The Language of Football

By: Pohui
Special to Soccer City FC

This story was related to me by a colleague of my who was at a betting outlet not that long ago.

It was a conversation, overheard by this colleague, between two punters who were discussing the odds offered by the pools operators.

It was spoken in Singlish - a colloquialism form of English used by most Singaporeans which local authority been trying to discourage the use of it because it did not follow the rules of grammar (I had tried to re-phrase the sentences in brackets).

Punter A: "This is SPORTING (Lisbon) play against BALESTIER (he's actually refer to Valencia as the word BALESTIER's pronouciation is quite close to Valencia), right? last week right?"

(Is this team, SPORTING, that faced BALESTIER last week?)

Punter B: "Huh? What you talking about, S.League, izzit?"

(Hey, I don't get you but are you referring to the S.League?)

Punter A: "Not lah, SPORTING one, Spanish League, they played against BALESTIER right?"

(No, I referring to SPORTING, they played against BALESTIER in the Spanish League, did they?)

Punter B: "Hello, this is Champions' League we are talking about, where got SPORTING play in the Spanish League?"

(C'mon, this is about Champions League and how could SPORTING, being a Portuguese side, be playing in the Spanish League?)

Punter A: "Oh Ya hor, this is Champions' League hor.."

(Oh, it's the Champions' League we are talking about, sorry for my blunder.)

Punter B: "If you dunno, don't anyhow bet lah!"

(C'mon, do your homework before placing your bet)

Conversations like these are pretty common in the betting outlets in Singapore, where some punters hardly refer to newspapers or other media outlets, other than those betting outlet's monitors that reflect the odds, as their source of punting guide.

Therefore, it's quite common to see punters placing their bets based on their intuition rather using the analytical point of view.

Just an insight on how some Singaporean punters placed their bets.

(P.S: BALESTIER is one of the 12 teams featured in the S.League, known for its youth-based policy)