This video takes us to November 21, 1973. Chile must play the playoff match to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in Germany against the Soviet Union. The first match takes place in Moscow on September 26, 1973, and ends in a goalless draw. The second match was supposed to be held in Chile, but the Soviet team refused to play at the National Stadium as a boycott against the military dictatorship. This refusal was justified by the fact that the National Stadium was being used as a detention and torture center for political prisoners. FIFA, already under the leadership of João Havelange, a promoter and depoliticizer of football, provided “bread and circuses” to the new military regimes. For this reason, the Chilean team, under pressure from the military regime, was sent on to the field without an opponent, and after less than 30 seconds of play, Francisco "Chamaco" Valdés scored, in front of an empty goal, the most cowardly and shameful goal in the history of international football.It is here that Cristian Maturana draws on Diego Armando Maradona’s quote, “the ball doesn’t stain,” which referred to Maradona’s self-destructive behavior off the pitch while defending the only element that gave him glory and happiness: THE BALL. Maturana, in a political and poetic gesture, ERASES THE BALL, and thus saves this central element of mass entertainment, symbolically distancing it from power. The BALL is saved, and as Diego said, it doesn’t stain.