EN
Thanks to media representations contemporary sport is gaining huge importance both in social and political dimensions. The article is based on Michael Billig's thesis about banal nationalism, saying that what is national is addressed mainly by routine, familiar linguistic habits. The main purpose of the article is to present how professional sport, and more precisely - ways of relating sport events become a means of reconstructing national identity. The article concentrates on the analysis of popular press articles concerning participation of the Polish national team in the European Football Championships 2008.