English Football For the American Eye Quiz

Answer: the field a game is played on

In most of the world what the English call the "pitch" is called the "field " or the "field of play". (I might also point out that "lorry" is a girl's name and not a truck but I digress.) The use of the term "pitch" does at least have some logical derivation. According to respected author and British entomologist Michael Quinion "[t]he oldest sense of pitch that's immediately relevant is that of thrusting a stake or pole into the ground (as in pitching a tent).

The sense of a playing field comes via that, originally from cricket.

The act of setting up the playing area by knocking the two sets of stumps into the ground at the ends of the wicket was called pitching the stumps from the end of the seventeenth century on. However, it wasn't until the 1870s that the term was turned into a noun to describe the playing area and it was extended to football only about 1900-surprisingly late in both cases." The word "pitch" has many definitions including "pitching" an idea for a commercial product and tossing a ball from a thrower's hand. "Pitch" can also mean to give up on something -- as in I think we should "pitch" the idea of calling the field of play the "pitch".

Answer: Sheffield Wednesday is the name of a real football team

Sheffield Wednesday as a name for a sports team dates back to a cricket club formed in Sheffield England in 1820 and named "The Wednesday Cricket Club". In 1867, on a Wednesday fittingly enough, the Cricket Club formed a football team (The Wednesday Football Club) to keep the players from having to stay home with their families during the winter months. Eventually the Cricket Club separated from the Football Club and went out of existence around 1925.

In 1929 the football team officially became Sheffield Wednesday.

The team is nicknamed "the Owls" after a mascot owl given to the team to celebrate a move to the "Owlerton" area of Sheffield in 1900. In case you are wondering Wednesday is the only team in English football with a day of the week in its name. Wednesday is not just a pretty name as the team has won the FA Cup and its league championship multiple times. So if you wait until Wednesday to see "Wednesday" play in a Wednesday match you might be out of luck.

Answer: His team was demoted to a lower division

Perhaps no concept in European football causes Americans to stare in disbelief more than the process of "relegation" and "promotion". Essentially a team is not guaranteed a spot in a professional league from year to year. The lowest performing teams are demoted or "relegated" to a lower division and replaced by the top performing teams in the lower division.

In modern professional English football there are five divisions and a team may fall by relegation several divisions during a poor stretch.

In addition to the loss of prestige, lower division status usually means less attendance and revenue for the club making the retention of players and consequently future promotion more difficult. To imagine the context in American terms the only sport that COULD compare is baseball, where there is a systematic series of graded "minor" but professional leagues. Can you even imagine the New York Yankees moving to Triple A after a bad year and being replaced in the American League by the Toledo Mud Hens... No I couldn't either and I hate the Yankees.

In case you were wondering English football teams have gone bankrupt and while this carries a heavy penalty it is not an automatic relegation for the club. Losing the right to sell alcohol at the stadium is not grounds for relegation but is grounds for a riot. Finally, based on the succes of the "best football team in the world" - Manchester United- all teams should be so lucky as to get American owners.

Answer: An annual tournament played between English teams (and some Welsh teams)

Unlike American sports, English (across the world really) football is not limited to just the professional league season. During any one year an English football team may play a league season and several tournaments whose play extends over many months.

The oldest and most prestigious of these tournaments is the Football Association Challenge Cup, or simply the FA Cup. The tournament is a knockout competition first held in 1871-72 making it the oldest association football competition in the world. Entry is open to all teams who compete in England and Wales; professional leagues, semi-professional or fully amateur.

The teams play in a single elimination year long event where a top level professional club might play an amateur village team. The tournament has become known for the possibility for "minnows" from the lower divisions becoming "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from the tournament (and even theoretically winning the Cup). Truthfully lower division teams rarely progress beyond the early stages, but it does happen.

The FA Cup final is the closest English football comes to resembling American football's Super Bowl, as the finals of both are played on neutral ground -- London's Wembley Stadium hosts the FA Cup Final every May and draws significant world-wide interest.

Answer: An international match which is not a World Cup or Euro qualifier

The term "friendly" signifies an international match which is not a World Cup qulaifier or Euro qualifier (an "exhibition" or practice match between countries). When national teams play friendlies they're usually in preparation for the qualifying stages of the World Cup or other tournaments. National teams in Europe and many other areas with professional leagues generally have much less time together in which to prepare. "Friendlies" at the international level often take place mid-season, during a club's league season.

This can lead to disagreement between national associations and clubs as to the availability of players, who could become injured or fatigued in a friendly. Friendlies give team managers the opportunity to experiment with team selection and tactics before the tournament proper, and also allow them to assess the abilities of players they may potentially select for the tournament squad. Unfortunately not all friendlies are "friendly". Political turmoil at a match location or enmity between teams has often caused violence to threaten or mar these matches. Examples of violence at football friendlies include deaths and/or injuries in the 2006 Kuwait v Lebanon and a 2010 match between Panama and Venezuela.

Answer: An annual tournament of top teams from the European professional leagues

Ask any European where the world's top football players play and you will get a sneer, then a dismissive laugh, before they uniformally say "for European professional teams, you foolish American". Thus it stands to reason that if you had a tournament of the winners of the respective European leagues in each country, the winner of that match would be the best football club in Europe and should be crowned "Champion".

The Union of European Football Associations or UEFA has held the Champions League continental club football competition since 1955 (it was named the European Champions Cup prior to 1992). Winning the Champions League is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football.

The tournament consists of several stages and combines knockout qualifying rounds, a round robin, and then play-off rounds (home and away) through to the final. The tournament lasts about nine months and culminates with the final match in May.

The final is played at a neutral venue.

Answer: Wags stands for "Wives and Girlfriends"

WAG is an acronym used originally by the British tabloid media for the "Wives And Girlfriends" of football players. One wife or girlfriend is a WAG, while the plural refers to the group as a whole. WAGS is a slightly derogatory term for the invariably attractive models, actresses and other woman that football players attract.

When first coined the intent was to suggest that the presence of their WAGS and the media circus surrounding the woman was a distraction to the English team and accounted for poor showings in international events.

The first reported use was in a 2002 article in "The Telegraph", using during England's World Cup 2002 training camp. However, the term moved into wider use by the press during the 2006 World Cup where England performed poorly.

As the term gained traction the wives and girlfriends of other sport stars also became known as WAGs. With the growing popularity of advent of women in sports there has been an attempt to spread the acronym HAB (Husbands and Boyfriends) but the name has not gained much coverage.

Answer: Sunderland

The Stadium of Light is a football stadium in Sunderland, northern England and home to the Sunderland A.F.C. football team. With space for around 50,000 spectators the Stadium of Light is one of the largest of any English football stadiums. The name "Stadium of Light" is a tribute to the mining industry, from which much of Sunderland's wealth was based.

As such, a miner's "Davy lamp" monument stands at the entrance to the stadium. Other famous English football fields include Old Tradford, home to Manchester United, The Emirates (named for Emirates Air that helped fund the stadium) in London where Arsenal plays. My personal favorite is the home of Lewes F.C. a small semi-professional team that has played in a stadium called "The Dripping Pan" since 1885.

Answer: a major penalty resulting in an ejection from the game

The "red card" is literally pulled out and waived by a referee to signify that a player has been ejected from the game or "sent off". A player who has been sent off is required to leave the field of play immediately and must take no further part in the game. Of course falling down holding your head and screaming like a small child are also required to show the player's extreme displeasure.

The player who has been sent off cannot be replaced during the game; his or her team must continue the game with one less player or be a "man down". If a goalkeeper receives a red card, one of his teammates must be substituted for another goalkeeper. Several infractions can earn a player the red card including committing a violent foul, assaulting the referee, spitting at anyone or another player or using offensive, insulting or abusive language and gestures. "Red" cards are distinguished from "Yellow" cards that are waived for more minor offenses. Two yellows in the same game will have the referee bring out a red, and an automatic sending-off. Because the penalty requires the offending team to play with 10 men against their opponents eleven, the issuance of a red card is generally significant to the outcome of the match (although 10 players can and have defeated a full complement of 11 players).

Answer: The governing body for world football

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association is the international governing body of association football. Its membership comprises over 200 national associations that oversee football in their respective countries. In the USA the United States Soccer Federation is the national association and FIFA member. FIFA's headquarters are in Zürich, Switzerland. FIFA is responsible for the organization of football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup. FIFA was founded in Paris on 21st May 1904 and the French name and acronym persist.

While FIFA promotes and supports football across the globe, setting rules, providing a unified structure to tournaments and disciplining national teams and associations the most important aspect of the organization is the selection of World Cup sites and the sale of tickets to World Cup events. Like the International Olympic Committee, FIFA officials at all levels have been implicated in alleged bribery and pay off schemes.

The billions of dollars in advertising and tourism money from FIFA sponsored events is a powerful lure for corruption.

Despite a number of high-profile scandals FIFA remains firmly entrenched as the steward of football.