A-League's Tongue-Tied Fans

Phill Chadwick wants to know what can be done to help the average Aussie fan in the eternal quest to properly annunciate the names belonging to the likes of Bugeja, Xiaobin and Fa'Arodo.

For all their efforts to take the old ethnic rivalries and all the NSL history out of the game, I think that the Football Federation of Australia has overlooked one important aspect. And that is the player's names.

On the weekend a brilliant young striker scored a hat-trick for Central Coast. Now that is something all football supporters should applaud. In fact, even though I am an avowed Adelaide United supporter, I can't help but admire the player who has turned out to be the most prolific scorer in the fledgling league.

The young man's name? Nick Mrdja. Trouble is, I haven't got a clue how to pronounce that surname. Is it "merger", "murder", or what?

What about some of the other players?

Adelaide has Shengqin Qu and Chad Bugeja. Apparently it is "chu", not "cue" and "budgeya".
The Mariners have Mrdja and Boogaard. One has too many vowels, the other not enough!
Melbourne gets off lightly with only Kitzbichler causing any real trouble.
The Jets are almost all fairly easily pronounceable, given a little time to think.
New Zealand's squad contains a van Eijs and a Xiaobin.
Perth Glory's names are pretty easy until you get to Fa'Arodo.
Queensland Roar are OK. I suppose Hyuk-Su Seo at least sounds like it is spelt.
And Sydney's Ufuk Talay, while easy to pronounce, could be a little risky in mixed company.

Radio and TV commentators will probably get official pronunciation guides and, with a bit of practice, will have them all down pat. But my thoughts go out to the supporters. How on earth do Melbourne Victory fans chant "Kitzbichler, Kitzbichler, Kitzbichler", and Sydney's family-friendly crowd will have to stick with "Talay, Talay, Talay, Oi, Oi, Oi!".

This could all have been avoided if the FFA had used the same anti-ethnic policy with players' names as it has with the clubs' names. It is not too late, just insist that every player has a suitably amended name that every English-speaker can pronounce.

This can be as simple as introducing vowels where needed. Mrdja would become Murdeja and so on. Similarly, just removing a few excessive vowels would help. Bogard and Farodo are much easier. Of course, some would have to change completely, for instance Shengquin could be Smith, or Jones. Van Eijs would have to be scrapped altogether and the Knights could poll their members to suggest a suitable replacement name.

But maybe it is too late, especially for the established players, so why not just make all the under-20 squad members take on a playing name, and it would gradually work its way through the ranks. Go on, I challenge Adelaide's latest signing, teenager Tony Hatzis, to insist he is called "Hatsinho", whenever he has his strip on.

Maybe the Mariners' Alex Wilkinson could be just plain "Alex" or "Wilkinho", and of course Melbourne's Kristian Sarkies would have to be "Kristiano".

This is not unprecedented. Just look at the South American habit of players having a playing name that is different to their actual name. The most famous example is, as we all know, Edson Orantes do Nascimento. Who would argue that Pele is not a better label?

This would, of course, help the FFA in their battle for the hearts of the Australian sporting public. While AFL supporters continue to struggle with Yze, Akermanis, Ricciuto, Wojcinski, Prestigiacomo and the rest, A-League crowds can get on with it and not have to worry about mispronouncing any names.

It's just a suggestion ...

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