Issue 12 | Face the Current

Page 90

FtC sports

The Power Of Football To Unite The World By Jasen Sousa Within a world that tends to highlight our differences as people, sport has always been able to unite populations. No other sport on the planet does this better than football. As the world’s most popular and avidly followed sport, football has over 3 billion fans, each of which brings their own unique passion and excitement to the game. The matches are a battle of attrition which promotes endurance, patience, teamwork, and comradeship. This display on a world stage highlights what people

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FACE the CURRENT MAGAZINE

can accomplish if they work together as one towards a common goal. Football is followed by some of the most passionate fans in the world. They enter arenas draped in flags, the pride of their countries fixed upon their faces. Even though the colors being cheered for and team logos might be fierce rivals, football fans crave the basic human action of coming together peacefully and rooting wildly for two different outcomes. Where else in life can this happen in such a magical and exciting environment? Often,

the outcome is secondary. It is the story of a player who overcame adversity and poverty; it is the overcoming of an injury to remain in the game; it is the unheralded player that tilts the fate of an entire country. And let us not forget the honor and respect that both sides show to one another that fans hope to bottle and replicate in their everyday lives. Since countries and continents are so passionately represented, politics can be an underlying theme in many matches. Geopolitical rivals. Developed nations


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