Bonjour,
Sports people should not use their fame and prosperity to criticise their country, as it might potentially attract a lot of fuss and drama to their career, and eventually affect it, since sports people represent their country; not play against it. Sports people are meant to show that the country is strong and capable of a lot of things. In other words, sports provide a venue for symbolic competition between nations. Is a sports person isn’t patriotic, they physically do not have the strength to represent their country and might not be accepted to the team. If a sports person is nationalistic, they can not be accepted. In the history of Ireland, Gaelic sports were clearly carried on with nationalist overtones: for example, for most of the last century, a person could have been banned from playing Gaelic football, hurling, or other national sport, if the person was seen to have played football, cricket, rugby or any other game which was of the British origin.
