Peru Watches the World Cup from Afar… Again · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

The Peruvian flag in the crowd during a football match. Image on Flickr by user Teru Kaleru. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Four years later, history has repeated itself. Peruvians are again watching the World Cup as an outsider, without a team of their own to cheer for.
The country has seen eight World Cups come and go since the last one that they were in – the 1982 FIFA World Cup Spain 32 years ago.
The blog CappoCanonieri by Communications student Fernando Serra tried to find an explanation for the phenomenon:
Venga Bielsa, Guardiola, Gareca o tantos otros buenos entrenadores mundiales, lamento decirles que no iremos a ningún lado. ¿Saben por qué? Por lo mismo que les puse al inicio de esto. Hacemos todo de prisa. Somos una sociedad que se acostumbró a la pendejada, a tomar el camino corto para llegar a nuestro objetivo. […] Eso es lo que ocurre en el fútbol peruano. Somos un perro hambriento que solo quiere un poco de agua sucia para calmar la sed.
[Well known coaches] Bielsa, Guardiola, Gareca or many other good coaches may come, but I regret to tell you that we are not going anywhere. You know why? Due to the same thing I mentioned in the first lines of this post. We do it all in a hurry. We are a society that got used to the foolishness, to taking shortcuts to reach our goal […] This is what goes on with Peruvian football. We are a hungry dog who just looks for some dirty water to quench its thirst.
¿Perú al Mundial? (Peru to the World Cup?) took a much more sarcastic tone in explaining the situation:
El fútbol no es el deporte universal del que todos hablan. Existen lugares en la galaxia donde esta actividad no ha llegado, donde no se practica, no se conocen ni sus reglas ni sus modos: ese lugar se llama Perú. Los aborígenes de esa tierra sí tiene una propia actividad recreativa, pero lejos está del galante uso de los pies. Es una variante a medio camino entre los 100 metros planos y el cuatro por jonca [cajón de seis botellas de cerveza]. Se le conoce como Fulbo y es fácil confundirlo con la disciplina del verdadero fútbol. Pero las diferencias se hacen evidente en un exámenes minucioso. En el primero vence el que más goles anota, en el otro el que más pollos escupe en el césped. […] Si Perú no juega el Mundial de fútbol, es porque ellos no quieren participar.
Football is not the worldwide sport everybody is talking about. There are places in the galaxy where this activity is unknown, where no one practices it, its rules and styles are not known: that place is called Peru. Indigenous from that land do have a recreational activity of their own, but one that's far from the gallant use of feet. It's a halfway version between the 100-meter dash and the four per jonca [a box of six bottles of beer]. It is known as Fulbo and it's easy to get mixed up with the real football discipline. But the differences become evident after thorough examination. During the former, the team that scores the most goals wins; during the latter, the winner is the one who spits the most. […] If Peru doesn't take part in a football World Cup, it is because they don't want to.
“Please, let me see Peru in Russia 2018″. Photo on Twitter by user @terra.pe.
Meanwhile, in a post published on Father's Day, the blog PPGOL-ILO didn't lose faith:
[…] hoy sobran motivos para festejar como debe ser, en casita junto a la familia, degustando algo rico y mojando la gargantita luego de gritar las goleadas que se dan en el Mundial de Brasil; importante competencia que Perú solo lo ve en la Tele, guardando las esperanzas de algún día llegar…
[…] today we have lots of reasons to celebrate as it ought to be, at home with the family, eating something delicious and putting our throat to use yelling at the large number of goals at the World Cup in Brazil; an important event that Peru just watches on TV, keeping alive the hope of being there some day…
Some months ago, website El Bocón wrote about the time when two successful coaches of teams participating in the World Cup were in charge of Peruvian teams, with very different results:
Dos técnicos extranjeros que vinieron al Perú años atrás están en la palestra del fútbol mundial. Y es que Jorge Luis Pinto clasificó a Costa Rica al Mundial de Brasil 2014 y Jorge Sampaoli está a un paso de hacerlo con Chile; en ambos estrategas resalta una virtud: la disciplina, sin eso no se llega a nada.
Two foreign coaches that came to Peru years ago are now in the world football arena. So, Jorge Luis Pinto made Costa Rica qualify for the World Cup in Brazil and Jorge Sampaoli is about to do so with Chile; with both strategists there is a virtue that stands out: discipline, without that, we get nowhere.
People on Twitter also wondered about Peru's absence, some more seriously than others:
Y Perú le gano a Chile el año pasado… Queda claro que no fuimoa al Mundial para no humillar a los demás
— Pablo Centeno (@Cento975) junio 18, 2014
And Peru defeated Chile last year… It's evident we didn't make it to the World Cup so we won't humiliate the rest.
DT's que dirigieron en Perú triunfan con el mundial. Creo que vienen a Perú para aprender que cosa no hacer
— Bien Este Eres (@dilmar207) junio 18, 2014
Coaches that worked in Peru succeed in the World Cup. I think they come to Peru to learn what not to do.
el ultimo mundial de peru fue antes de cristo
— loui$ bb (@lordxmalik) junio 16, 2014
The last World Cup for Peru was before before Christ.
From afar once again, may the best win!