To be honest, I never was a big fan of football (soccer, for those of you that are American). I’ve always been quite lousy with the ball myself, and Russia, the country that I am from, isn’t exactly great at it either. But because this year the FIFA World Cup was being held in Russia, and the team seemed to do better than it ever has, I decided to follow the event as much as possible.

What I witnessed both amazes and disgusts me. On the one hand, I see so much happiness and union between people from all over the world, having the time of their lives while celebrating and cheering for their own as well as other countries. But on the other hand, I see how the mass media has been using the event to build anger and hate between people. It’s just plain awful and ugly.

Yes, I know that politics have always been a part of sports and probably always will be, but the extent to which it has happened this year is just beyond my ability to rationalize it.

Awareness and politics

I am not big on politics, but I do like to follow them and to hear what people have to say. I genuinely understand that most of the time there is no true or wrong when it comes to political talk. I also understand that most politicians lie. It’s just the nature of the subject. As a consequence, I prefer to stay out of political discourse with others, simply because the subject is too hard for some people to handle, much like religion is.

When people ask me whether I watch TV series or movies, I say that I don’t. Instead, I watch the news and politicians talk. I get from that much more amusement than I ever would from a movie or going to the circus. I truly do. I just wish that much of what they say would ever affect anyone.

But unfortunately, not only do the words affect us, but they also start wars and cause thousands and thousands of innocent people to die. That is the sad reality of our world.

I think that if aliens really do exist, there is no way they would ever want to communicate with us. What could we possibly say to them, if we can’t even learn to listen to each other?

So where am I going with this, I hear you asking. Build awareness.

Build awareness towards what you hear and see on the internet, TV and the newspapers. Don’t just blindly follow the anger and hate that you are fed, especially when it’s used to crap all over something as wonderful as sports. Fear, hate and anger breed only more fear, hate and anger.

It amazes me how little of awareness some of the people that make country-wide decisions have. They say whatever they want and whenever they want. And at the end of the day, it is us, the life-loving citizens that have to suffer.

Remember, it’s not the politicians that will grab the machine guns and run off to war. It’s going to be you and me.

Sports unite, not break apart

Sports have always been the place for some people to spill their political hate and anger into. It’s very unfortunate, but that is the case. It always has been.

Sports on the very basic level are linked to politics through the national symbolism. There is the national flag that the team plays under and the hymn. Both are necessary when it comes to teams from different countries playing against each other. Moreover, that makes it more fun to watch. Who doesn’t feel pride for their country when their team wins?

It is that national or just team symbolism through which politics manipulate people. All you have to do is insult the team, their coach, the stadium they play in, their tactics, etc., and you are automatically insulting all of the fans too. The same can be applied the other way. If a politician wants more popularity, they can praise certain sports or teams. This happens all of the time.

But the best at combining sports and politics are not even the politicians themselves, but rather the mass media. News outlets will sometimes do whatever they can to create a catchy article that will cause a lot of resonance with the people. And the best way to do that is to discuss sports in one way or another, adding to it politics, history, and maybe even some religion. As a result, that becomes one of the most effective ways to make one group of people hate another.

Recommended: How to Control Anger and Hate Towards Other People – Living Aware

Coming back to the FIFA World Cup 2018 happening in Russia, I have read some of the ugliest and hateful articles that I have ever read about sports in my entire life. Thousands of words written to spread nothing other than hate and fear amongst people that truly love the sports.

The articles actually had very little to do with sports, and a lot to do with spreading their political agenda. And they weren’t some small unheard of news outlets. They were some of the biggest outlets in the world with millions of readers.

To conclude, I would like to once again remind you that the only way to hold politics out of sports is to be more aware and to not allow them in. Be aware that teams play on a national level. Enjoy that fact. Be proud when your team wins, but solute the other team when they win. This is the kind of behavior that sports are really all about. Enjoy the games, unite with others and celebrate.

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

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