Why Football Saves Lives

The World Cup is already in full swing and there have already been a few surprising results.

If we take Argentina’s 3-0 loss to Croatia last night, for example, there is often the notion that fans will be questioning whether their life is worth living after their side is on the verge of being kicked out the most prestigious football competition in the world, and sadly that can sometimes be a reality.

However is this really an accurate representation?

An analysis of suicide rates in 12 European nations showed a statistically significant decline in suicides when the country’s team was either participating in the World Cup or Euros.

If we take Germany for example, where according to the data, 90,000 people committed suicide between 1991 and 1997, however in the months where Germany was taking part in a major tournament (June 1992, 1994 & 1996) 30 fewer men and 14 fewer women committed suicide when compared to a non-tournament year. This trend is consistent in 10 out of the 12 countries studied.

Naturally, this would be meaningless if suicides then spiked after a tournament, but the data showed that suicides continued to decline for the entire year, but what could the cause of this actually be?

Football brings people together, from different countries, it is a time to celebrate and console with one another, it is a shared experience and that shared experience seems to save lives.

Whether a team wins or losses, that is irrelevant. Even when a nation loses, they bond together, millions of people watching the magic, some breakdown in public, others discuss the team's shortcomings over coffee in the office at work the next day, often a scapegoat is found.

There are other examples away from football that corroborates this effect also. After the JFK assassination in 1963, the US were collectively mourning, but as they were mourning together, the week after his death not a single suicide was reported in the 29 US cities studied.

In Europe & Latin America, there is very little that brings a country together like a major football tournament, that shared social experience, whether they lose or win.