Hello and welcome to the first in a new series of Premier Skills English podcasts. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the new Premier League British Council website. The Premier Skills English website needed to be updated for security. Not that there was a problem, but the way the site is built means that you have to update things to make sure everybody’s information is safe and everything is modern and up to date. So that’s why there’s a new website. I’m going to set up some redirects at the end of this week. Almost all of the pages on the old site have been copied over ... but I might have missed something so please let me know if there’s anything missing that you want back.

One important thing about the new site is that you will have to register again. I’m afraid that data protection laws mean that we can’t just copy your personal data across. It will only take a minute to register so I hope to see you all soon on the new site.

I will admit, I will be sad to see the old site go. I have spent a long time working on Premier Skills English. However, this is only part of the Premier League and British Council’s collaboration. When I first started working on the website, the coaching team didn’t need a website, but now, it will really help the project to bring everything together and it’s great to be able to work more closely with my colleagues from the Premier League and British Council.

I will write an article about the website to remember some of the things that we’ve done over the years and to celebrate some of the people that I’ve worked with and met online. I have been reading your comments for years and love that you have been so dedicated to Premier Skills English. Right now, I want to take the opportunity to recognise the amazing achievements of the leaderboard champions and say, in order. Well done Gergo Nagy in 10th place, Aragorn1986 in ninth, Assemjuve in 8th, Elghoul in 7th, Luibomyr in 6thm Kwesimanifest in 5th, WSantain 4th, HSN or Hasan in 3rd, Mobeckham in 2nd and just ahead of MoBeckham, with an incredible 6579 points, in first place it’s Alex_from_Ukraine. I really hope to see you all on the new website.

The Premier Skills English podcast will be 10 years old in May so it was a good time to make some plans for the podcast and to work out what we want to do, what I want to talk about. My goal is to support football fans who are learning English. So I’ve been thinking about what sort of English football fans need and so for the next six months, I’m going to focus on three areas:

• English for playing the game. Now, I guess most people watch football a lot more than they play the game, but it’s a good way for me to organise things and plan for these podcasts.
• English for fans watching football on TV. This is how most people watch and now that there’s so much online, on the Premier League website and on sports channels around the world, I think it will be useful to focus on the language of football on TV, focussing on commentary and the language that pundits use after the match to comment on how well a team played, on what went well and what went wrong. 
• English for watching a Premier League match in the UK. I recently read that 1 in 4 visitors to the UK watch a Premier League match at a stadium. I had no ideas that number was so high, but it suggests to me that it will be good to focus on the language that visiting fans mighty need when they come to the UK, that is language connected to travel and transport and the sorts of things that might make a trip to the UK and to a Premier League match a little easier.

I have worked out a plan for podcasts to talk about English for each of these topics and will do one a week going forwards.

This podcast is a bit of an introduction to the new series and so I’m going to talk about three things. Firstly, football English for players; I have a quiz for you to see how well you know football vocabulary. After the quiz, I’m going to talk a little bit about how the language of football has spread into regular English and present the 6 most common football phrasal verbs. And then, in the last part of the podcast I want to talk about phrases that you can use to say that you’re a fan.

Football vocabulary for players

The football vocabulary section was one of the first sets of materials that I worked on when I started on this project. There was a famous Italian manager who was managing the English football team and his English was not very good. When someone asked him if he had any problems communicating with the players, he said that he only needed 100 words to manage a football team. So I got together with some and we tried to work out what the 100 words would be. And we started brainstorming and making lists and we came up with more than 100 words. We tried to organise the words into groups and ended up with 200 words. So that’s what you will find in the 200 words section. The 200 most important items of football English. I will share a link to the 200 words section on the page for this podcast on the Premier League British Council website. For now, I’m going to do a quiz for you to see how well you know your football vocabulary.

I’m going to take you through 10 of the different sections from the football vocabulary pages and select one item of football vocabulary to test you.

Section 1: Fans

This was a difficult section to find images for. OK what is the word for a fan who watches the match from the stands. This is quite hard so I’ll give you the first letter. The word I am looking for starts with the letter s and it means someone who watches a football match or other sporting event. The word comes from a Latin word that means a public show or event and we also use a noun form to describe something that is interesting to watch. 

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: spectator. 

Spectators are people who watch a sporting event. I think other public events also have spectators; there’s a spectators gallery in parliament where people can watch politicians. The noun form I mentioned is a spectacle which just means something interesting to watch, usually something surprising.

Section 2: Coaching 

This is probably one of the most common items of technical coaching language. It means the arrangement of players on the pitch and is often described using numbers to say how many players a manager commits to a specific part of the pitch. So the most famous of these is 4-4-2 which means four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards. 

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: formation. 

We use this word in a non-football context to talk about the shapes of things. I’m trying to think of examples and the only thing springing to mind are cloud formations. If you see some unusual clouds, you might say: that’s an interesting cloud formation. When warplanes or spaceships in films fly in a group, the shape they fly in is also called a formation.

Section 3: Coaching equipment

Some of the vocabulary in this section is really focused on players and training and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it used in any other context. However, the word I am looking for is also used more generally, This word describes a piece of equipment that a coach might use to make their voice louder so that they can be heard by their players when they are across the pitch. It’s like a little microphone and speaker that makes your voice really loud.

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: megaphone. 

I think in American English they are called bullhorns.

Section 4: Fouls

OK ... a foul is an act that is against the rules of the game. Some fouls are more serious than others and so the punishment that is demanded by the referee changes depending on the type of foul. one of the most serious fouls is spitting. If a player spits on another player, they get sent off and suspended for six matches. The word I’m looking for is not as serious. I’ve just checked and the punishment is an indirect free kick. This foul is classified as a verbal offence as it’s when someone says something about another player and uses bad language.

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: swearing

This might not seem like a bad foul, but I am glad that referees enforce this rule as using this sort of language is disrespectful and all players and referees deserve respect.

Section 5: Clubs

This word describes a special character that clubs use to represent the club and to entertain their fans. Usually, these characters are played by someone wearing a big colourful suit so they look like an animal or a funny ... thing. Crystal Palace used to have a real eagle for their ... erm ... one of these. Kayla used to fly around the stadium before matches. I think she was much cooler than most clubs. 

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: mascot. 

I guess these are mostly for young fans.

Section 6: Actions

This action means to run or jog with the ball at your feet, keeping the ball under control with small kicks and light touches. Some players are really good at this and it’s like the ball is glued to their feet. It’s a slightly funny word because it also describes what a baby does if saliva leaks out of their mouth. 

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: dribble.

Section 7: Stadium

This is a very important part of a stadium. It is where a record of the goals is displayed. Usually there is also a clock and some information about how long a match has been going on. I think in most Premier League clubs, this is now a screen that also shows the result of VAR investigations so at several points during the game, fans will look up at this to see if a goal counts.

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: scoreboard.

Section 8: Officiating

This section of football vocabulary is all about the referee and the interactions they have with players during the match. The word I am looking for can be a verb or a noun. The verb form is what a player might do after a referee awards a free kick to the opposing team. If the player thinks that the referee is being unfair, they might do this to the referee to try to persuade them to do a VAR check or simply to change their minds. I’m not sure I have ever seen a referee change their mind after an ... erm the noun form of the word I am looking for.

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: appeal.

Section 9: The pitch

I chose this phrase because it uses an imperial measurement that has a funny history. In the 12th century an before, people used to measure distances using rods or sticks. They could see how rad a way something was by turning a rod end over end so they would know how many rods long the distance was. But, nobody could agree on the exact length of a rod so they went to ask the king, King Henry the first. Sir, how do we know how long a rod should be? And King Henry replied by stretching out his arm and declaring that the measurement should be from the end of his nose to his thumb at the end of his outstretched arm. And this measurement, from the 12th century and the time of King Henry I is still used today to talk about how long part of the pitch should be? 

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: six yard box.

A yard is the name of the unit that was determined by King Henry and it’s 91.4 centimetres. In towns in the UK, sometimes distances on signposts for people on foot are measured in yards.

Section 10: Clothes

This last item of football vocabulary refers to the lumps of metal, I think they are metal, that are on the soles of football boots and that help the players grip the ground they are running on. We use the word to describe small sort of round lumps of metal so you can get earrings called this word that are simple, usually round earrings that don’t have a ring, that are just little lumps. I’m not sure this is helping much.

Do you know what item of football vocabulary I’m looking for?

The answer is: studs.

If you want to learn more of the most important football vocabulary, then check out 200 words in the football vocabulary section on the Premier League British Council website.

Football phrasals

In this next section, I’m going to talk about six of the most common phrases from football that are used in general English.

The first phrase is Kick off. This means to start something, So you might hear someone ask what time does the meeting kick off tomorrow? This just means what time does the meeting start. You might also hear someone say that someone kicked off. For example, Billy kicked off at the pub last night. In this case, it means that Billy became violent and started a fight. In a similar way, you might also hear someone say: it all kicked off after you left, meaning that there was some trouble, a big argument or some sort of confrontation.

The second phrase means to be alert and capable or efficient. The phrase is to be on the ball. So in football English, this means to have the ball at your feet; to be the person in control of the ball. In general English it means to be alert and capable, that is, to be good at something. If you are at work and spot a problem before it causes trouble, you boss might say: thank goodness you were on the ball.

The next phrase describes someone or something that makes everybody think about a situation differently. This person or thing is a game changer. So if your company hires a new member of staff and they are really good, so good that everyone else starts working harder and soon enough the company is doing better than ever. You might say that the new person was a real game changer. Another example is working from home. This has been a real game changer for people with young children as now they can be more flexible with the way they work so they can still look after their children. It has changed the way people work.

This next phrase means to change the rules of a game or alter the expectations after something has started. The phrase is to move the goalposts and when someone does this it feels unfair.  So if your boss promised you a promotion if you got a good report and then when you got a good report they said that you needed a good report and to ... help all your colleagues ... I don’t know, the point is, they changed the rules about your promotion. Or you could say, they moved the goalposts. 

This next phrase is used when someone attempts to do something that is much too hard for them. And it’s also used to tell a person that the object of their affection, that is, the person that they like and are interested in romantically is much too good looking for them. To express this, we use a phrase that makes them sound like a tiny local team, like Ludlow FC trying to take on Liverpool. We’d say, she’s out of your league.

The last football English phrase that’s commonly used in general English describes an act where someone sacrifices something for the benefit of the people they are with, often the people they work with. The phrase is to take one for the team. So sometimes a player commits a foul and they know that they are going to get punished, but if it’s the final and there's a chance that it might help their team win then they might commit a foul and get sent off to help the team win, they are taking one for the team. I’m not sure I approve of this kind of thing, but I am impressed by the selflessness of the act. 

There is a gap fill activity on the page for this podcast on the new Premier League British Council website that will give you another chance to practise responding with these phrases.

Who do you support?

In this part of the podcast, I want to look at phrases fans can use to say that they are a fan. Now there are many types of fans. I have come up with a fan classification system and can match it with different phrases that you can use to say that you are a fan based on this system.

*This is not a serious classification - I’m just having some fun

So at level 1 you have casual fans. These fans pick a team and stick with them, enjoying their wins and suffering their defeats, but it’s just that. They have a team they like. 
These fans would express their allegiance to their club by saying:

I support Arsenal or I support Liverpool.

Or they could say:

I’m a Bournemouth fan or I’m a Newcastle fan.

At level 2, you get fans who are a bit more passionate. These fans often have a family team, they are born into a family that supports their team. Being a fan is part of their identity. When their team wins, they are happy for the whole week. 
These fans would express their allegiance to their club by saying:

I follow Spurs or I follow Fulham.

Or they could say:

I’m a big fan of Brentford or I’m a big fan of Aston Villa.

And then there’s level 3. The level 3 fan is a season ticket holder and almost always wears some sort of token to show their allegiance. They wear the latest club shirts to the stadium and sneaky supporter socks when they are at work. As well as a strong love of their team, this sort of fan has a deep hatred for their rivals. 
These fans would express their allegiance to their club by saying:

I’m a die-hard Man City fan or I’m a die-hard Leicester fan.

Or they could say:

I’m a lifelong supporter of Crystal Palace or I’m a lifelong supporter of Everton.

And the most passionate is a level 4 fan. A level 4 fan is a season ticket holder who also travels with their club to away matches, sometimes they even follow their team overseas. These fans often prefer vintage club shirts and have tattoos that show how much they love their team. These fans don’t just hate their team’s rivals, they hate any other team.
These fans would express their allegiance to their club by saying:

I’m Chelsea through and through or I’m West Ham through and through.

Or they might even say:

I bleed Forest colours or I bleed ManU colours.

So ... what sort of fan are you? Let us know in the comments section and if you fancy it, I have set up a WhatsApp number so you can send me a WhatsApp voice message saying who you support. I’d really love to hear how you came to be a fan whether you’re a level 1,2,3 or 4 fan. If I get enough messages, I might share them in the next podcast. I’ve put the number for the Premier Skills English WhatsApp on the page for this podcast on the Premier League British council website.

Task

Next week, I want to make a podcast for players about communication so I’ve got some questions for you. 

Question 1. How important are good communication skills for footballers? 

Question 2. What are some examples of body language? Do you have body language in your culture that is not used in other places?

Question 3. Have you ever had a problem on or off the pitch that was caused by a communication breakdown or can you think of an example of a football problem that was caused by bad communication?

Please answer these questions in the comments section at the bottom of the page for this podcast on the Premier League British Council website or leave me a message on the Premier Skills English whatsapp. You can find the number and a link on the podcast page.

Football phrase

Before I finish, I want to challenge you with a football phrase. I’m changing things from the old podcast, but I don’t want to drop the football phrase. So the football phrase today is one of the 200 items of football vocabulary on the website and it’s what is used to decide which team is going to kick off. The phrase is ****-****.

I think that this is quite an easy one so I really hope lots of you will sign up for the new site so you can leave the answer in a comment. 

And that’s all I have time for today. Before I finish, I just wanted to say that I hope you found this podcast useful, and I hope everyone stays fit and healthy and safe.

Bye for now and enjoy your football.