We’re footie crazy, we’re football mad

They say football is an international language and that theory is likely to be tested to the full following last week’s launch of InterClub a Web-based service linking the world’s top soccer clubs.

The scheme, developed by InterClubNet and realTech, will be used by the movers and shakers of football to check out potential new signings, and negotiate alliances. But how will football’s linguistically challenged cope with the language barrier? Well, that’s the clever part. The company has drafted in translation experts Lernout & Hauspie to develop software which it claims can make sense of even the most bizarre football parlance.

It will certainly be a test. Would you know how to translate “He’s got two good feet”, or “He arrived late doors at back stick” or The boy played a blinder” into the world’s 6,703 languages?