Second edition of football dictionary is out now

The second version of a football dictionary compiled by UEFA and marketed by leading dictionary publisher Langenscheidt has been published – and is a must for those interested in, or working with, the specific terminology of the game.

The dictionary was originally published in 2008, and the second edition contains 500 new terms, mostly relating to the game and media. The dictionary is trilingual, in English-German-French, and covers official terms used by UEFA and the world football body FIFA, as well as those favoured by professionals and ordinary fans in everyday football life.

The target group for the dictionary not only includes translators and interpreters, but also media officials, association delegates, coaches, football administrators and supporters themselves. Promoting dialogue between the football family and among ordinary fans is a key objective.

Each term is followed by a definition, and the words or phrases featured are categorised into six chapters. In each chapter they are listed in alphabetical order according to the English entry. To enable readers to look them up quickly, there are three indexes – one per language, in alphabetical order – at the end of the dictionary. Each index comprises all the entries, as well as all the synonyms, with every term followed by the number identifying the term.

UEFA's language experts worked for several years with translation tools and terminology databases, and, in 2005, the idea emerged to launch a project for a dictionary in the three official UEFA languages of English, French and German – given that there are no frontiers in football.

"The dictionary is the result of a terminology project led by UEFA and in cooperation with two establishments for languages and interpreters – the Munich-based Sprachen und Dolmetscher Institut (SDI) and the Geneva-based Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation (ETI)," said the head of UEFA's language services unit, Florian Simmen.

"We were also able to find a partner in Langenscheidt who were interested in publishing the dictionary. They were responsible for the layout, which presented quite a challenge in view of the trilingual nature of the dictionary and the large amount of information needed."

In an international world, a world without borders, like the world of football, efficient communication is essential. Having an exhaustive, reliable football dictionary facilitates multilingual communication in the football world.

This dictionary has been conceived and compiled to meet this need. Its aim is to give a wide audience access to the terminology used not only by UEFA, FIFA and the professionals, but by football fans too.

Click here for details of how to order the dictionary.