“The Finest Ambassadors”
In 1955, the US national soccer team landed at the Keflavik airport in Iceland for a government-sponsored three-match tour for the purposes of building goodwill. The exchange occurred as Icelandic public opinion mounted against the American military presence at Keflavik. With this tour, and a subseq...
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | English |
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University Press of Kentucky
2020
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813179513.003.0005 |
| Summary: | In 1955, the US national soccer team landed at the Keflavik airport in Iceland for a government-sponsored three-match tour for the purposes of building goodwill. The exchange occurred as Icelandic public opinion mounted against the American military presence at Keflavik. With this tour, and a subsequent return tour of the Icelandic national team to the United States the following year, Washington used soccer to deal with the Keflavik situation specifically and the political realities of the region more broadly. The global game possessed a unique ability to cut across political lines, as evidenced in how the tours were mediated by Icelandic newspapers of varying political persuasion. It also explores how strategic mishaps—at the level of both federal and sport governance—were not enough to sully the goodwill-building potential of the venture on the whole. |
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