When a nation comes together as one

In June 2018, two years will have passed since France opened its doors and invited Europe, along with the rest of the world, over for the UEFA European Championships 2016. I was lucky enough to be able to be there and attend few games. Some nations´ performances did not live up their expectations while other surpassed even their wildest dreams. With the FIFA World Cup 2018 coming up in only a month I´ve been reflecting on the impact of international sporting success on the national identity and subsequently on the pride of a nation.

Almost 99% of the nation tuned in as Iceland, a first time participant at a major tournament in men’s football, made its way to the quarter finals. There was this euphoric atmosphere that surrounded the entire country, self-proclaimed non-sport enthusiasts were tuning in to watch Iceland taking on a new opponent, football shirts were selling so fast that there was no way for the producer to fill out the demand quickly enough to satisfy the newly football crazed customers. 10% of the nation flew over to France to watch the team in real life while others flocked to downtown Reykjavik to watch the matches with 30,000 other fans. Everyone was collected as one in the now world famous Viking Clap and in their support for the men´s national team.

Sport is believed to have the power to create unity among people. However, researchers in the Netherlands have found that the construct of national pride is in fact much more stable than initially thought and that fleeting success at the international stage does only temporarily affect the national pride of a nation (Van Hilvoorde, Elling, & Stokvis, 2010).

So why did Iceland´s success at the UEFA European Championships 2016 lead to such a surge in unity among the nation that continued throughout the World Cup qualifying campaign? Perhaps it is due to the continued success of the Men´s National Team that has managed to keep the level of national pride elevated. If that is the case, then nations that experience continued success at the international level should also experience continuously heightened levels of national pride. Could it be that the effect of sporting success differs depending on the country? Does sporting success mean more to some countries or is it simply only due to the different expectations the country´s population has?

Would making it to the quarter final of a major tournament draw, let’s say, English people to the telly in mass numbers, when they are expected to outperform other nations? The novelty of success might not be there anymore and perhaps it is exactly the novelty of finally being in the big leagues that draws people in.

Or maybe Iceland is just stuck with the “little country syndrome” where all achievements have to be celebrated as if we achieved them ourselves. When you are so small on the world’s geographical landscape that the most common response from people when you tell them you’re from Iceland is; “is it like, really cold there all year round?”, our default mechanism is to celebrate any Icelandic individual that has achieved anything remotely resembling success. It gives you that nice belief that we indeed matter and we can achieve success despite our smaller-than-average size. Maybe that is the reason that when, not just one man, but an entire football team took Europe by storm, we couldn´t help but stop what we were doing and become the greatest ever football fans. For we are after all the greatest nation in the world.

Will the continued success throughout the World Cup qualifying campaign make us insatiable for success and cause us to demand a win in every single game or we will lose interest? I guess only time will tell.