Country of victorious patriotism

Less than a month had passed since the election of the moderate nationalist Tomislav Nikolic as president of Serbia, when life began to take on a completely new spirit. Nikolic's visit to Moscow is a topic that is not directly related to sports, but the events in Serbian football are. National team coach Sinisa Mihailovic, who spent almost his entire playing career in Italy, suddenly became a true patriot and expelled Fiorentina defender Adem Ljajic from the national team. The reason is absolutely amazing - Ljajic refused to sing the national anthem. Ljajic gave exhaustive explanations , the essence of which is as follows: although he dreamed of playing for the Serbian national team all his life, he himself is Bosnian and is not ready to sing the anthem. I will add that Ljajic professes Islam, and the Serbian anthem is called “Right God.” Logical? But not for Mihailovic, who, in spite of everything, did not listen to Ljajic’s arguments and expelled him from the team.

This is pure leavened patriotism, or pseudo-patriotism. True love for a country lies in the fact that you do something for it, sometimes neglecting your beliefs. As an education of patriotism, this is also extremely ineffective. Patriotism in sports is not cultivated through rhetoric, much lessfalse rhetoric . It is brought up by the creation of a system that is capable of creating champions and arousing the pride of the country and the involvement of culture (primarily cinema ) in the popularization of great victories. In fact, it is obvious that Mikhailovich’s actions are a step in the exact opposite direction. And this is literally a couple of weeks before the European Championships! However, what am I talking about? After all, Serbia did not get there, losing in its group to the formidable Estonia team...