Learn English Through Football Podcast: (to) Strip (a team) of a Title

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In this week’s football-language podcast, we explore football vocabulary like ‘to strip’ related to punishments after Manchester City were found guilty of 114 charges. We will also look at some predictions from the Nations League, which has just started in Europe this week, including a game between the minnows Gibraltar and Andorra. You can read the transcript below, read some teaching tips on how to use these materials, check out our glossary here, or browse all our previous posts and podcasts.

For Teachers ▸ how to use this episode in class

- Vocabulary: What do students know about the competition ‘the Nations League’? How about the phrase ‘international break‘? Ask them to explain who their team is playing during the international break.
- Vocabulary (2): What kind of language do we hear when talking about international matches? (e.g. ‘friendlies’; ‘caps’; ‘call up’; ‘squad’.)
- Vocabulary (3): We are going to talk about punishments in football – off the field. Prepare the students for this listening by asking them if they know the phrases ‘stripped of the title’; ‘punishment’; ‘docked points’)
- Listening for gist (main idea): Choose the section from Damon where he speaks about Manchester City’s punishment and ask students to take notes. From their notes are they able to tell each other what has happened (build their knowledge).
- Listening for details: Choose a section and maybe create a gap fill around some of the key terms.
- Write a short text or match report about your country during this international break.
- Share with other teachers how you are using these resources (vocabulary, listening, writing, etc.) on our teachers’ forum page

Hello

You’re listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast

DB: Hello everyone. Are you well? My name is Damon. I’m based in Japan, and I am one half of the Learn English through Football team – the other half, Damian, is half a world away in the UK.

We’re in the middle of an international break, where club football stops, at least in Europe, and international competitions are played. While I miss the league matches – they only just started the new season – it’s also interesting to see the national sides and how they get on. How about your country? Did they play this week? I’m from England and they play Spain on Saturday, but Ireland, Damian’s team have already played a game. How did they get on Damian and how are you?

DF: Hi Damon and hello to everyone. Well, Ireland got off to a terrible start in their Nations League campaign as they lost 1-0 away to Kosovo. Honestly, they were outplayed on the night and yet again it looks like a tough campaign ahead for the Irish team.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through football podcast (in Irish)

Today’s Show

DF: Yes, you are listening to the Learn English through football podcast, or as we were known before ‘Languagecaster’ and that message was in Irish. It would be great if you could send on a message (or stinger) that says, ‘you are listening to the Learn English through football podcast’ in any language that you wish! We’ll then add it to our playlist.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster.com (the Learn English through football podcast) (in Dutch)

Football Language:

DB: Thanks for that message, which was in Dutch.

Right, in today’s language focus we are going to look at the language of punishment after Manchester City were found guilty of 114 charges against them by the Premier League. This means they were found to have broken the rules and therefore should be penalised, receive a penalty or punishment.

Now, this story began in 2023 when the Premier League charged Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules – more on the verb ‘to breach’ later. The charges were connected with issues such as financial records and cooperation with investigators. City have denied doing anything wrong, but this week an independent commission found the club guilty on 114 of the 115 charges. The penalties have yet to be decided.

So, let’s take a look at some phrases we can use to talk about this situation, and punishments, in football. The first phrase is ‘to strip a club of its title‘.

(to) Strip (a club) of a title

DF: Yes Damon, the first phrase we will look at in connection with the Manchester City situation is ‘to strip a club of its title’. To strip someone or something of something is to take away something. In football, if a club is stripped of a title, it loses a championship that it had previously won. So, this is a very serious penalty or punishment.

Notice it is common to use this phrase in the passive: that is, to BE stripped of. So the club was stripped of a title vs the Premier League stripped a club of a title.

Some people argue that if a club is found guilty of breaking the rules, they should be stripped of any league titles they won during the period when it broke the rules. Others, however, believe that it is unfair to punish players and fans years after the events took place.

For this situation, you could say: “The club was stripped of its title after breaking the rules” or “Some supporters think Manchester City should be stripped of several Premier League titles.”

It has happened in Europe before, with Juventus being stripped of their 2004-05 Serie A title due to the Calciopoli scandal.

(to) Be Docked Points

DB: What do you think listener? Should Manchester City be stripped of the titles it won during the time it broke the rules? That’s a very big punishment. Another option is to ‘dock the club points‘. To dock a club points is to take away points from them, so they are at a disadvantage in the league.

Recently, in the 2024 Everton were docked 10 points, then reduced to 6, for breaking PSR rules – PSR stands for ‘Profitability and Sustainability Rules’. Nottingham Forest were also found guilty of breaking these rules and docked 4 points. At the time, this put them in the relegation zone, so it was a big talking point.

I think the Premier League is going to dock Manchester City points, but I wonder how many?

(to) Breach the Rules

DB: Finally, let’s talk about a different way to say ‘break the rules’. When talking about the charges against Manchester City, and other teams in the past, you will most likely hear or read in news reports, ‘the team breached the rules‘ or ‘breached the regulations‘.

Here is an example from CNN: Manchester City has been found guilty of all but one of the many charges it faced in regards to breaching Premier League financial rules.

And here is The Manchester Evening Post: Manchester City face a nervous wait for their punishment after being found to have breached the Premier League’s financial rules 114 times.

Now, to break the rules and to breach the rules mean the same thing, but, as mentioned, you are much more likely to use ‘to breach‘ in a formal situation, such as a TV or radio news report or an article in a newspaper.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast (in Arabic)

Predictions Review

Listen to our previous podcast on the language of predictions here.

DB: OK, as regular listeners know, each week we try and predict (or guess) the result of some big games each weekend. You can join in by adding your scores to our predictions forum page. Now, last week we gave our predictions for Millwall vs West Ham, a big London derby and the Madrid derby between Atlético and Real Madrid.

Embed from Getty Images

How did we do? Well we both went for a draw in the Madrid derby but Atlético came out winners in the bad-tempered game 2-1. Bragging rights to the Atlético fans! As for the Millwall v West Ham match, Damian correctly called it a draw. He went for 1-1, while it ended 2-2 at the final whistle. The Hammers, West Ham, overcame a two goal deficit to share the points.

Moving on to this weekend, we will take a look at the Nations League in Europe with one game from Group A, the highest ranked teams, and another from group D the lowest ranked group of nations.

First up is Norway v Portugal. Damian, what do you reckon the score will be in this group 4 match?

Predictions: Norway v Portugal

DF: Well, both of these sides had wins in their opening Nations League game – the Norwegians defeated Denmark 3-2, while the Portuguese beat Wales 1-0. I think the home side Norway are going to win this one, maybe 2-1.

DB: Haaland vs Ronaldo. Those are the two big names, although Ronaldo is now a fading force. I think this one will play out as a draw – maybe 1-1

Predictions: Gibraltar v Andorra

DB: OK, the second match is between two minnows of international football. A minnow is a team that does not have a long and famous history of success, usually plays in the lower leagues, and is a team not expected to beat a ‘big’ team. I looked up the head to head between these teams and Gibraltar have won 2 and drawn 1. Andorra also lost their opener against Malta, so I am going with the form book and a 1-0 win to the home side.

DF: Yes, Gibraltar are going to win this fairly easily. Maybe 3-0.

Can you do better than us with predictions? Give your own on this week’s predictions thread on our forum.

Stinger: You are listening to the Learn English through Football Podcast

Language Review

DF: OK, let’s have a look back at some of the football language we looked at today. We talked about the phrase, ‘stripped of their title’; ‘docked points’ and ‘breach the rules’. Share how you say these phrases in your language or share any other interesting phrases from any language to talk about football. You can do this by dropping us a line on our forum where we have a thread on today’s podcast. We think it’s a great place to share ideas and ask more football-language questions! Also, if you have any comments or questions for us, you can drop us an email at [email protected]. And don’t forget, you can also follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube. And we would love to hear from you.

Contact

DB: We would indeed, and if you come along to our website and open this post, you’ll find a selection of teaching suggestions at the top of the page. These give idea on how these materials can be used in the classroom or for independent study. We also have a dedicated teaching ideas thread on our forum, so, if your a language teacher, feel free to stop by, explore what others are doing, and share your own ideas for using these resources with your learners.

Goodbye

DF: Right, that’s it for this week. On this podcast we talked about the following phrases connected to punishments in football: so, ‘docked points‘; ‘stripped of the title‘ and ‘breach the rules’. I’m sure you’re going to be hearing these phrases over the next couple of days! Don’t forget to let us know how would you say these phrases in another language.

And we’ll see you all again next week with our Weekly Football Phrase, which focuses on a phrase connected with the football in the week. Until then, bye bye.

DB: Ta-ra!

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