Few would argue against the fact that football is the planet's true global game. All over the world it is watched, played, argued about, loved and hated with an intensity that no other sport can match. Its popularity also brings a tremendous amount of power. Dictators and politicians have long tried to recreate its ability to inspire unity and national pride for more impactful political purposes – such as Argentina's junta who used the 1978 World Cup to inspire the kind of loyalty that its regime had failed to do.
"Football has caused at least one war and many battles, often tragic, off the pitch," wrote Melvyn Bragg, nominating the 1863 Rules of Association Football, the football's first official code, in his "Twelve Books That Changed the World." But sometimes even a single match can be at the center of huge social and political changes.
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