“Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Anyone who has ever skirted even close to the periphery of the Christian Faith’s intersection with sport will be justifiably rolling their eyes at the triteness of St Paul’s overused passage. He was speaking to an ancient Greek audience for whom athleticism and sport were an integral part of the nation’s philosophy and mythos. With the 2026 Fifa World Cup hitting billions of screens around the world this summer, we would be foolish to think our world is entirely different in this regard. It would similarly be wrongheaded to think that sport’s symbolic and analogous relationship with our religion is fruitless. Contemporary football shows this is not the case in surprising ways.
