It's Wrong!

Football is a global sport. That's why I love it so much. But that international appeal is also the reason for many misunderstandings, leading to football teams being incorrectly called outside from their native land. And this also can drive the fans of those teams crazy.

Below are some examples of those misundestandings. Mistakes are in bold follows by the corrections and the explanation.

Sporting Lisbon

This drives peoples in Portugal crazy. Lisbon is the base of the team and the actual name is Sporting Clube de Portugal. Either Sporting or Sporting CP just work.

Chelsea London

This seems to be mostly German mistake because the base of the team is in London. Great example here, where they do it to Arsenal also. It's harmless of course but it looks and sounds silly. It also feels like too much information. If you are going to say Chelsea London, why not by all the way called them "Chelsea London England Europe Earth"?

Inter Milan

Their full name is Football Club Internazionale Milano but the common name is Internazionale or Inter. If you want an Inter fan to think you are moron, go and call their team "Inter Milan". It is a little more accurate than the Sporting Lisbon mistake because at least Milano is in the full team name but they will still look at you with pity.Save yourself two syllabe and stick with just "Inter".

AC Milan

Technically it is correct. The full name is Associazione Calcio Milan or AC Milan for short.But think of it this way. Do you always say the full Manchester United F.C? Do you call Alex Ferguson's team "FC" for short? Of course not. So better call this team Milan.

Real Madrid

Everyone spells it correctly as Real Madrid.but not everyone says it correctly. In fact, too many people often forget that "Real" is Spanish for "royal" and should be pronounced as "Reh-al".

Barca

This is the last one. Obviously the full name is Futbol Club Barcelona.And the familiar abbreviation is Barca. But that oftengets lazily typed as "Barca". Which apparently means "boat"is Catalan.

Happy reading buddies!