Having experienced some of the euphoria of the 2006 World Cup first hand, I quite enjoy playing with the thought that Germany might be among the first countries to sew a small foot(soccer-)ball somewhere onto its official "Black-Red-Gold" state flag. Or: how about one tiny ball for each of its 16 states?
Certainly others have thought of the idea I am about to propose before... all the more reason to give it a few moments of your thought.
In my opinion, let's say two countries, which both lay claim to having the best teams in sport X in the world, have a certain dispute. For the purpose of this discussion, assume it is minor trade or political dispute.
Examples:
Cuban-American conflicts: Baseball
European-South American conflicts: Football (Soccer)
Russia-X: Chess
Whichever country wins the sporting event then gets some type of advantage in the dispute.
That's all. Thanks for reading my little story. By the way, I would be willing to bet almost anything that if the official rules of procedure between two countries were that before any one attacks the other, the leaders of both countries must fight 3 rounds of boxing, G.W. would have said something like "We first thought Sadaam was with al Quaida- after double checking with the CIA and listening to a few people outside my cabinet, I have come to the conclusion that they really didn't have anything to do with 9/11 and that, over time, al Quaida would only come to use the country one giant training and recruitment ground after the invasion."