By
The Associated Press
OSLO, Norway - The game of soccer has been nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting understanding between nations.
Although fans from opposing nations often seem more hostile than harmonious when their teams meet, Swedish lawmaker Lars Gustafsson insisted Monday the game helps international relations.
"Soccer has and will continue to play an important role in the global arena, when it comes to creating understanding between people," Gustafsson wrote in his nomination letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Gustafsson said soccer has survived two world wars and scores of ethnic and regional conflicts.
Sometimes, he wrote, hostile nations meet on the soccer field when other contact would be unthinkable. He noted that Iran played the United States in the 1994 World Cup, and that North Korea faced South Korea in a 1991 youth championship.
He said the International Football Federation, FIFA, could accept the honor on behalf of the sport.
The nomination was one of dozens streaming into Oslo ahead of the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Last year, there were 150 nominations for the award, which was won by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
Separately, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported yesterday that jailed Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu has been nominated for the 2001 prize. Vanunu was sentenced in 1986 to 18 years in prison for revealing secrets about Israel's nuclear weapons program.
The Nobel awards committee never says who has been nominated. The winner is usually announced in mid-October.
