How international sports affirm and challenge national identity

This summer, the United States will be hosting FIFA World Cup games for the first time since 1994.

Dr. John Vincent, a professor of sport management at The University of Alabama, has studied the fanfare around huge international sporting events for three decades. His recent book, "Sport, National Identities and the Media: Battling Brits", explores the way these competitions become a stage on which national identity is celebrated, contested and reimagined.

Vincent attended some of the 1994 games in Orlando, sweltering in the tropical heat as Holland battled Ireland.

"I enjoyed the sea of green and the sea of orange," he said. "The festivity and the hospitality and the sheer joy of the sporting event."

"In that brief moment when our team is playing Australia or Paraguay or Turkey, it is us. The 'I' becomes a 'we.' And our national identity is formed around that moment against the other."

This sense of unity is temporary but powerful.

Media, sports and national identity

The unpredictable ups and downs of sports direct powerful waves of public sentiment toward these athletes.

If the team does well, "it gives us all a little lift," Vincent said. Media lean into stories of hope and triumph, creating national personas who are almost modern-day patriotic heroes.

If the team falls short of expectations or an athlete commits some sort of personal infraction, then the media coverage often rushes to place blame. The narrative in that case might look for scapegoats or turn the disappointment into a parable about national decline.

The rise of transnational sport

In the decades since Vincent began studying media, sports and national identity, the world has become more globally interdependent, he said. "In some respects, many national identity barriers have come down." Especially if the team is winning.

The U.S. Men's National Team coach is from Argentina, and the English men's team coach is from Germany - one of England's most heated soccer rivals.

If the team loses, those differences often become magnified in the public imagination.

Vincent believes that the American public is ready to embrace soccer and the World Cup in a much bigger way than in 1994. While Americans are not historically as invested in soccer as European and South American fans, new stadiums and an improving national men's team indicate swelling interest.

And as the world tunes in, Vincent expects to see media worldwide looking for heroes and villains on the field.