The World Cup’s Influence on Unity

I never really used to care about football.

Aside from kicking a ball about from time to time with my cousins in the garages behind their house as a kid, it never really had any involvement in my life.

I’ve never kept up with the Premier League, nor the Euros, and not even the World Cup, with the exception of looking at scores now and again.

When people would ask what team I support, I wouldn’t know what to say.

But this World Cup has changed things for me, as I’m sure it has for a lot of people.

I only started keeping up since the England v Mexico game, a stressful but extremely interesting one. It enticed me for sure, but it was TikTok that truly pulled me in.

I would’ve never thought that something like the World Cup would have a fandom. One like all the others I’ve been in — with inside jokes, edits, fan-art, and even fanfiction.

Aside from watching it, it was just fun to participate, and in turn, it made me regret that my first instinct was to dismiss it.

I bonded with people in comment sections, gained new mutuals, and in general, had

something to look forward to.

That’s the thing about sports, it brings people together, creates community even in times where we couldn’t be more divided.

Even if that unity only lasts for 90 or so minutes, or a month. It shows that it’s possible, and gives hope for a brighter future.

I feel a sense of pride really. Especially when it comes to players like Jude Bellingham. To see so much support for a young, biracial guy, who’s from an area not too far from my home? It’s heart warming. He’s getting the flowers he absolutely deserves and I couldn’t be more happy for him.

And I think that pride is rooted in not only the team as a unit, but for the individual players, and what they represent, particularly in the sense of seeing someone out there on the pitch, who looks like you, who’s come from a similar background as you, has maybe had similar hardships as you, it’s so important.

Representation is one of the beauties of sports and other major events, which I think we sometimes forget.

I remember feeling a similar sense of pride from seeing a part of myself represented when it came to the Super Bowl, more specifically the half time performance by Bad Bunny, which he ended by listing a large majority of North American countries, particularly countries that rarely experienced any representation. As someone who is half Jamaican, I cried after hearing its mention. Seeing my people recognised lit up a special place in my heart, and I'm sure it did the same for those with heritage in countries even lesser known than my own.

The World Cup does a similar thing when it comes to smaller nations like Cabo Verde. I had not really heard much about Cabo Verde before the World Cup, and yet I felt immense happiness that they were participating, because they deserved a stage, and a chance to be seen by the rest of the world, regardless of the fact that they did not win.

Coming back to the Super Bowl, people talked about the political significance of Bad Bunny's performance for weeks, and deservedly so, because a performance with that kind of message, that ‘The only thing more powerful than hate is love’ is necessary in a time where division could not be more apparent. Hatred is what keeps us from realising that we are all human, and in an almost depressing way because of its fleetingness, sport provides that reminder by giving us something in common, someone we can all support. It allows us to realise that we are a lot similar than we thought, and that we are simply, as I said, human, even if seeing eye to eye is only momentary.

Some people think sport cannot be political, but I think it absolutely is.

It’s more than just a game, it has so much political and social weight.

This year, we have seen constant division in England and the UK, especially with the rise of

support for the Reform party, so to see everyone coming together to support a team full of

diversity? It sparks hope.

I think that’s why patriotism rises the way it does in moments like these. Because it displays

a different kind, the kind of patriotism that we need, one marked by unity and celebration, not

exclusion and discrimination.

England have lost the World Cup now, and things will inevitably turn back to normal, but I will

never give up hope, because I have felt the warmth of unity and have seen proof that

change is possible, and it is beautiful.

So, until the next World Cup, which I can only hope will be in a time of permanent unification.

Written by La’Keesha Stewart