The preferred avenue for nationalism to flex its ideological prowess is through the medium of sport. We witness it, especially when the FIFA World Cup is in season. Patriots, whether they are regular viewers of the sport or not, are loudly invested. Filled with pride, it has been dormant for the better part of 4 years because that’s how long it takes for the FIFA World Cup to resurface and capture all our attention.

This season in club football, UEFA has cleverly devised a system to fuel the engine of nationalism by introducing a coefficient system where football leagues are ranked based on how well their club teams have performed in Europe. This initiative will be conducted annually.

As it stands, the Italian Serie A leads the rankings, followed by the German Bundesliga, and capping off the podium in third place is the English Premier League. Serie A and the Bundesliga will be rewarded with an extra spot in UEFA’s primary competition, the UEFA Champions League, leaving a thick sense of bewilderment on the doorsteps of every English football fan.

It will also come as a shock to everyone outside of England that the Barclays Premier League, despite its popularity and media stranglehold, is demonstrably not, as the English pundits persistently brand it, "the best league in the world."

They are not even the second-best league in the world this season. And this hurts and will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers within the English Football Association. Even if the reported numbers suggest that the Premier League has an alleged 3.2 billion worldwide TV audience, those figures don’t guarantee them an extra team in the most sought-out competition in football.

It simply means that the English Premier League knows how to market and brand a league that comprises clubs that are behind the Italians and Germans. It is a league that hypes its English players and treats foreign ones in the same vein as an unwanted migrant worker. The English pundits, journalists, and anyone with British sensibilities with a microphone will not have the courtesy of pronouncing the names of the foreign players correctly.

Mohamed Salah is referred to as Mo Sala. Brazilian and Portuguese players are also victims when their Portuguese language names are refurbished with Spanish-isms. And a quick mention to any Far-East Asian players who have suffered from hearing their name being butchered by a bloke who belongs to the land where football was created. These British shortcomings are intentionally employed as a device in psychological warfare to distinguish “us” from “them.”

Nationalists, by ideological nature, do not respect anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their characteristic beliefs, who doesn’t fit their physical attributes, and especially those who are reticent to fully adopt their values.

Which is why storylines of foreign players or managers celebrating a goal or a victory in a manner that doesn’t comply with British sensibilities inundate the news cycle. A recent example occurred this season when Spanish manager Mikel Arteta, of Premier League team Arsenal, was condemned by the British media for expressing sincere joy after a victory against Liverpool in February.

It's just as preposterous when the media coverage in England surrounding the UEFA Champions League semi-final, where zero English Premier League teams were involved, centered on covering the two English players who will be participating at the UEFA Champions League final at Wembley Stadium. As opposed to giving the spotlight to the non-English teams that compete in a team sport.

One of the English players, Jadon Sancho, was chased out of England after a tumultuous two and a half years. Man Utd paid a hefty fee of $94 million to Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for the rights to acquire Sancho, only for the English player to request an exit. Sancho received an exorbitant amount of criticism for his time in England, but now he is propped up as one of two English players to "tune in" for at the final.

Those English flags will also be cheering on Jude Bellingham, who moved from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid this season in a $107.4 million transfer (excluding add-ons). Bellingham chose to move to Dortmund from Birmingham City at the age of 17. He declined to stay in England despite reported interest from Manchester United.

His reasoning was that the German club had a good track record of developing young players, listing Jadon Sancho as a primary example. The irony is almost too thick to swallow that the two English players that the English media are promoting for the English nationals to support have no desire to be associated with the Premier League.

There are benefits to nationalism and sport. It would be biassed to omit them. When a stadium of thousands upon thousands is instructed to respect the national anthem, where cameras pan to nationals stoically reciting the verses, and, upon completion, chants reverberate in a sea of waving flags. Creating a visual and oratory cacophonic ambiance that makes the supporter feel a sense of immense pride for their nation. It is almost impossible to deny the energetic communal glow that flows and unites people. It’s nice to belong.

There is nothing damaging about nationalism except when it adopts a strategy to diminish those that don’t belong to it. When the media is employed to vilify and single out individuals for not behaving the way they are “supposed” to act, when the media encourages delusions of grandeur by completely dismissing reality, when the ideology of “we are the best” cancels out reasons and replaces decency with disharmony, the reality is that nationalism can serve a greater good only if the values, principles, and beliefs have noble qualities. Unfortunately, it is easier to conquer through division and to strengthen the ideology through animosity.