Many Swedish football fans are still living in a naive fairy tale. They honestly believe that multimillionaire Premier League assets are running out onto the pitch sweating out of pure love for the Swedish flag, its culture, or its values. It is time to wake up and see reality for what it is.

An establishment politician like Jimmie Åkesson shows how fake this whole system is. He used to say that a devout Muslim can never truly be Swedish. But the second Yasin Ayari scores two goals in the FIFA World Cup 2026 and does a Muslim prayer gesture on the grass, Åkesson runs to social media to backpedal. Suddenly, he is celebrating the goals and saying Ayari is “welcome” in Sweden. It is cheap, desperate politics from a man who is blind to reality.

The established system refuses to address the fundamental truth of modern athletics: Elite sport is nothing but a marketplace.

In the globalized world of football, there is no true loyalty to a homeland or a cultural heritage. Players like Yasin Ayari don’t give two shits about your traditions or your pride. It’s all business. They are international assets, and they play for whoever pays the most.

When the national team steps onto the pitch, it isn’t a symbol of national unity, it’s a commercial showroom for the highest bidder. Stop letting yourselves be fooled by the emotional theater. It’s a business, not a homeland.