UEFA to bring out football dictionary

European soccer's ruling body UEFA is to bring out a tri-lingual football dictionary with about 2,000 entries.

It will contain "official terms used by UEFA and FIFA, as well as terms used by professionals and ordinary fans in everyday football life," UEFA said yesterday.

Subjects covered will include the game itself, stadiums and security, equipment, medical matters, the media and administration.

"Football cannot live entirely without its own language," UEFA president Michel Platini said in the book's foreword.

"Players and coaches need to communicate in order to follow training routines and tactical instructions... and the game's administrators need to be able to converse and exchange opinions and ideas in precise detail."

Published in English, German and French, it will help "multilingual communication," UEFA said.

The dictionary will contain some of the sport's more colourful terms, such as slang for heavy defeats.

Produced by German reference book publishers Langenscheidt, it will be presented in Munich on May 7 ahead of Bayern Munich's league match against Arminia Bielefeld.