Bugbear: English football commentators using nouns in place of adjectives

[SwissTony]

Good people, can you explain a strange (to me) grammatical construction? Over the last couple of years, English football commentators have been using the noun instead of the adjective when referring to the nationality of players. For example, it's "Italy striker" and "Spain defender" and even "Germany throw-in". It used to be "Italian striker" and "Spanish defender" and "German throw-in". Why and when did this change? For some countries, this isn't a problem because there is no corresponding adjective. I doubt anyone would object to "New Zealand goalkeeper". There could be be others.

It's not the case in cricket. Aggers and Blowers still talk about "Indian batsmen" and "Pakistani bowlers" and "Australian fielders".

So, why the difference?

Thanks.

Back to Spain-Italy.

[non sociopath skin]

1. Do commentators from other countries do this or is an England thing?

The Skin

[SwissTony]

2. Seems to be only the English.

Certainly Dutch and German commentators use adjectives rather than nouns.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. non sociopathic skin and SwitzerlandTony use nouns as adjectives differently!

Who would've guessed it?

[non sociopath skin]

7. Intentionally so, on my part.

But Tony didn't bite ...



The Skin

[Matilda]

5. In Australia, we hear references to "batters" in cricket broadcasts.

They seem to be getting confused with baseball. Pisses me off.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I'm not really into football

but isn't it just the same as only referring to our clubs by name in the same manner i.e. Liverpool striker, Chelsea defender etc.

Maybe its simplicity for international tv coverage.

[SwissTony]

8. Yeah, but being a "Liverpool striker"

is not the same as being a "Liverpudlian striker". And what about "Everton strikers"? Are they also "Liverpudlian".

Yes, I take your point that "Italian" doesn't actually mean the individual is actually Italian. But actual Italian Strikers are still being referred to as "Italy strikers". Players can change clubs every year. They basically can't change their nationality.

My point is that it has changed: it used to be "Italian striker" now it's "Italy Striker". Why?

[dipsydoodle]

6. Rules concerning exactly which players were elligible to play for national teams

changed about 4 years ago. That's according to my daughter who, as opposed to me, does have an interest in the game.

Prior to that a foreign national players needed at least a specified family connection to play for a country other than their own. The rules were changed to allow foreign players who'd played in the league clubs of another country for a specified minimum number of years number to be eligible.

As such it no longer follows that "Italy striker" is in fact Italian. My daughter describes the change from adjective to noun to cover this as a form of political correctness. She also mentioned as an aside that NO players can play for more than one international team.

Make of that what you will. Might be revised a bit later.

Back to Jose Arrogantio :

[oldironside]

9. Back in the day...

... Frerenc Puskas played for both Hungary and Spain, mainly because if he'd gone back to Hungary they would have done bad things to him.

Still, the current situation is ridiculous. Players should be able to play for either the country of their birth, or of their parents' birth (Yes, Ryan, you could still have been a Welshman). It's just another example of the powers that be fucking up the game. Oh, and I'd ban foreign ownership of clubs and reintroduce the three foreigners rule. Let's see how Citeh and United get on with that.