Ball, Ball, Ball, Footie, Footie, Footie

[Xray the Enforcer]

Now, that is a matter of opinion I am sorry, in my mind, it all sounds a bit disney which is already a bit kitschy I guess it depends on culture and what you grow up thinking is proper names for a football team.

I'm with Kutz. But then again, I come from a tradition of gridiron and rounders and some brutal wrestling-type sports that happen on either on ice, or with hoops on either end of the playing ground. We've got Sharks, Bears and Baby Bears (Cubs), Pirates AND Buccaneers, Terrapins, Random Ethnic Groups (Celtics), Age-of-Sail Wonders (Clippers), Types of Music (Jazz) and Enormous Yellow Gastropods (Banana Slugs).

Basically, we are a nation of sports-enthusiast furries. And I support that.

[Paddy]

I think they thought they had.

The problem is that I think the test will be what the effect of the rule is. If a rule effectively restricts the right of footballers to trade freely (ie move clubs), it most likely won't stand. Getting out of it on a technicality is not likely to work.

Right. It doesn't seem so much like a technicality though, given that a footballer's "job duties" are a lot more than just playing when they're picked

But you are right. It would be an attempt to circumvent that law, but the reason why I thought of it is because no one seems to have a problem with the cup-tying rule and I couldn't see much difference between the two. My suggestion has a wider scope.

Do you think that is enough to make the cup-tie rule allowed? Or could this be a case of no case being brought, so it's never been legally tested?

[cteresa]

I'm with Kutz. But then again, I come from a tradition of gridiron and rounders and some brutal wrestling-type sports that happen on either on ice, or with hoops on either end of the playing ground. We've got Sharks, Bears and Baby Bears (Cubs), Pirates AND Buccaneers, Terrapins, Random Ethnic Groups (Celtics), Age-of-Sail Wonders (Clippers), Types of Music (Jazz) and Enormous Yellow Gastropods (Banana Slugs).

Basically, we are a nation of sports-enthusiast furries. And I support that.

Slugs are not furries! I got to say I google´ed it. eheh . That sort of names, like real official names feel a bit not serious for me, like stickers in a PhD thesis, or a tiny bit (ok, fun) like what Calvin and Hobbes would call a team of theirs. I suppose I am used to more serious type of names as being the standard. Here, , i think the great movement of creating football clubs (and these are nearly always clubs) was with late 19th century associativism movements, also some sport revival thing with a strong anglo-saxon influence and greek sports revival in names as well - clubs getting called Sporting, Sport (right now in Portugal and Brazil the word for sport is recent relatively that it got translated differently), Corinthians, Ajax, even Milan;) . And worldwide a few cricket and regatta clubs I suppose for historical reasons...

So think names picked by 19th century bearded people and well meant do-good associations to promote . Clubs getting called União ( Union) and Vitória ( Victory) and heraldry, it was a more fun alternative to masonry (huge round that time). Funnily later there was a second wave of club creation where clubs got named and colors picked after other clubs, things like Benfica do Huambo ( or Castelo Branco), or Sporting Clube de Goa or Barcelona do Tarrafal ( really)... And (hi Kutz) Ajax Cape Town back to where we started from

[Jon AS]

Non PL stuff: in a shockingly bad game Bayern were held to a goalless draw by local rivals 1860 Munich for 119 minutes of their German Cup quarter final, then Bayern got a questionable penalty (I believe the foul was outside the box, but at least the shot had to be taken twice ) to win in the end. A pity, I was getting ready for a penalty shootout. But I guess Schalke will be happy that Bayern had to play for more than two hours only two days before having to travel to Gelsenkirchen in the league. Apart from the unhappy ending and the low quality of football it was a good derby, as far as these special games go: lots of emotion, two players sent of, one of them Luca Toni, a guy who is quickly becoming Bayern's least likeable player (though I think van Bommel still has the edge on him there), and a score of 0-0 in a knock-out game is always exciting.

RE: Club names

German clubs are generally named in a very conventional manner: some combination of cityname plus either "football club" or "sports club" or some variation thereof. Some clubs such as Hertha Berlin (named for a ship) or Werder Bremen (a 'Werder' is a river island, though in this case it's actually a peninsula) are a bit more exotic, and of course there are all the old East German clubs with names like "Energie", "Turbine" or "Dynamo".

I always thought that American clubs had those somewhat silly names (question: is Utah actually famous for jazz or was the team moved there without a name change?) because they were conceived not as old fashioned sports clubs for everyone but as brand names for teams competing in a commercial league.

[BLU-RAY]

Non PL stuff: in a shockingly bad game Bayern were held to a goalless draw by local rivals 1860 Munich for 119 minutes of their German Cup quarter final, then Bayern got a questionable penalty (I believe the foul was outside the box, but at least the shot had to be taken twice ) to win in the end. A pity, I was getting ready for a penalty shootout. But I guess Schalke will be happy that Bayern had to play for more than two hours only two days before having to travel to Gelsenkirchen in the league. Apart from the unhappy ending and the low quality of football it was a good derby, as far as these special games go: lots of emotion, two players sent of, one of them Luca Toni, a guy who is quickly becoming Bayern's least likeable player (though I think van Bommel still has the edge on him there), and a score of 0-0 in a knock-out game is always exciting.

RE: Club names

German clubs are generally named in a very conventional manner: some combination of cityname plus either "football club" or "sports club" or some variation thereof. Some clubs such as Hertha Berlin (named for a ship) or Werder Bremen (a 'Werder' is a river island, though in this case it's actually a peninsula) are a bit more exotic, and of course there are all the old East German clubs with names like "Energie", "Turbine" or "Dynamo".

I always thought that American clubs had those somewhat silly names (question: is Utah actually famous for jazz or was the team moved there without a name change?) because they were conceived not as old fashioned sports clubs for everyone but as brand names for teams competing in a commercial league.

:rofl:

The Utah Jazz used to be the New Orleans Jazz (which, you'll admit, makes a ton more sense, as N.O. is the original jazz town). The Utah Jazz is probably the most ironic name in all of sport, considering that the state consists of a large Mormon majority (~61% Mormon), who are fairly conservative. Utah is NOT famous for its jazz; in fact, this lead to the best part of the movie BASEketball (which unfortunately comes in the first five minutes):

Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music.

There are some terrible nicknames that do feel really commercial, but there are some which have a nice, old-time, traditional feel, as well.

New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, New York Metropolitans, Boston Celtics, Montreal Canadiens, etc. are good, old-timey names (and, of course, are the names of older teams). Stuff like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Toronto Raptors, Jacksonville Jaguars, Anaheim Ducks, etc. has really no business occurring, other than the marketing benefits you mentioned.

Lots of the MLS names are particularly egregious. The Galaxy? Real Salt Lake? The fucking Red Bulls?

What is this shit?

[H von T]

I always thought that American clubs had those somewhat silly names (question: is Utah actually famous for jazz or was the team moved there without a name change?) because they were conceived not as old fashioned sports clubs for everyone but as brand names for teams competing in a commercial league.

The Utah Jazz were originally from New Orleans, hence the musical nickname. Alot of US sports team names make no sense, but a few do, e.g. Pittsburgh Steelers, Milwaukee Brewers, New England Patriots. We could soon have another idiotically named team. The Seattle Supersonics will be moving to Oklahoma City in the next two years. The last time I checked Oklahoma City does not have much of an aerospace industry. The only thing OK City is famous for is the bombing in the 1990s, but I can't imagine they'll call themselves the Bombers or Disenfranchised Whitemen.

[mormont]

If we're talking club names, there are a few good Scottish ones: as well as the famous Queen of the South, the junior leagues feature clubs like Linlithgow Rose, Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, Shotts Bon Accord, or Lochee Harp.

[Lord Baelish]

And never forget that mighty Welsh team, Total Network Solutions. (Though I think they've changed their name again now.)

[Antonius Pius]

In the Netherlands, lots of clubs have names derived from political or religious status. This comes from the time when society was still largely organised into four great "columns": catholic, protestant, socialist and liberal. Especially the religious leadership encouraged the creation of all kinds of sporting initiatives. Eventually these resulted in all kinds of clubs. But because the people themselves started the whole thing up, they ended up with weird names like "Roman-Catholic Combination", "Better Through Practice", "Hurry Up", "Go For It", "Practice makes Perfect", "Blue-White" etc. etc.

It also led to all kinds of weird abbreviations, with meanings like the following: "Football is Our Sport", "Table-tennis is Relaxation After Work" (my father played there), "We Work for It", etc. etc.

Jon AS: it definitely was not a penalty, the foul was outside the box. I know how annoying Van Bommel can be, but yesterday Ribery annoyed the hell out of me with his diving and overacting.

[cteresa]

And never forget that mighty Welsh team, Total Network Solutions. (Though I think they've changed their name again now.)

LOL. I think there was a handball (?) team here called Aerosoles, a brand of shoes, but in their defense they were sort of owned by the factory. And OK PSV has a good reason to have Philips on the name But just sponsors, there is a ickiness factor from my point of view ( just because we are not used to it. We even snark at just stadiums being named so, though our major teams sold naming rights to training campus, so our mental line is probably there).

BTW how do you pronounce Real Salt Lake? Like Real in english as opposed to false, or is it in spanish as hommage to Loras´s merengues? It does sound like a strange name to me, to be honest.

Jon, of all of Munich´s current team, I will always have a special grudge and hate for Van Bommell. Luca Toni, hein, I have not really noticed him that much, maybe on the uefa cup later games, will keep an eye for his likeability potential.

Mormont, those are sort of beautiful names indeed. Queen of the South, Bon Accord, it´s lovely! And I bet considering likely founding dates of scots club, quite old?Closest we have is maybe a club called River Bird, except the river really is called that.

And just as trivia, apparently there are teams called Juventus in Cape Verde, São Paulo and Zurich; teams called Benfica in Angola, Luxembourg and Guinea-Bissau. Oh, found Arsenals in Buenos Aires and Kiev and in Portugal ( Sporting of Braga ryouth teams actually, because that is their nickname since their nicked arsenal´s uniform in the 1930s). And there is a Ajax in Rabat in Morocco. Ok, I will quit now, was just having fun with this site´s http://www.zerozero.pt team search thingie.

[Xray the Enforcer]

BTW how do you pronounce Real Salt Lake? Like Real in english as opposed to false, or is it in spanish as hommage to Loras´s merengues? It does sound like a strange name to me, to be honest.

The latter (as homage to Real Madrid).

As I said, team names don't generally bother me, because I've grown up with a very strong tradition of university sports (which is almost as big as professional sports, in terms of TV dollars and audience, but it is generally very regional), and most universities in this country have an animal mascot (there are some notable exceptions, like DVD ROTS' dancing redwood tree). I kinda like the variety, and I cherish almost any event where grown men will dress up in bear/beaver/duck/turtle/pig/dophin/tree costumes with no shame or irony.

ETA: I do agree that corporate sponsorship and name changes are pretty lame, though. 3Com Park? :sick:

[Mme Erzulie]

Mascherano close to signing with LFC. Thank God for small favours. Now, Allah willing, DIC will buy out the American fuckers.

Best of luck and sympathies to both Eduardo and Taylor.

YNWA

[Isis]

Just been reading about Gerrard's rant about the utter crapness of our season on and off the pitch. If only everyone else at the club was as bothered as him.

:cry:

[Paddy]

LOL. I think there was a handball (?) team here called Aerosoles, a brand of shoes, but in their defense they were sort of owned by the factory. And OK PSV has a good reason to have Philips on the name But just sponsors, there is a ickiness factor from my point of view ( just because we are not used to it. We even snark at just stadiums being named so, though our major teams sold naming rights to training campus, so our mental line is probably there).

Arsenal are the same. They were formed from the workers from the Royal Arsenal.

[Ser Sean]

Arsenal are the same. They were formed from the workers from the Royal Arsenal.

Yeah, they started as 'Dial Square'. Now if they'd only fuck off back to south London!!

[Ser Sean]

Just been reading about Gerrard's rant about the utter crapness of our season on and off the pitch. If only everyone else at the club was as bothered as him.

:cry:

I think Mr Gerrard could be considering his future.

[The Man Who]

As far as I know Real Madrid actually have some sort of agreement with/investment in Real Salt Lake.

Apparently there's a team out there called Deportivo Wanka. I think it may be my favourite team name.

Oh, and I think Gerrard would be a little hasty to exclude himself from his moan.

[Isis]

I think Mr Gerrard could be considering his future.

This time I can't really blame him. Don't want to see him go to Chelsea though.

[Isis]

Oh, and I think Gerrard would be a little hasty to exclude himself from his moan.

I'm sure he doesn't exclude himself.

[Daeric]

Didn't Arsenal start off as Woolich Arsenal or is my brain imagining stuff again.

Another Scottish club name I like is Inverness Caledoian Thistle (I think its that)