Football Lexicon - Hardcover

Woodhouse, David; Leigh, John

3.65

23 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 057122797X ISBN 13: 9780571227976

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2004

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Why is a left foot either trusty or educated, but a right foot is neither?

Why is a bad back pass almost invariably suicidal?

Why can you score from a corner with a free header, but never with a free shot?

Why are hooligans always a tiny minority even when there seem to be hundreds of them throwing seats across Kenilworth Road?

Discover how stock phrases - schoolboy howler, sweeper system - are only part of the story in the artfully twisted language of football. Let Leigh and Woodhouse take you on a journey, from the top-flight vocabulary of commentators to the more speculative efforts of footballers, from the Champions League circus to a Wednesday night in Rochdale. And prepare to be very entertained.

'The boys done terrific. A work of genius.' Martin Kelner

'This book is pure kwolity. And I mean kwolity with a capital K.' Graham Spiers

A sort of Robbie Fowler's Modern English Usage, the Football Lexicon provides an A to Row Z of the language of football, with over 800 examples of the set phrases we use to talk and write about the beautiful game.

Altercation: A rather euphemistic way of describing a bust-up, a dust-up, a situation where players square up, as in: 'Bit of an altercation off the ball there.' See also handbags.

Z: Row Z is a long way from the pitch and so, by inference, the hypothetical destination of any no-nonsense clearance. Defenders who put safety first by playing within their limitations can be praised, but a reference to the back of the stand may also depict a badly over-hit pass: 'He tried to find Fredgaard on the other wing, but that's gone straight into Row Z.' Old-school managers may even condone their players putting the opposition into the stands along with the ball: 'County boss Billy Dearden was left fuming: 'O'Driscoll should have finished in Row Z but we were too nice.''

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Review:

For the first time - the complete lexicon of football cliches. -- The Times

A joy to read -- Cambridge Evening News, October 22, 2004

Absolutely brilliant -- Adrian Chiles, The Independent, October 9, 2004

Absolutely brilliant...There are fascinating questions raised as well as many hugely entertaining cheap shots. -- Adrian Chiles, BBC Match of the Day

Reminds the reader just how ubiquitous and comical some of the game's common jargon really is. -- Tom Dart, The Times, October 18, 2004

Spot on. -- Hunter Davies, New Statesman

The boys done terrific. A work of genius. -- Martin Kelner, Guardian

This book is pure kwolity. And I mean kwolity with a capital K. -- Graham Spiers, The Herald

‘Absolutely brilliant . . . There are fascinating questions raised as well as many hugely entertaining cheap shots.’ -- Adrian Chiles from 'Match of the Day'

‘For the first time – the complete lexicon of football clich�s.’ -- The Times

From the Publisher:

Further reviews: "Excellent...Football Lexicon deals only in the finest cliches, those that footballers, commentators and writers use in all seriousness, most of the time without even knowing it." Observer Sport Monthly "A catalogue of cliches, a sort of Robbie Fowler's Modern English Usage...A deliciously wry, witty gem." Time Out "Pleasingly self-mocking...This essential work sharply points out the inherent contradictions in much football speak." Times Literary Supplement "The best thing since Roger's Profanisaurus...[It] knits together the cliched phrases we take for granted like a string of effortless Brazilian passes." Ice Magazine "Sportswriters have always had a language of their own, but this is the first systematic analysis I've seen, and it's sharply observed." Daily Telegraph "Excellent...You will be hard pressed to think of any of football's huge store of more or less viable tropes that they have missed...Leigh & Woodhouse are civilised guides to all that's tritest and best in football parlance." London Review of Books "A wickedly deadpan A-Z of argot...The lads show clinical finishing and give 200 per cent." Boyd Tonkin, Independent (Books of the Year) "Erudite and witty glossary of jargon from 'The Beautiful Game'. Kicks the opposition into 'Row Z'." Mail on Sunday "A witty dictionary of football cliches, for which the authors have a keen ear. They include some shrewd broader analysis that would delight FR Leavis." Sunday Telegraph "The best thing I have EVER read on the relationship between language and football." Christopher T. George, football poet "Leigh & Woodhouse take an admirably detached view of football's language, rarely judging, just simply setting down the unbreakable laws of the commentator's jargon...This small, witty, neatly produced volume would be a nice loo book for any football fan, but there's one group of people who definitely shouldn't be without a copy. All aspiring football commentators must immediately learn the entire lexicon off by heart." Guardian "I could not be less interested in football. But I am very interested in our living language and this Football Lexicon is a joy to read." Cambridge Evening News "Witty and wise glossary of football-speak with definitions supplied by the authors with tongues firmly wedged in cheeks. It would be foolish to assume that it falls into that dread category, 'intentionally humorous sports books', which rarely hit the mark, because it's both genuinely funny and offers an insight into how the game is being made meaningless by its vocabulary." Sports Books Direct "Learned and informative, as well as entertaining." Programme Monthly and Football Collectable

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