Footballing Examples of British Propaganda as it Should, and Should Not, Be: The Middle to Late 1930s

During the mid-1930s, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935–36), the German remilitarisation of the Rhineland (1936), and the resumption of Japan’s advance in China (1937) reflected a growing state of international instability. At the same time, the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) offered a graphic illustration of the European Civil War’s impact upon all spheres of life, not excluding sport; indeed, Ricardo Zamora, who kept goal against England in Spain’s famous victory in 1929 as well as in the return match at London (1931), was an early casualty of the conflict. ¹ Moreover, the fact that the Civil War broke out a few weeks prior to the opening of the Berlin Games heightened the significance of Spain’s abortive bid for the 1936 Olympics.