Dictionary of British Sports Terms

Since I'm hoping to have readers from both sides of the Atlantic reading this blog, I figure I had better explain some British sports terms. I've been living here long enough now that I use the British ones without realising it, so please bear with me if you find some descriptions hard to follow.

The good news is that most British terms have an American equivalent. There are only a few new concepts to learn.

I imagine it will take a while to think of all of these, so I will update this post as time goes on.


Pitch: Field. Used in football, rugby and cricket. In Cricket it can, confusingly, also mean the narrow strip of ground that the bowling and batting takes place on.

Fixture: Game. This term is used more when you are speaking of schedules. A team's schedule is called a 'fixture list.'

Match: Game. This is used to refer to a specific game.

League: This term has several meanings but in football it usually refers to the level a club competes at. For Bath City the 'league' refers to the Blue Square South (aka Conference South). A 'league' match is a match that is part of league competition (as opposed to Cup competitions). In a very confusing twist, 'the league' also refers to the Football League. This is a subset of the Football Association including the top four divisions of national football in England. Bath City is a 'non-league' club because it competes two levels below the lowest level of 'league' football.

Premiership: This is the standard term for the Premier League, which is the top level of English football. Don't be confused by ESPN commentators referring to it as the 'EPL.' Nobody in England calls it that, or ever says 'English Premier League.' It is not normal for any organisation name to begin with 'English' or 'British' the way American organisation names begin with 'American' or 'National.' It has something to do with the empire or something. Go figure.

Championship: This is the second level of English football. No, really. It is. Weird, huh? So, when you read, 'Wolves won the Championship last year,' what this really means is that Wolverhampton Wanderers won the second division and are therefore promoted out of the Championship to the Premiership. This has nothing to do with the empire. It is a marketing ploy.

League 1: The third level of English football. Yes, yes, I know how bizarre that is. Now you see what I put up with living here. Everything is like this here. Why have a straightforward naming system when you can have something confusing and eccentric.

League 2: Okay, by now you have probably guessed this is the fourth level of English football and may be beginning to understand why. This is progress. Well done. This is also the lowest league in 'league' football.

Conference: The fifth level of English football. It has nothing to do with college sports. This is the top level of 'non-league' football and the lowest league played on a national level. Everything below this is regional. For Luton Town, Cambridge United, Oxford United, and Wrexham, being in the Conference is purgatory. For Bath City it would be the most amazing thing ever.

Conference South: The sixth level of English football. It is pretty self explanatory and I won't bore you with a separate entry for Conference North. There are about seven levels below this one in 'non-league' depending on what part of the country you are in.

Cup: A trophy of any type, and also a knock-out tournament. Most sports in Europe have both a league competition and at least one Cup competition. It is, therefore, entirely possible for a team to have a great season in the league and a horrible one in the various cups. Bath City will compete in at least three cup competitions this year (the FA Cup, the FA Trophy, and the Somerset Premier Cup). Last year they were also in the Setanta Sheild, but Setanta Sports has just gone bankrupt and it isn't clear if there will be a replacement. Other than the FA Cup, and to some extent the FA Trophy, most fans think of cup matches as being less important than league matches.

Club: Team, but not a national team. I know that the term 'club' is used in America occasionally, especially in baseball, but in the UK it is the main term. In the UK a 'club' can be comprised of several 'teams,' so for example Arsenal Football Club can have a senior team, a reserve team, a youth team and a women's team. A national team, like England, is never referred to as a 'club.'

Result: While in America this means just what happened, in Britain a game with a 'result' is a game that did not end in a tie or a draw. While a tie is considered inherantly unsatisfactory in American Sports, it can be as good as a victory in football and all other British sports. Most football fans would consider a 4-4 draw an excellent game without knowing much more than the scoreline. For a weaker team facing an intimidating opponent, trying for a draw is not seen as dishonourable as it can be in American sports.

Sport: used the way Americans say 'sports.' It sounds weird but in the UK you can say, 'I like sport,' and you are not infringing any rules of grammar. Strangely, you are not bad at math, you are bad at maths. Why one is plural and another isn't is a mystery to me. Also, the Sport is a daily tabloid that is more to do with pornographry and not really anything to do with sports. Don't make the mistake a friend of mine made and pick it up at the newstand in front of your wife looking for an insight into British sporting life.

Keeper: what Americans call a 'goalie' in soccer. Soon there may be a shift to the American term as there are now four 1st string keepers with American passports ( Howard - Everton, Friedal - Aston Villa, Myhill (Hull City), and Hahnemann - Wolves), while the only English keeper of note in the entire Premiership is the inconsistant David James.

Kit: uniform or equipment, or both. Dedicated fans wear 'replica kits' to matches.

Rounders: an English sport played by schoolgirls which bears a superficial resemblance to baseball. It is an important term to learn because any time you run into any time you mention baseball in England in front of someone even slightly anti-American they will bring it up.