You’re Saying it Wrong! Sporting Lisbon, Inter Milan, and Other Incorrect Names That Drive Football Fans Crazy

By: Daryl | August 25th, 2009

Football is a global sport. Which is one of the reasons we love it so much. Unfortunately that international appeal is also the root of many many misunderstandings, leading to football teams being incorrectly labeled outside their native land. Which can drive fans of those teams crazy.

I’ve been on both ends of this. I’ve been the fool that irritated both sides of a city by saying “Inter Milan” and “AC Milan”, and I’ve been the angry man looking for something to punch when an ESPN commentator referred to my team as “the Wolverhampton Wolves”.

So this post listing the most common mistakes is not intended to suggest that I know any better. Or that any one person or nationality is any more or less guilty than any other. Think of it instead as a resource, designed to help football fans of the world communicate with each other. Of course we welcome your additions and/or corrections to the list in the comments…

Mistakes are in bold, explanations and correct names underneath.

“Sporting Lisbon”
Apparently this drives people in Portugal insane. The team is indeed based in Lisbon, but the actual name is Sporting Clube de Portugal. Either Sporting or Sporting CP works for short.

“Chelsea London”
This seems to be mostly a German mistake, appending the team name with the city of London. Great example here, where they do it to Arsenal too. It’s harmless, but it looks and sounds weird to unaccustomed eyes and ears. It also feels like a little too much information. If you’re going to say Chelsea London, why not go all the way and call them “Chelsea London England Europe Earth”?

“SS Lazio Roma”
The team is from the city of Roma, but the team name is SS Lazio. So another one based on adding the team’s location, only this one isn’t so harmless. Lazio and Roma are deadly enemies, so conflating both team names into one is every Lazio and Roma fans worst team-merger nightmare come true.

“Inter Milan”
The full name is Football Club Internazionale Milano. But the common name is Internazionale, or Inter for short. If you want an Inter fan to think you’re a moron, go ahead and call the team “Inter Milan”. It’s a little more accurate than the Sporting Lisbon mistake (because at least “Milano” is in the full team name) but they’ll still look at you with pity. Save yourself two syllables and stick with just “Inter”.

“AC Milan”
This is a little more borderline. It’s technically correct, as the full team name is Associazione Calcio Milan, or A.C. Milan for short. But think of it this way… do you always say the full Manchester United F.C.? Do you call Alex Ferguson’s team “FC” for short. Of course you don’t. So better to call this team Milan.

“The MLS”
We’ve all done this one. Or if not then we’ve co-hosted a radio show with someone who does. Ahem. MLS stands for Major League Soccer. So if you use the definitive article in front of it, then you’re saying “the Major League Soccer”. So stick with simply saying “MLS”. But even if you say “the MLS” then at least you can feel superior to the fools who say “MSL”.

“Bayern Leverkusen”
It’s not. It’s actually Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the Bayer being the famous aspirin selling pharmaceutical manufacturer which founded the club in 1904. Obviously the Bayer-Bayern mistake arises from confusion with Bayern Munich. Which is a whole other issue…

Questionable? Bayern Munich
This seems wrong to me. The actual team name, in German, is FC Bayern München. But if we’re going to translate the München part into English as “Munich”, then shouldn’t we also translate Bayern into English as “Bavaria”, giving us “Bavaria Munich”?

The name we now use in English is half German (Bayern) and half English (Munich) and yet everyone seems to accept it as OK. Can any German football fans out there solve this question?

“Real Madrid”
Everyone spells it correctly as “Real Madrid”. But not everyone says it correctly. In fact, far too many people (myself included) often forget that “Real” is Spanish for “royal” and so should be pronounced ~~“Ray-al”~~ “Reh-al” (thanks Malin!)

“Barca”
Another one I’m guilty of. Obviously the full team name is Fútbol Club Barcelona. And the familiar abbreviation is Barça, with that nice accent thingy on the fourth letter there. But that often gets lazily typed out as “Barca”. Which apparently means “boat” in Catalan.

Wondering why “EPL” isn’t on this list? Read this post for an explanation: Why It’s OK to Say EPL

Know of any more? Or have corrections/clarifications for anything above? Let us know in the comments…

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football

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keke

on the AC Milan issue (and the ManU FC example):
When you're referring to "the FC" in Germany, everyone knows you're talking about Cologne, just as "the Club" is a synonym for Nuremberg.
Doesn't mean that it's ok for Milan, though.
Isabel

@ Paul: Here, here! That's my main pet peeve too. Refusing to call our team Athletic (or Athletic Bilbao, Athletic Club etc) is reminiscent of the Franco era when we were forced to change it into Atlético de Bilbao. :/

Athletic Club de Bilbao or even Athletic de Bilbao is just fine as that's what it is in Spanish. But it's the simply Bilbao that annoys me so much.
Francesco

Oh man how I hate when people ask me what club I support and I say "Milan" and they say "Inter or AC?".
Kara

DC United also follows the Washington habit of having team names relating to the fact it's the Capitol of the US – like the Washington Freedom (women's soccer), Nationals (baseball), Senators (former baseball), and Capitols (ice hockey).
g

HAMBURG IST SCHWARZ-WEIß-BLAU
SCHEIß SANKT PAULI
Nie wieder erstklassig!
Weston (@wpazzurri)

@Chris
"Funny, I wasn’t aware there were multiple other Serie A’s or La Liga’s."
isnt the official term for the brazilian league serie a, or is that the wrong one?
Matt

I'm surprised the Old Firm clubs weren't included on the list. It's fairly common to see "Glasgow Rangers" or "Glasgow Celtic", although they're just Rangers F.C. and Celtic F.C.
Diane

Taylor, I love all that stuff. When I was a kid, from a LFC family, I thought that Anfield rather than Old Trafford deserved to be the Theatre of Dreams! But then no one else has The Kop so we make do ;-) .

I thought The Trotters for Bolton was very funny until I made the wanderers connection. And for the longest time I imagined that the Tyne-Wear Derby had something to do with table settings rather than rivers (???).
MAD

I have no idea if Daryl is still paying attention to this thread but I just wanted to say thanks for changing the banner on the Inter page to reflect the actual name of the team.
Taylor Rockwell

Holycalamity, a valid point there... United started off as Newton Heath Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, and then later became Newton Heath.

Essentially, they were saved from bankruptcy, and the new owners decided that a new name was necessary and chose "Manchester United" from a list that also included "Manchester Central" and "Manchester Celtic." And that's paraphrased from their official history...
Diane

Daryl, your a Wolves fan! I was cheering for you against Manchester City this weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly (hard loss, but I still liked your boys).

The problem with most teams in the UK is that they can correctly be called: by their full name; their shortened name; the city/town they're located in if they're the only ones there; the name of the grounds; the name of the street abutting the grounds; the name of something manufactured in their town (or the teams' side of town); the color of their uniforms (nothing clever there); an animal vegetable or mineral related to the color of the uniform or the name of the team/town; a nickname related to a word (or inferred context) in the team/town name; a nickname for the fans themselves (or the section they sit in; or as [insert manager's name]'s men.

It keeps the commentary lively but can certainly be confusing to those that didn't grow up with the references. There are invariably 3 things we have to explain to guests who don't follow football, apart from why its on all weekend during the season. First, the offside rule/trap, then the whole substitutions business, and finally who the hell they're talking about -- if the guest has not fallen asleep by this time.
holycalamity

"The Netherlands constantly being called Holland??"

Although technically incorrect, "Holland" has pretty much been accepted as an alias for Netherlands. You don't have enough fingers on your hands to plug the holes in this dyke. I mean, are you going to get all up in arms because only citizens of the 50 United States are called "Americans" and the Northern Irish are often included as "British"?

A more worthy (though still pointless) fight is when even members of the media can't get Korean names right. If a guy's name is Lee XXX-YYY, "Lee" is the family name. Though to be fair, Koreans confuse matters by using "Park Ji-Sung" and "Ji-Sung Park" interchangeably.
Bruno Romani

to me, the most annoying thing related to Brazilian football is calling Ronaldinho "Dinho". In Brazil, nobody does that. In fact, Dinho was a violent defensive midfielder who played for Sao Paulo and Gremio.
MattyDub

How about national teams?? The Netherlands constantly being called Holland??
holycalamity

“The team’s name was chosen as a reflection of European team names such as Manchester United or Newcastle United. D.C. United however departs from the common British practice in which “United” typically refers refer to a club formed by the union of two existing constituent clubs”

This amuses me. A million bucks to the first person who can name the two clubs that merged to form Manchester United.
Nikola

@Al: No, it's not. You can say Lyon, Olympique Lyonnais or simply OL.

Anyway, The French always use the name of the city the club is in, even if sometimes the name of the city isn't part of the name at all (like Chelsea, Arsenal or Tottenham). So, every French team has a full version of it's name (Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille, Girondins de Bordeaux, OGC Nice, Paris Saint-Germain) and the shorter version of the name, refering to the city the club comes from (Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice, Paris). It's definitely a part of a tradition that a football club represents the city itself. In France, there isn't a single city with two teams in the first two tiers of the league, so it all makes sense.
Laurie

It bugs the crap out of me when legit news sources spell Marseille (as in l'OM) as "Marseilles."
Matt

g-We can fix that... just call then HShitV.... FORZA St. Pauli! :D
Al

Oh and also, is "Olympique Lyon" considered to be correct?
g

Hamburger for Hamburger SV
Or Sv Hamburg
Hamburg is ok, Hamburg SV is ok
HSV is even shorter than them all, but hamburger is as confusing and wrong as it looks.
Vinod

sscouser: its pronounced e-raak. So many Americans say i-rack.
Matt

Referring to Tottenham Hotspur as 'the Spurs'. Hate it. Just Spurs, thanks.
Jem

Not that it really bothers me, but Juventus is not pronounced Jew-ven-tuss nor who-ven-tus. It's yoo-ven-toos.
phantompong

Saint Louis Athletica makes me wince somewhat, though nowhere near as much as Real Salt Lake.

In a similar vein, and related to the issue of tagging the city name behind the club... Athletic Bilbao, although that isn't really a big deal, just that most people don't know that "Athletic Club de Bilbao" is the complete name, and I usually see it as "Athletic", "Athletic Club" or "Athletic de Bilbao" in Spanish news.

I might be completely wrong on this one, but I only recall ever seeing "Racing Santander", "Sporting Gijón" and "Deportivo La Coruña" in the English-language press. As far as I can remember, in the Spanish press they're simply "Racing", "Sporting" and "Deportivo", otherwise they're given as "Racing de Santander", etc.
john

But after taking your cue - I found this about Real Salt Lake City on Wikipedia:

'The title "Real" (Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal]) is derived from the Spanish language where it is traditionally used by certain Spanish soccer clubs such as Real Madrid of La Liga. It is translated into English as "royal".

Dave Checketts and SCP Worldwide partners Dean Howes, Kenneth Munoz, Michael McCarthy and Chris Bevilacqua, chose Real Salt Lake for the team's name because they desired to associate the team with a successful soccer club, Real Madrid, as well as to develop a brand that was clearly associated with association football.

The team's name was initially met with derision in the fan community. Many fans thought the name should more accurately reflect the Salt Lake area. In the passing years, the criticism from local fans and the media has waned, and the club has instituted a formal relationship with Real Madrid.'

Huh. So there you go, then.
john

Tony - I'm talking about Real Salt Lake City. So I'm not sure what you're referring to.
Tony

John this is from wiki, so i'm not saying you're wrong, but you might want to explain...

"The team's name was chosen as a reflection of European team names such as Manchester United or Newcastle United. D.C. United however departs from the common British practice in which "United" typically refers refer to a club formed by the union of two existing constituent clubs"
joe

though DC united did not come from two seperate teams in the same place, the fan base does come from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas making it to me, the most appropriate of the european sounding names in the MLS
Malin

Ah well, I guess I have to make do with America, wont complain. :)

(Psst, its Sweden!)

I have to admit that I do call it EPL though, but I have no idea why. Everyone seems to have their own name on it, I should probably say The Premiership but since I am a lazy cow...
Sparky

Flag is wrong...Englishman living in Canada
chris

In all seriousness, Malin, it pulls from the IP address so either reroute the IP or you're stuck. And even then it's imperfect.
Sparky

Notts Forest...from the City of Nottingham so should be Nottingham Forest. Notts County is correct though as they stand for the county of Nottinghamshire.
Biggest hate is saves for MLS magazine which on it's cover noted there was an article about "FC Toronto". It must be bad if your own league can't get your name right!!! Maybe next time we're at BMO field we should change the chants to FCT. Nah!
Tony

matt, firstly i mentioned the mexican reference, take a closer look, secondly, its not chivas de mexico, so why should it be chivas usa, chivas los angeles would be more appropriate, thats all getting back to daryls reference that chelsea do indeed play out of planet earth
Matt

Tony-Chivas USA wasn't an attempt at that (though where in Europe is Mexico?) They are owned by the same people who own Chivas de Guadalajara.
Malin

Thanks Chris, very helpful. :P

(Oh oh, fellow roma fan eh?)

I actually think amerrican football teams would get more support if they didn't try to appear more european, but that's just me.
sscouser

IRAQ: Is it i-raq or e-raq? Both acceptable?
chris

Move to another country.
Tony

clubs in the US try to europeanize their names. DC united i believe was the first to do so, chivas usa for another one (mexican albeit) real salt lake, you can't help but wonder why they (perhaps the most 'whitebread' part of america) would try to associate themselves with spain, a useless ploy if you ask me
Malin

And how do I change the flag? Anyone who knows that?
john

Thanks alessio - but why? Why would a club in the middle of the U.S.A. incorporate the Spanish word for Royal into their name. And in Spain, you can't just tag that on. Adding Real to your club name can only happen if the king of Spain grants it. Did a king somewhere grant Salt Lake City its royal status?

And al - that drives me crazy as well. I've even heard 'Athletico,' which is perhaps even more infuriating.
Malin

Sorry Al, my bad! *blush*
As long as I dont have to hear "athletico" I am happy!
Daryl

Not to pre-empt this discussion, but next post (now published here) will explain the reasons "EPL" did not make the above list.
Al

Nevermind, beat to it.
Al

Malin, when it's shortened there isn't an accent mark, it's just "Atleti".

And I don't see why people shouldn't use "EPL". There's also another Premier League, the Scottish Premier League.
Tony

my point exactly chris, thats why its referred to as the EPL, and SPL respectively and perhaps even russian premier league
Ryan

Oh I like EPL, especially now that it is technically the Barclay's Premier League, EPL is kind of a way to protest that corporatism.
chris

Funny, I wasn't aware there were multiple other Serie A's or La Liga's.
Tony

Well done Daryl, that read was worth a pretty good laugh.
Holycalamity EPL is 'english premier league' although probably more commonly called 'the premiership'
I believe the reason for attaching the teams city, like lazio rome, which as a laziale i hate but the logic behind it is a lot of people may not realize what city a team plays out of, (casual fans that is)
Malin

And apparently, now I am American too!
Malin

And of course the entire Atlético Madrid spectacle, which I will try not to get lost in, but the correct short form is "Atléti" and nothing else.

Phew, now I can go back to my calm life, after that contribution.
SP

@holycalamity, totally agree. i can't stand hearing people say EPL. its like saying spanish la liga, italian serie a, or german bundesliga. imagine people saying american mls.
Malin

No. No no. Not "Ray-al". It's not american! "Reh-al" is the correct way.

Sorry to be the know-it-all, sorry! But I had to.
holycalamity

You left out "EPL". What does the "E" stand for? "Ecstatic"? "Entertaining"? "Embiggened"? I ask because there's no word in the league name that starts with the letter "E".

Also, "Glasgow Celtic" and "Glasgow Rangers".
Ryan

I've never actually heard someone call them Real Madrid, I have always heard it pronounced correctly as Ray-al
Laurie

I'm still puzzled by whether to say "NASL" or "The NASL."
Daryl

MAD,

I'll see what I can do about that for you.
john

Here's a question: How should I pronounce Real Salt Lake City? Honest question. Are they using the Spanish word, or do they honestly mean 'real,' like authentic? As opposed to the Fake Salt Lake City?
Rob

Alot of the English speaking world still calls Atletico Madrid "Athletico Madrid".

Interesting how many of these come from lazy translation, usually into English. But on a slightly unfootball point I'm still not totally sure why we call Rome, Rome, when Romans call it Roma. Why do we need a translation for a proper noun? All seems a bit odd to me - and the same should apply to teams really - we should just call them what they are in their actual language.
SP

not quite as related, but man utd fans calling their own club "man u". that term originated as part of an abusive chant by opposing fans that poked fun at the united players such as duncan edwards that died in the munich air tragedy and if you said "man u" at Old Trafford, you would probably get several injuries to take home.
Taylor Rockwell

People refer to Manchester United as "ManU" or "Manyoo"... I hate them for it...
diana

Guilty as charged regarding the last one you are talking about, Daryl. It is the same thing with me as well. But then, it has to do with the laptop keyboard I am using.

'It’s harmless of course, but it looks and sounds weird to unaccustomed eyes and ears.'
Definitely. If it's a German mistake regarding Chelsea and Arsenal, then I hope so. I have always wondered regarding the Arsenal part if that is really their full name or not. It is due to me always coming across like the link you posted.
Al

Athletico Madrid
Matt

I have the desire to punch every c*nt who asks me if I am wearing a "Keltic" jersey.
MAD

"If you want an Inter fan to think you’re a moron, go ahead and call the team “Inter Milan”."

Many, including me, have made the point that Inter's name at the top of the Serie A banner and the blog page was unfortunate for 2 reasons:

The first is exactly the point you just made, that the name is "Inter" unless you want to say the whole thing.

The second is that any reference to "Milan" in English is a reference to that other team.
mike

My mom always calls Milan "AC" and and she calls Man Utd. "Manchester" and I can't stand either -_-
chris

England's not in Europe, silly - it's in the ocean.