Sport and the sustainable development goals are a heavenly match

But the real power of sport is still in the ground, a hidden gem. We all love the Olympics and the World Cup, but we despair at how they are run. We have surely become aware by now the real games are actually elsewhere. It's in that park in KL where those Rohingya refugees are playing.

The global sporting family needs to step up to enact the principles of the sports we play, watch and love and use them to find ways to connect, to learn and to evolve as individuals and as a species.

The ultimate power of sport is not that it is a panacea. In isolation, sports like football/soccer are just games, ephemeral and unimportant. But, their place in our lives is evidence of a latent need among human beings to both connect and to compete. It's not sport that is the solution. The solution is already there. Sport just brings it out.

War is not the default embodiment of the human race. Sport very possibly is. Those seeking to enact the SDGs would do worse than to find ways to enlist its manifest power.