When I was a kid, I remember playing hockey outside and whenever you did, you thought about playing for Finland vs. Sweden. That's just the way it was.
Personally, I can't take the blame for what politicians did in 1982. I can't take on some kind of revenge or change history. I want to beat England because I want to win every game I play, but not because we went to war in 1982 or because we played against each other in 1998.
I believe that there is a whole set of issues in the world - environment, proliferation, energy, cyberspace - that can only be dealt with on a global basis. The traditional patterns of national rivalry and national competition are not suitable for those cases.
If there's one thing that chafes French pride, it's seeing the British steal the limelight.
England is the natural enemy of France, an enemy greedy, ambitious, unjust, and false. The invariable and cherished object of her policy is, if not the destruction of France, at least her abasement, her humiliation, her ruin.
We have a long history with Japan. When South Korea play against Japan, the fans tell us that if we lose, they are going to throw the players into the sea.
The development of the national spirit in its present form leads into blind alleys. Some condition must be found which preserves the life of the nation, but rules out the fatal rivalry among nations.
Big wins in the first Test of an Ashes series polarise everything moving forward.
I considered the British as our natural enemies, and as the only nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of their souls. And I am satisfied that were our continent to be swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain would be in a bonfire from one end to the other.
The Berlin Wall fell because the East Germans saw the West had more. The Koreans don't like the Japanese and try to prove to them that they are worth more in the industrial arena.
