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This community often has no defined borders, drawing its members from every corner of the planet for 90 minutes.
This phenomenon is neither left- nor right-coded.
Today's rightwing agitators may pledge allegiance to Donald Trump or wave an Israeli flag rather than champion their own country.
The Trump administration shows more solidarity with white South Africans than Black Americans. Conservative outlets make alliances across borders, appealing to abstract concepts while denouncing fellow citizens.
Football's role as a nation builder is often overstated.
France's 1998 World Cup win was hailed as a vindication of multiethnic identity, but four years later Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the presidential runoff.
Argentina's 1978 victory boosted the military dictatorship's popularity, yet it collapsed by 1983. England's Euro 2021 run did not halt the descent into gutter politics.
But occasionally, the World Cup holds up a mirror.
It reflects a messy hope: that a world of hardening physical borders is doomed to disintegrate on contact with reality.
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For all the flags and pageantry, nationality is ultimately a brand, a consumer choice, a mask anyone can wear for six weeks and shed just as easily.
