Football has the power to unify, inspire and promote peace between nations, but it also has the power to cause extraordinary discord within a country and also on a global level. Colombian national football is a good example. Colombia is divided into thirty-three departments and each department has at least one football team for a total of thirty-six teams in the Colombian championship. The Colombian championship is divided into two categories, Liga Postobon with eighteen teams and Torneo Postobon also with eighteen teams. Within these two categories, there are rivalries between teams that have reached such extraordinary levels that they influence the way one sees the thirty-three Colombian departments, especially Antioquia and Cundinamarca, more specifically Medellin and Bogota. The rivalry between these two cities is so powerful that when their football teams play against each other, fans are killed after the match. The violence within the Colombian League is indicative of the political unrest and tensions between departments that create more violence in the country as a whole. However, it is surprising that when the Colombian national team qualified for the 2014 World Cup, Colombia was not divided into departments - everyone was simply Colombian. This phenomenon can only be explained by Bill Shankly's statement about football: "some people believe that football is a matter of life and death... I assure you it is much more important than that" (Shankly). The relationship between Medellin and Bogota's political rivalry and their football rivalry is so similar it's almost scary. There is a strong rivalry between former president Alvaro Uribe Velez, originally from Medellin, and president Juan Manuel Santos, originally from Bogota, due to their general differences regarding the NGO...... middle of paper ... ...d . However, Barcelona and Real Madrid players play peacefully when playing for Spain globally. This has become the norm for most of us who avidly watch football, but it really isn't: how can people like each other who normally hate each other? Football unifies a country for a few days or a few months as in the case of the World Cup: why? I think football on a global level relieves political tension: it is an opportunity for the country to bring out the best and forget the bad. For example, when Colombia qualified for this year's World Cup, all I could think about was that, finally, our country would be known as the underdog favorite instead of the poor, violent mess it is always been described. Football offers leaders the opportunity to demonstrate that their country is a united group of people under one ideal, under one rule, under one national identity.