Talking football - football idioms

by Brian Boyd 

Imagine you’re sitting in a pub, waiting for your friend to arrive. It’s getting late, and you’re about to give up on him, when he calls you on your mobile.

“Sorry, I’m going to have to kick it into touch,” he says. “My girlfriend’s found out I’ve been playing away from home and she really kicked off.  It’s best if I play it safe for a while.”

What’s he talking about? Is he calling from a football match? Actually, phrases like the ones above have become commonplace in everyday English in the UK, and many people now use language borrowed from the world of football without even realising it.

Just as fashions, technology, pop culture and attitudes constantly change, so the English language changes too; every year, hundreds of new words are added to the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary. The huge selection of slang terms used by British people is forever growing, and it’s no surprise that the country’s most popular sport has been responsible for some of that slang.

Early doors, nutmeg, a clean sheet, sweeper – anyone new to the game of football could be forgiven for thinking sports commentators are speaking a whole new language; the terminology they use could fill a phrase book. People who love football usually love talking about football, and some of the more frequently used terms have taken on new meanings and filtered into our daily conversations.

When a footballer kicks the ball into touch, he puts it out of play and concedes a throw in. ‘Kick it into touch’ is often used in conversation to mean cancel, reject or quit something. A team that visits another team’s stadium is playing away from home. ‘Playing away from home’ is also used to describe someone in a relationship who is secretly dating someone else. ‘Kick off’ is the term used to describe the start of a football match, but away from the pitch it can mean the start of trouble or a fight. A team that plays it safe doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, and the phrase ‘play it safe’ is commonly used to mean ‘be careful’. These are just a few examples of football’s influence on modern English, and there are many more.

In any UK office environment, football can be heard slipping into the conversations of businessmen. Someone talking about a meeting or project might talk about getting the ball rolling (starting it), kicking an idea around (passing it from person to person to see if it’s any good) or giving a job their best shot (putting a lot of effort into it). 

There are negative phrases too; perhaps you’ll hear complaints because management has ‘moved the goalposts’ (made unfair changes without warning). Maybe someone could find themselves in trouble if they ‘let the side down’ and a person who makes a problem for themselves has ‘scored an own goal’.

Footballing phrases are widely used in London – home to some of the UK’s biggest football clubs and thousands of football-mad fans. The distinctive accents and colourful slang used by many Londoners has come to be known as ‘Estuary English’ (named after the area of the River Thames estuary), and football is just one of its influences.

London is also home to Cockney rhyming slang, which originated in an area of inner London known as the East End. This unusual (and often confusing) slang is said to have begun life as street traders’ language, used to hide illegal activities from the newly founded police force. Rhyming slang is now widely used, and modern additions often utilize the names of the famous. Liverpool defender, Gary Ablett was hardly a superstar of world football, but his name is often heard in night clubs as a slang term for the drug ecstasy (Gary Ablett – tablet). England’s World Cup hero, Geoff Hurst, has become slang for a first class honours degree (Geoff Hurst – first), and diners in a restaurant will need to pay the Jimmy Hill (bill) before they leave.

Nobby Stiles, Gianlucca Vialli, Robbie Fowler and many others from the footballing hall of fame have found their way into British rhyming slang. Even football’s most famous couple, Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Adams and England captain David Beckham, have their own rhyming slang – ‘Posh ‘n’ Becks’ (sex).

Such slang and idioms are colorful words and expressions that cannot be translated literally, yet finding out about them can be the difference between ‘textbook’ and ‘real-world’ language. You might be surprised at how fascinating and fun they are to learn and use. Football slang and idioms can be baffling at first, but once you know the Bobby Moore it should be a Glenn Hoddle!