Sports of Hiblund

This is a copy of the "Sports" section in the nation article of Hiblund. The reason for the separation is simply due to the navbox and its convenience.

The sporting district is easily Hiblund's most internationally known feature, with it being one of the nation's highest in priority, behind sound doctrine. The variety is strong, however football is a long way ahead in popularity. The leagues themselves weave their way through Hiblund's history as a nation, especially through the independece of Frarstizk. The players are infamously held high in their actions, sometimes more idolizing than the nation's leaders themselves to a common Hiblundiiun. The founding of Cross Baseball was the initial spark of interest in Hiblundiiun sports, truly innovating a completely new way of viewing sports, so much so that in a Hiblundiiun household desire of competition is held dearly. The interest in sports has helped in many different aspects, such as economy (autographs), health, scientific advancement (keeping players safe), along with others. I think it's safe to stay this is the reason Hiblund has a name for itself, instead of being another average nation.

Football

Football is the primary sport played in Hiblund, similar to many nations throughout Anteria. Although, it is safe to say that Hiblund takes it a step further, which shows as its broadcasting of the sport reaches extremely high viewcounts and the in-person viewing is high as well. Clubs with stadiums capable of holding over 70,000 people have been filled to the brim on countless occasions, with tickets sometimes being bid upon for very high revenue to the clubs themselves.

The major leagues to the sport are hosted within the Shodiax League System. This system is not in any way a completely stable organization, making the league eligable to fold in accordance to a new and unrelated system forming. Despite the looming uncertainty, due to the popularization and enjoyability of the Shodiax, it is safe to say that this league will not face a crisis anytime soon. This did come to test recently, however, where all the levels/leagues except the main chose to hold back from participating in attempt of keeping safety precautions up-to-date. After five long years of protesting, the event known as the Vaitrel Iede Protests came to a close and evidentually got their way.

Before the Shodiax League came to be, Hiblund's major football league was in the Harletical Fiutvel Iede. The Harletical was a problematic league, as it did not allow for promotion or relegation of any kind, which led to some teams being way better than others. After numerous attempts of bringing it down, it was secretly planned to fold in 1950. This would occur sooner than intended, as Frarstizk gained its independence in the 1946 offseason. The Harletical would fold, and because there was no real stability or aggreeance to what should be the new major league, this would begin the Sciedfelt Stretch, where there was no major league in Hiblund for seven years until the Shodiax League was formed.

Currently, clubs' rivalries have thickened parallel to the popularity increase, and because of this has made the sport and the teams known to almost everyone. The influence has reached the youngest of children, as sports; especially football, is a surprisingly common career path with all of the minor leagues not comprised within the Shodiax System. The overall influence of this sport is not only overwhelming but is also positive, as shown in many fashions.

Culdesac Hockey

Culdesac Hockey has a quite similar popularity to football in Hiblund, with the large exception of not being internationally recognized whatsoever. The sport itself is solely inherit to Hiblund and a little bit of Frarstizk, the latter being due to close relations between the countries. It is a spin-off, yet much more interesting form of ice hockey, which gives reason to its little recognition. On top of which, the sport itself was founded in the early 1970s, so in current day, there is not a very large span of time for the sport to grow in.

The origins to the game were first introduced in the early 1960s by bored highschoolers. There was little intent to making this game an actual sport, however, after one of these cashed in a very successful stock, their dream became a reality and the Hiblundiiun Culdesac Hockey Association was formed in 1971. Reactions to this supposed rip-off of a sport varied, but the game itself actually had a surprisingly large number of differences compared to ice hockey. The organization, led by Fraetlei Lellic and Elzxair Vovliksir, began to push their game into Hiblundiiun advertising.

After begging for the sport to be hosted on a major broadcaster, people watched the very first indoor and outdoor games, and they quickly began to realize the uniqueness put into the game. In fact, the success was so great that they were able to establish actual stadiums for many of the indoor and outdoor teams. Since then, culdesac hockey has surpassed many sports, even ice hockey, in total viewership. Outside Hiblund, Frarstizk is the only nation to fully include a league for it due to the Made as One Alliance's influence. It has not gone international for various reasons, the most prominent being the looming danger of failure to popularize the sport.

Cross Baseball

Cross baseball is incredibly similar to culdesac hockey in terms of international recognition, but on top of that, the popularization even within Hiblund's borders is dramatically smaller than one's of culdesac hockey. Cross Baseball is similar to lacrosse, but a lot more fun once you start to get the hang of the fundamentals. It is yet another sport founded in Hiblund after Frarstizk's independence, this one's first major appearance being in 1979.

Unlike culdesac hockey, the origins of the game were introduced by baseball coaches, having their players throw a wiffle ball up and hitting it with a mixed bat with only one hand. Some of the players really liked this drill, and created an entirely new game from the same simple practice. Luckily for them, they didn't have to wait too long to make their game become a sport, as some investors were lenient enough to lend them some money to start their league. It started in 1976, only hosted in one province, but after being oversought by more investors, made its way up to being a national league in 1979, where the Serflunn Cross Baseball League came to play.

Progress on the popularization has been quite steady throughout Hiblund, and has respectably reached #3 for most viewership, but has not even made a scratch on any other nations, so much so that not even Frarstizk has made a major league for the sport. The future is unknown for the young sport, but with that being said, it's done well so far.