Sports as a Unifier

The world cup soccer is finished and Spain for the first time came out as world champions beating out Netherlands in the finals. There were great jubilations in the streets of Spain and what was remarkable was how the game of soccer united the whole nation. As everybody (or nearly everybody) knows that Spain has long been rocked by a separatist movement by the Basque to carve out a New Country. There has been bombings and killings related to it. But when the country won the world cup, everybody in Spain, whether they are immigrants or separatist came out as won and celebrated the victory.

And this is not the first time; a sport has unified a country for some time at least. You can see it happening all over the place. Even when the economy is down and people are worried about their jobs, a winning by a national team can make a person feel good regardless of his economic situation. For example, in Pakistan, wrecked by years of bombings and extremists violence and separatist movement in its western provinces, people go crazy when their team beat the Indian team (a traditional rival) in Cricket (a sport similar to cricket but much longer). But only for a moment, this unity is there when the victory is celebrated, because after a while the enthusiasm dies down, people are back to where they were before, worrying, bickering and fighting among themselves. But for a moment it seems nice that just a simple game of sport can have an unexpected effect on a nation divided by different opinions.