Sports have the ability to transform groups of strangers into a united community. In the celebratory spirit surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Sony and the World Photography Organisation present UNITED – a contest honouring the passion of football fans around the world. Seven inspirational photographers have been selected by Sony and WPO to capture the atmosphere and celebration of the World Cup across the globe. Photo: France – French fans cheering for their team. (Photo by Anthony Lepinay)

A municipal worker sits on a bench, next to a statue, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, during the 2018 soccer World Cup, Thursday, June 28, 2018. Nizhny Novgorod was a “closed city” during the Soviet era. It was known as Gorky until 1990 and it was here that dissident scientist Andrei Sakharov was held under house arrest. Now the city hosts six World Cup matches and is teeming with tourists. That was unthinkable in the Soviet era and even rare now in a city that is seldom visited by outsiders. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A Palestinian female masked militant from the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, takes part in an Islamic Jihad rally in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 29 July 2016. (Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA)

Angel Hall, 22, (C) and Bri Artis, 21, (R) dance in a silent disco on the fourth and final day of the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware on June 17, 2018. (Photo by Mark Makela/Reuters)

A model showcases Jaton designs during the Fashion x Art at NGV Runway at the Ian Potter Centre on November 16, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

People celebrate on a street in the neighborhood of Born, as the state of emergency decreed by the Spanish Government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) gets lifted in Barcelona, Spain, May 9, 2021. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Young gorillas monkey around with zoo visitors, sticking their tongues out and pressing their faces against the glass, February 2025. Mobi, 1, and Gaia, 10 months, are half sisters and often push each other away at the glass to get the attention of their observers at the Prague Zoo. (Photo by Lucie Stepnickova/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A boy doing chin-ups as he takes entrance exams at the Moscow Suvorov Military School in Moscow, Russia on July 11, 2019. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Russian News Agency TASS via Getty Images)