Does sport contribute to international understanding and harmony?

	Pro	Con
S	Major sporting events often allow players, officials and fans of different countries to come together to learn more about other countries. People will learn to live and communicate with others who do not share a common background and way of life with them.	When rivalries between sporting oppositions get to intense and fiery, players often allow their emotions to get the better of them and this might lead to rowdy behaviors. This will lead to international disharmony and discord.
P	Sport is often used as a political tool to enhance diplomatic relations between two entities. The intention is sometimes to bring about radical change.	As displayed by Adolf Hitler, sports can also be used to promote negative political ideologies.
E
R	Sports have often been used as a platform to prevent “anti-racism”. Such movements often receive support from many societies.	Racism in sport is a problem which is manifest around the world. It has led to controversial incidents which have been reported by the media. Racism in sport includes the abuse of players, officials and fans because of their skin color, nationality or ethnicity. There have been many efforts to eradicate racism from sport.
M		In the event violent and inappropriate behavior occurs, the media will exaggerate the incident and put the blame on sports. As such, the public might get influenced and they will feel sports destroy international understanding and harmony.

Social Con-October 26 – In the Olympic soccer final, Bulgarian fans threw various objects onto the field in the 44th minute with Hungary leading 2–1 to protest the officiating after three Bulgarian players, Tzevan Dimtriov, captain Kiril Ivkov and Atanas Christov were ejected, causing a 15 minute delay; Dimtriov and Ivkov had been booked before the match for a fight in the tunnel with Hungarian players. Dimtriov was ejected for a dangerous tackle on Hungarian striker Antal Dunai while he was taking a shot at goal, as was Ivkov immediately after for arguing with the referee. As Dimitriov and Ivkov were making their way off the pitch, Christov picked up the ball and drop-kicked it towards the referee in protest, and was promptly ejected. With Bulgaria down to eight men for the second half, Hungary won the match and the gold medal 4–1.

Racial Con-In February 2005, Samuel Eto'o suffered from racially-driven verbal abuse by some Real Zaragoza spectators during a match for FC Barcelona. The fans began making monkey-like chants whenever Eto'o had possession of the ball and peanuts were hurled onto the pitch. Eto'o threatened to leave the pitch in the middle of the game, but was prevented by the intervention of his team-mates and the referee, who rushed to the pitch to calm him down. His teammate Ronaldinho, who has suffered similar abuses but less intensely, said he was fed up with the sounds and that if Eto'o had left the pitch, he would have done the same. As Barcelona won 4-1, Eto'o danced like a monkey, saying rival fans were treating him as a monkey.

Political con-Going as far back as the 1936 Olympics, Adolf Hitler used this as a stage to promote Aryan superiority for Germany with his ideological belief of racial supremacy^. The Olympics were used as a method of hardening the German spirit and instilling unity among German youth. It was also believed that sport was a "way to weed out the weak, Jewish, and other undesirables. As a result, many Jews and Gypsies were banned from participating in sporting events. While Germany did top the medal table, the Nazi depiction of ethnic Africans as inferior was dispelled by Jesse Owens' gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump events.

Political pro- on September 6, 2008, Armenia and Turkey faced each other in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match in Yerevan. In an unprecedented step, Turkish president Abdullah Gul was invited to watch the match, where the presidents of Turkey and Armenia sat together, albeit behind bullet-proof glass

Racial pro- Show Racism the Red Card (SRTRC) is an anti-racism education charity, established in England in January 1996 to harness the high profile nature of footballers as anti-racist role models to educate against racism throughout society in the United Kingdom.