You’re probably familiar with RAS Syndrome, where a word that is part of an acronym is added to it in common speech, for the purpose of clarity. Famous examples include PIN number (Personal Identification Number number) and LCD Display (Liquid-Crystal Display display). There are also deliberately recursive acronyms, for example the technology that underpins part of this site: PHP, which stands for PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor.
There are few areas where this subject is more prevalent than football, in particular when referring to clubs. Almost all clubs are referred to at least sometimes by an acronym or initials, and these broadly fit into two categories:
- Initials for the main part of the club’s name, e.g. WBA or PSG
- Initials that include the FC/SC part of a club’s name, e.g. LFC or HSV
The first type is commonly used in English, and is therefore usually understood. The second, however, is only ever really used informally in the UK, and you wouldn’t hear it in official usage as often as you might in other countries. Equally, when it’s FC, that’s not an issue, as its meaning is widely understood, but when other versions or equivalents, are used, you get confusion, for example:
- HJK are often referred to as HJK Helsinki, when HJK stands for Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi, essentially Helsinki Football Club.
- Polish side LKS are known as LKS Lodz. LKS stands for Lodzki Sportowy Klub, the meaning of which you can probably decipher.
- LASK (Linzer Athletik Sport Klub) are often called LASK Linz. In German, the less tautologous Linzer ASK is used if people want to use more than an acronym.
- VVV, are usually called VVV Venlo, despite it being a safe assumption that one of the Vs stand for Venlo (and it does, Venlose Voetbal Vereinging, or Venlo Football Club).
- Denmark has a number of examples, eg. OB Odense (Odense Boldklub, or Odense Ball Club)
- Cypriot side AEL (Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou, or Athletic Union of Limassol) usually get called AEL Limassol.
- Dutch football is rife with this (MVV Maastricht, NEC Nijmegen), as well as a different example: AZ Alkmaar, when AZ is short for Alkmaar Zaanstreek, a result of a merger.
- Finnish football uses compound abbreviations, such as current Champions League entrants KuPs (Kuopion Palloseura, or Kuopio Ball Society), which inevitably gets rendered as KuPs Kuopio.
Is this usage wrong? Well, yes and no. Technically it is incorrect, and if you really want to show your niche football credentials then I would avoid it. On the other hand, it’s understandable: initials alone can feel cold and unnatural, particularly when referring to teams with which you’re unfamiliar, and a city name rarely feels like enough, because with teams from the continent, it rarely is. To add to the confusion, VVV have adopted the recursive name VVV-Venlo, and probably won’t be the last to do this. Equally, there are counter-examples: AEK Athens (Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinopoulos, or Athletic Union of Constantinople), and CFR Cluj (Caile Ferate Romane, the Romanian Railway Company) are fine. File it under the same category as “Sporting Lisbon” – avoid using it yourself, but consider whether you really need to correct people, a judgment I am of course excellent at making.
