The Universal Language of Football
The biggest football party on earth is reaching its peak. So far there have been 12 days of joy, hope, disillusion, frustration and courage. 32 countries fighting to grab the most prestigious trophy in the football world in a show that is watched every corner of the planet. Different cultures and languages united around the universal language of football (or soccer), a sport that is called in the same way in most of the languages from Chinese to Russian, from German to Chichewa.
In this World Cup there about 70 different languages and dialects spoken by the nations that are taking part in South Africa. Just in the host country there are 11 official languages and several dialects. It is not a nonsense question to ask how players and referees communicate with each other while they are on the pitch. Do they speak in English? Probably players from western European countries use the global lingua franca to communicate with their counterparts and the referees but what about countries such as North Korea? It is very unlikely that people study English over there. So how can they sort out their differences on the football field? Well, there are some standardized signs and certainly, everybody understands the meaning of the red card!! In any case, the teams are there to score and express themselves with the ball. Off the pitch, English is FIFA's official language for minutes and press announcements.
Putting aside the World Cup, language has become a real issue in national football tournaments. This popular sport has also been affected by the globalization trend and we have teams formed by players of seven or ten different countries that speak different languages. Some experts argue that this situation can lead to misunderstanding and, consequently affect the players' performance on the pitch. The French legend footballer Jean- Pierre Papin thinks that it is very important to learn the local language but once on the pitch, the first language spoken is football. He might be right. On the other side, what all football fans want is to simply celebrate the goals and important wins regardless of their language. On that note, I wish everyone a good game.
