Popular events like the football World Cup and other international sporting occasions are essential in easing international tensions and releasing patriotic emotions in a safe way. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion. Include your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

International sporting events like the

football

World

Cup, the Olympics and the Paralympics have not only strengthened the bonds between different countries, but have

also

bolstered patriotic spirits in a healthy way. While, some people might argue that these international sporting occasions have little or no effect in improving international tensions and are a waste of money, the benefits of these events are way too many and it outweighs the negative sides. In

this

essay, I will discuss the various reasons how international sports help in strengthening social and political ties between countries and support my views with relevant examples.

Firstly

, sports serves as a means to influence, diplomatic, political, social relations and transcends cultural differences by bringing people together. Hundreds and thousands of fans from countries all over the planet, seem to have set aside their racial, cultural, and religious differences and bond merrily over the game of

football

.

Such

as, the FIFA

world

cup in 2010, held in South Africa attracted over 2.3 billion people from over 60 different countries across 6 major continents.

Secondly

, international sporting occasions

also

serve as a platform for people to unite and support their nation.

Moreover

, there is a certain togetherness, a certain camaraderie that total strangers can achieve simply by virtue of belonging to the same nationality and rooting for the same team. Illustrated, by the

football

world

cup match held in 2014, where a record breaking 200,000 tickets were sold only to the U.S residents. Fans poured in from all the 50 states of the country.

Similarly

, in the case of European

football

, the game itself and the stadiums have emerged as a basis of political expression and basis of recent collective memory. Not only, soccer has been historically able to simultaneously maintain the differences that give each European country their own sense of identity, but

also

it has strengthened the bonds that bind them together as one body. In conclusion, sports play an important part in the universal culture. Even though, some people might argue that in match of nationalism versus globalism, nationalism wins, I strongly agree that international sporting events like soccer and Olympics promotes globalisation and is a great sanction tool in International relations. Especially, it serves as an important means of combining different people in the

world

and is an activity that contributes to

world

peace.