Does football make national rivalries better or worse?
Post categories: World Cup 2010,ÌýWorld Cup Have Your Say
| 13:46 UK time, Saturday, 26 June 2010
OK, so not every pub in England is painted quite like this one at the moment - but you certainly know there is an England v Germany match on the way ...
The tabloid newspapers are harking back to the inevitable, with the front page of today's featuring :
IT'S WAR -Â we will fight jeering Jerries on the pitches
... screams the headline (partly in response to calling Rooney et al "little English girlies")Â
So is this all unnecessary, dredging up past conflict and creating tension between nations,Ìýor is it just harmless banter?
A Â for the notorious UK front page headline ahead of the England v Germany semi-final at Euro 96, in case it sparked real violence.
The rhetoric is similar when Korean and Japanese teams meet on the football pitch, for example when South Koreans talk about their famous 1997 victory, or "Greatest Battle".
Matches between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 are blamed for raising tensions which led to .
But writer Ian Buruma argues in  that the game could more often be an outlet to relieve warlike tensions, which could otherwise lead to conflict:
... the fact that sport can unleash primitive emotions is not a reason to condemn it. Since such feelings cannot simply be wished away, it is better to allow for their ritual expression, just as fears of death, violence, and decay find expression in religion or bull fighting. Even though some football games have provoked violence, and in one case even a war, they might have served the positive purpose of containing our more savage impulses by deflecting them onto a mere sport.
While there has been notorious hooliganism around football in the past,Ìýthe images of South Africa 2010 have been more about fans celebrating together.
wrote about how a North Korea-Japan international actually smoothed wider political tensions between them five years ago.
So is football a path to more understanding between nations with traditional enmities?
Or is it the final arena in which aggressive stereotypes rear their heads?
Do you buy the argument that the chanting and flag-waving of football fans is some kind of healthy outlet for our fundamental tendency to war?
Does all of this "humour" about history demonstrate people have come to terms with the past - or aren't taking it seriously enough?
