Football Glossary - A Dictionary of Football Terms (A Letter)

Administration

Often found in English-language articles. It is a situation where a club fails to fulfill its financial obligations and then, hands over a mandate to a third party called an administrator.

Advantage

A situation in the game where there is a foul on a player from a team, but the referee does not blow the whistle of a foul because the team whose player is violated has a more favorable situation than if the referee stopped the game.

Aerial duels

a header in a direct contest with an opponent

Against Modern Football

The campaign of anti-commercialization (excessive) of football by grassroots supporters.

Against the run of play

A term in English to describe a situation in which a team that is as long as the game is dominated by its opponent, it can score goals, steal points, or even win.

Aggregate

Total score of home and away games.

Academy

a place where a club trains young players in the hope that, later on, the players can either strengthen the senior team or be sold as a valuable commodity. Academy is different from football school. The academy usually contains highly recruited players, while football school is usually a selling product of a club where participants pay a fee as one of the club's income sources.

Antifa

or Anti-Fascism. A left-wing ideology espoused by some hard-line supporters in Europe, in warding off Neo-Nazism that sprang up in some other groups.

Anti-football

a pejorative term for defensive football.

Apertura and Clausura

a competition system in many South American countries, where a season of competition is divided into two, namely the opening (Apertura) and the closing (Clausura). Both competitions have their respective champions. If applied in Italian Serie A, for example, then the club who became winter champion (Campione de Inverno) will get the title of champion.

Assist

action or pass that culminates into a goal. In certain situations, such as free-kicks or penalties, players who are violated, sometimes counted as an assist.

Attacante

The attacker, in Italian. Furthermore, Attacante is divided into two, namely Prima Punta and Seconda Punta. Prima Punta is a classic executor attacker who became the team's main goalscorer. The cool term for the Prime Punta is Cannoniere or bomber, in English (eg Paolo Rossi, Christian Vieri, and Luca Toni). Seconda Punta or second striker is a front player whose main task is to create opportunities for the prima punta (eg Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Baggio, and Antonio Cassano).

Attacking Third

Often also referred as the final third. It is the area of ​​the last third of the game where the attack is finalized.

Away Goals Rule

A rule that states if the aggregate results of a match end in a draw, then the team that scores more at away is the one who declared as the winner.