Soccer – a sport beloved by billions, able to get entire populations on their feet cheering for a team that represents their homeland.
Soccer fans are amongst the most passionate sports fans in the world, roaring with pride when their team is winning, and roaring even louder when they are not. These attitudes are especially prevalent during the World Cup, where select national teams compete to win an incredibly intense international championship.
The World Cup allows smaller, less wealthy nations to have significant representation – a rare feat in the western-dominated world. Because of this, many soccer fans tie in their national pride with the teams, representing their country in a collective strive on the field. Winning against another nation can be taken to mean that the successor is simply a better country, and the loser is exactly that – a loser.
Long-seated multinational conflict can be given the illusion of productive discord through soccer, giving subdued nationalism and xenophobia an outlet, allowing fans to express their discontent through relatively non-violent means, instead of genuine confrontation. Soccer insults are known to be some of the harshest in sports leagues, with some insulters bringing up national tragedies in the name of lowering the opposing team’s self-worth. These insults, although horrible and foul, allow many people to let their true feelings loose, provoked and stood beside by other members of their nation, producing a feeling of true community based on shared passion.
However, the above-stated theory is one proved by nobody but fans of the sport, as national sports teams no longer base their players off nativistic ideals, and now cherry-pick team members from different leagues. According to a study done by the CIES Football Observatory, 65% of players who competed in 2018’s World Cup played professionally for soccer clubs outside of their home countries – typically in the wealthiest and most influential competitions in western Europe.
CIES’s study goes to prove that the basis of soccer nationalism – that all teams play in a certain way specific to the respective nation – is, in fact, incorrect, and that much of the nationalism behind soccer fans is driven by nobody else but the fans themselves.
If anything, the study’s consensus is derivative of the very basis of nationalism itself: logical vision clouded by false pride. Willful ignorance of fact that works towards disproving nationalistic ideals in the name of preserving pride over a country is textbook nationalistic behaviour, and is absolutely not uncommon in soccer fans. Nationalism is therefore the basis of the global soccer fandom, as fans are often told to root for their country, and are shamed if they refuse.
Soccer allows individuals to express their bigotry and elitism through the only means deemed acceptable by the public. Flag-waving, chauvinistic nationalism, which is now reserved for only the alt- right members of most societies, is common within soccer fandoms, and is accepted into many modern cultures. Allowing this outlet to exist, although perpetrating ideals many wish to squash, gives many people relief from self-censoring in the name of political correctness. Even though, this nationalist phenomenon is relatively harmless, and can allow members of a country to become bonded over a shared love for soccer.
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