Has a footballer’s name ever been deemed too offensive to broadcast?

“Have any players or team names ever been refused to be broadcast in another country as it would translate to an obscenity or offensive term?” writes Andy Brook. “If so, how did they get around it?”

We haven’t found examples of hardline bans on names being broadcast, but commentators have certainly chosen to be creative with their pronunciations of particular names on occasion. Mike McCarthy kicks things off with a familiar foe. “For much of his career, Stefan Kuntz wasn’t a problem for TV stations in the UK because he played mostly in the Bundesliga at a time (the 80s and 90s) when those matches weren’t shown on British TV. However, when he was selected for Germany’s Euro 96 squad, those matches were very much being shown in the UK. I seem to recall commentators plumped for referring to him as Stefan Kunz – strategically leaving out the ‘T’.”

Liam James Burton has an example of a surname from Serie A that, while not an obscenity, was deemed too upsetting for UK viewers at a time of mourning. “As noted by former member of the Guardian parish James Richardson, when Princess Diana died, commentators on Serie A games that weekend were pressed to refer to Sampdoria’s Aimo Stefano Diana simply as ‘Aimo’ to protect our ears from hurt.” Jim Hearson also flags up the awkwardness of Arsenal’s Sega deal when they played in Italy.

Rob Lewis highlights a problematic Welsh name in Istanbul. “John Toshack, when managing Beşiktaş, found himself the source of amusement as ‘taşak’ – which sounds suspiciously like his name – means testicle.” And Alan Gomes finishes off with a bit of profanity-swerving in Portugal. “Broadcasters here have some trouble with Austria’s current manager, Franco Foda, whose surname is Portuguese for ‘fuck’. Throughout decades of Foda’s career, Portuguese broadcasters have contorted his name into all sorts of unnatural positions – Foo-da, Fo-day, etc – to avoid offending. In the recent Euros, the announcer gave up and conceded: ‘We’ll just call him Franco, OK?’”

Managers of the month sacked very soon after (2)

It seems Watford’s trigger-happy owners have sent a manager packing after winning a monthly award even quicker than Chelsea did …

“Vladimir Ivic was awarded Championship manager of the month for November on 11 December 2020,” writes Ross White. “On 19 December, just eight days later, he was sacked after a diabolical performance at Huddersfield.

“For the record, the fans were supportive of the decision (as were, according to Troy Deeney’s book anyway, at least some of the players), and his replacement, Xisco Muñoz, then took the club to promotion. Of course, it would only be nine months until there was mass hysteria at his (again justified) dismissal. But that’s for another opinion piece.”

Short managerial handovers

The question referenced “elite-level” but that proviso is a tricky one to determine so the short of it is … we’ll broaden this one out. Our own Jonathan Wilson offers: “Dennis Wise 5ft 6in to Paul Sturrock 5ft 8in at Swindon (skipping caretakers) with Willie Carson 5ft as chairman.”

“Kenny Dalglish (5ft 7in) to Brendan Rodgers (claims to be 5ft 7in but I have my doubts) must be up there,” offers Dara O’Reilly.

But Marcos Garcia might just have a winner with a combined height of 10ft 9in: “How about in May 2013 ,when Brian Flynn (5ft 3in) handed over to Paul Dickov (5ft 6in) at Doncaster Rovers?”

Knowledge archive

“Does anyone remember a children’s television series called Striker?” mused Mike Seymour in October 2007. “The star was called Kevin someone and it was about a local boys’ footie team. I also think there was a chubby, useless one who nobody picked called Soggy and a lanky American/Canadian goalie. Any ideas?”

One or two, Mike. The show ran for three series on the BBC from 1975 and was written by actor Kenneth Cope, famous as the dead one in Randall And Hopkirk Deceased. As William Hogg remembers, Striker starred young Kevin Moreton as Ben Dyker, the star forward of the Brenton youth team. His popularity was ensured by both goalscoring prowess and an ability to make chip butties, but poor Ben’s life wasn’t an easy one. He lived in a caravan with his limping dad (played by future Coronation Street actor Geoffrey Hinsliff – AKA Don Brennan) who insisted his son wasn’t to play football. But, for Ben, nothing could beat pulling on Brenton’s blue strip – complete with a red and white sash – and guiding his team to the local cup final.

But days before Ben could grab cup glory, his dad discovered his antics and banned him from playing. The reason? Dad Dyker had once been an ace footballer nicknamed Striker Dyker whose career was cruelly cut short by a horrific injury – hence the limp – and he didn’t want his kid to follow in his footsteps. After much cajoling, of course Ben is allowed to play in the final where, as Glynn Marshall recalled: “I would be amazed if our hero didn’t bang in a last-minute winner.” The keeper was indeed an American and Ben’s mate’s full name was Soggy Sollis (played by Simon Manley).

Can you help?

“Reading academy graduate Jahmari Clarke scored his first two senior goals in an away win over Birmingham over the weekend – and upon watching his post-match interview I noticed a completely irrelevant detail – he has braces. This got me thinking: is he the first player to ever score a brace while wearing braces?” – Calum Pettitt.

“When Angelo Ogbonna left the first half of West Ham v Liverpool, the introduction of Craig Dawson gave the field of play the Son of John, Son of Hender, Son of Robert, Son of Daw, and Son of, er, Alis. Has there been a top-flight game with more ‘Sons’?” wonders Will Jaremko-Wright.

“Max Johnston, son of Queen of the South manager Allan Johnson, scored for the side against Raith Rovers. What other sons have scored for their dad’s teams?” ponders Craig Wilson.

“In the current 2.Bundesliga table, the top 10 sides are all separated by a single point. Are there other examples of similar patterns in completed league tables?” asks Niall McVeigh.

“With the FA Cup tie between Yate Town and Yeovil Town, I was wondering if there has ever been a more extreme fixture on the alphabetical order between two sides,” writes Brian Cowell. “PS: shout out to my old man who played professionally for Yeovil in the 60s!”

“Has there ever been an instance of two teams meeting in the English third tier, with the winners going on to suffer successive relegations and the losers going on to achieve successive promotions so that, two seasons later, the winners were in non-league and the losers in the top flight?” asks Jake Lennon. “If not, what’s the closest we’ve had? Or has the equivalent happened overseas?”

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