Where Culture Lives: Lessons from Global Football on Systems, Structure, and Shared Experience

Guest Author: Nataly Sanchez, BVC Assessment Manager

Holidays and visits to new countries often make culture more visible because they take us outside the familiar. We notice how people move through shared spaces, communicate, celebrate, and organise everyday life - and how values are expressed through customs, infrastructure, and collective choices. These experiences remind us that culture is not simply what people say they value; it is what we encounter in the patterns and practices that shape daily life.

I went to my first UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany, and the organisation was exceptional. It felt as though football had taken over everyday life. I could walk from my hotel into the city centre, catch a train to another host city, and find myself surrounded by thousands of fans celebrating together in streets and squares that stayed alive well into the evening.

Two years later, I experienced the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the United States. The stadiums were spectacular, and the scale of the event was truly impressive, very much a “go big or go home” approach. However, the experience was very different from what I encountered in Germany two years earlier. Many stadiums were a long way from city centres, and travelling between matches often involved long drives or flights. Not because the passion for football was any less, but because the country’s size, infrastructure, and culture create a completely different way of experiencing the tournament.

It reminded me that culture is not an abstract idea; it is experienced through the systems, structures, and everyday choices that shape how people connect and participate. Germany’s compact cities and public transport created one kind of shared tournament experience, while the scale and infrastructure of the United States created another. Neither was the single right model. Each reflected its context and the priorities embedded within it.