Over the last few years, it has become common for professional footballers and coaches to spend part of their careers abroad or to work for a multilingual team in their own country. This has resulted in increased need for language support, not only in the top leagues, but also in the lower divisions of major footballing countries. However, there is little research on the language support being provided to these elite migrant athletes and, overall, the football industry does not seem to have a consistent approach to language support, translation and interpreting. The paper reports on a small-scale study carried out in 2018 at Coverciano, the Italian Football Federation’s Coaching Centre. A group of former professional footballers enrolled on the UEFA A coaching course participated in this pilot study which used both questionnaires and short interviews. The aim of the study was to investigate participants’ experience of language support during their own football career, to identify recurring themes and best practices.
Negli ultimi anni, è molto frequente che i calciatori e allenatori professionisti passino una parte della carriera all'estero o in una squadra multilingue nel proprio paese di origine. Di conseguenza, sono aumentate le esigenze di assistenza linguistica, non solo nei campionati di primo piano ma anche nei campionati delle serie inferiori dei paesi di tradizione calcistica. Tuttavia, sono poche le ricerche sull'assistenza linguistica fornita a questi "migranti di élite" e, complessivamente, il settore calcistico non sembra avere un approccio coerente all'assistenza linguistica, alla traduzione e all'interpretazione. Il presente lavoro descrivere un piccolo caso di studio svolto nel 2018 a Coverciano, la sede del Settore Tecnico della FIGC. Un gruppo di ex giocatori iscritti al corso per allenatori UEFA A ha partecipato a questo studio pilota che ha fatto uso sia di questionari che di brevi interviste. L'obiettivo dello studio è stato indagare le esperienze personali degli intervistati relative all'assistenza linguistica in carriera, per individuare temi ricorrenti e buone prassi.
Communicating across languages and cultures in modern football: a case study
Sandrelli A
2020-01-01
Abstract
Over the last few years, it has become common for professional footballers and coaches to spend part of their careers abroad or to work for a multilingual team in their own country. This has resulted in increased need for language support, not only in the top leagues, but also in the lower divisions of major footballing countries. However, there is little research on the language support being provided to these elite migrant athletes and, overall, the football industry does not seem to have a consistent approach to language support, translation and interpreting. The paper reports on a small-scale study carried out in 2018 at Coverciano, the Italian Football Federation’s Coaching Centre. A group of former professional footballers enrolled on the UEFA A coaching course participated in this pilot study which used both questionnaires and short interviews. The aim of the study was to investigate participants’ experience of language support during their own football career, to identify recurring themes and best practices.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
