This is going to be an essay plan built for an essay titled: How True Is It That Sport Divides More Than It Unites? Like all essay plans, this is merely a basic framework for the essay. That means detail and examples will be sparse, to ensure that content points stand out clearly.

• Stand: True to some extent.
  Elaboration: Sports events often become a show of power or superiority for certain countries, as well as the arena for them to compete for glory.
  Examples: Consider the all-dominating nations, United States and China. Both regularly top the charts in major sporting events, such as the Olympics.

Content Points:

1. Competition to host world-class sporting events tends to foster animosity between competing countries
   Elaboration: After all, these events are a source of both prestige and money for the winning (host) country. It is not surprising that the governments of losing nations would harbor some sort of animosity towards the winning nation.
   Examples: Although China was once vying to host the olympics, the Olympics Committee gave it to Sydney.
2. International sporting events bring out and exacerbate political differences between competing countries
   Elaboration: Assasinations of athletes and violent retaliations are not uncommon due to political differences.
   Examples: Take for example the assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Games and the Soviets, in retaliation to the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games, boycotted the 1984 Games during the Cold War period. The Soviet Union with Cuba, East Germany and 14 other countries boycotted the Olympics when the US was hosting it.
3. Differences between countries and athletes arise when biased judging occurs
   Elaboration: Sporting results that are deemed partial or unfair can cause differences between nations to arise.
   Examples: At the Athens Olympics, supporters had to be appeased when Alexi Nemov was given a low score for a spectacular gymnastics routine. A South Korean gymnasts, a clear winner, also lost the gold medal to his US counterpart.

Counter Points:

1. Sport plays a role in uniting individual countries.
   Elaboration: A sporting achievement can rouse a nation’s people together, especially a multi-racial nation.
   Examples: The matches by Singapore’s table tennis player, Li Jia Wei, at the Athens Olympics, brought Singaporeans together as one people and brought out the pride of the people for the country.
2. International live telecasts have helped to connect viewers from all over the world
   Elaboration: Satellites have brought about a global viewership for sporting events. People of all nations and races now watch the same event at the same time - a feat unprecedented before the advent of live telecasts. This is a wonderful expression of unity between people of all nations.
   Examples: Live telecasts of the World Cup and the Olympics have helped to connect viewers from all over the world - characterized by differences, division, competition and hostility.

Given that each content and counter point can be used to fill one paragraph, the total paragraph count for an essay written using this plan should be seven - 1 introduction, 1 conclusion and 5 content and counter paragraphs. This essay plan, therefore, should be most suitable for short essays, like those written for ‘A’-Level General Studies or General Paper examinations.