In your editorial “A unifying factor” (TMID, 14 August), you write that sport should never be used as a weapon by politicians.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, although politicians will always continue to do their utmost to disrupt the serenity that exists between athletes of different countries who, in spite of competing against each other, always show respect towards their opponents.

This is often not the case among politicians. Like athletes, they seek to win, but often they fail to show respect towards the opinion of others. It happens all over the world, and Malta is not an exception.

Yet we have seen it on many occasions that sport united people of different political and social standing under one roof or in one stadium.

The Olympic Games are the biggest example of what sport can do to bring about a better world to live in. The fact that politicians tried to use them to exert pressure on athletes to act in a political way shows how much politicians still need to learn.

But I doubt they ever will.

Matthew Caruana

Naxxar