachsen Leipzig, Nigerian footballer Adebowale Ogungbure was attacked by hooligans with racial slurs. Ogungbure retaliated with the Adolf Hitler salute, then he was physically grab by opposing supporters. Or when England’s Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were subject to racial chants in 2004 by Spanish supporters when England played Spain. Or the speculation of Germany’s Micahel Ballack’s racial hostility against Half-Ghanaian German born Kevin-Prince Boateng.
This clever cardboard animation directed by Robbert-Jan Vos titled ‘Go South Africa!’, tackles an aspect of racism with a creative light-hearted approach, with a tale involving the production of soccer balls.
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