One Ball, One Planet by Peter Allan

Over the course of the last week I have been thinking about nationhood. Not the dark corrupted face of nationalism, but the bright and shiny positive attributes of humanity organized into countries-an invention that imparts a sense of belonging, shared culture and experience. The impetus for this pondering has doubtless been my immersion in the World Cup of Soccer and the privilege of attending the Canada versus Qatar game last week, and Wednesday’s game versus Switzerland.

Recently, I have witnessed firsthand how the beautiful game is a panacea to the negative attributes associated with national pride such as the pursuit of power, subjugation of minorities and fomenting fear. Our sons grew up playing soccer, absorbing the lessons of team play and respect for your opponents. They saw firsthand from coach Jude Shugar,  the positive attributes of leadership and fair play. I remember a presentation our son Jackson did in middle school about the game of soccer and how he emphasized that it was so accessible to play, it simply required a round ball. His childhood hero, Lionel Messi now has five goals and counting and a record 17 in the World Cup.

I have been feeling immense pride in our country and our national men’s soccer team. I have often said our family lives in one of the greatest countries in the world and the best part of it in my opinion. We are privileged and born lucky. But above all we recognize, we are human passengers on spaceship Earth, Gaia our beautiful blue planet.

I have been a member of the Canada Soccer supporter group known as the Voyageurs. Volunteers there have been lending their vocal support to our national soccer teams for 30 years. My ears are still ringing from sitting amidst them in the great stadium with 53,000 other souls. The Swiss fans in red and white and the Canadian fans in red and white. There is an abiding sense that this is a singular moment for the game of soccer in our country. I met fans who travelled from across our great land. I won one of a thousand $88 supporters’ seats-like I said, born lucky…

Chris Hadfield and other astronauts, have used sports-ball analogies when explaining scale to us humans down below. A soccer-ball-sized Earth with a tennis-ball-sized Moon 7 metres away. Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian astronaut who flew around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission aboard the Orion capsule named Integrity, was deeply moved by the vastness of space and by the apparent fragility of our planet when viewed against the immense backdrop of the cosmos.

Astronauts often find that once Earth shrinks to a small blue soccer ball sized sphere in the darkness, national borders disappear. What stands out is not Canada, the United States, or any other country—but a single living planet. That perspective has inspired many astronauts to speak less about nations and more about humanity as a whole.

Today in 2026, this 22 cm ball is in fact bringing humanity together. The official match ball, called Trionda, carries a related symbolism. Its red, blue, and green design represents Canada, the United States, and Mexico respectively, highlighting the tournament’s unique three-country partnership. But for me when I see our Vancouver Science Centre morphed into Trionda, viewed from a distance squinting in the bright sun of the longest days of the year, it looks like our own indescribably beautiful planet rolling through space. And in the foreground on the plaza and Avenue surrounding the stadium is streaming humanity: porting every colour and every flag, dancing together, smiling and embracing, earth travellers from around the world coming together to observe moments of passion and brilliance on a green field of dreams.

Dancing to DJs at street after parties, geography and countries melt away as people celebrate a round ball uniting our round planet.