62

National soccer teams grew out of the contradictions between Britishness and the desire of European soccer federations to establish an international sports entity based on the nation state model. But it was during the interwar period that international teams began, through international tournaments and the press and radio, to embody a kind of sport-imagined community. Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, and later African dictators, have exploited their national teams to mobilise the masses and to assert their power symbolically, leading to a subversion of sport internationalism. However, although national teams were political instruments, they also became a source of revenue for sports federations resulting in the close association of national emblems and corporate logos. Similarly, the identity of national teams is now blurred by the flexibility of sport nationality.