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In this short football-language post we explain the expression ‘feeder club‘ and how it is used in football. You can also read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Hello
DF: Hello again everyone and welcome to Languagecaster.com – the football-language podcast for learners and teachers of English. I’m Damian and I’m based in London and I am one half of the Languagecaster team – the other member is of course Damon who is in Tokyo, Japan. I hope you are all well and enjoying the football. Now, in this short football-language podcast we are going to look at the phrase ‘feeder club‘ which is used in football to describe a team that supplies players to another team – mainly, though not always, through transfers. Now, don’t forget that you can access all of our other football-language podcasts – we have hundreds of them stretching back to October 2006 – by coming along to our site here at Languagecaster.com.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in French).
Feeder Club
OK, the football phrase that we are looking at today is ‘feeder club‘ and this is used to mainly describe one club that helps another more powerful club either by providing players for that bigger club or by allowing the bigger club to send young players to gain experience. So, a feeder club will ‘feed’ or supply players to another more powerful club by selling on some of their more talented players which can then earn the smaller club some money and sometimes this can work almost like an exclusive agreement between them. Now, the bigger club can also send the feeder club some of their younger players and this allows these players to gain experience from playing senior football which they may not be able to do at their parent club. Now, parent club is another way of describing the club that owns the registration of the player although usually the phrase is used more frequently when teams loan a player to another club.
A well-known example of a feeder club to a Premier League side was Dutch team Vitesse Arnhem who worked very closely with Chelsea since 2010 with 29 players moving from the London side to Vitesse. Current England (and) Chelsea attacking midfielder Mason Mount was one of these although not all of the players came back into the Chelsea first-team squad; either being sold or moving down to a lower -league side. Some fans didn’t like this arrangement between the two clubs and called the Dutch side ‘Chelsea B’ – a B team of course refers to players who are not yet part of the first team squad.
Sometimes when a bigger club regularly buys players from the same smaller team we might hear the term ‘feeder club‘ being used. So for example, for many years Liverpool seemed to buy many of their players from Southampton – the Saints became a feeder club to the Reds (Liverpool). Most fans do not want to become a feeder club as it suggests that the club lacks ambition but fans are also realists and know that a good player will always move on to a bigger and more successful club. Recently, some of the best Tottenham players were transferred to Real Madrid (Woodgate, Modric and Bale) which meant that some of our supporters joked that we had become Madrid’s feeder club.
- Example: Why Portimonense supporters hope to become Chelsea’s feeder club in Todd Boehly’s proposed multi-club structure (Sky Sports.com Nov 2022)
- Example: Has Vitesse Arnhem lost its identity by becoming Chelsea’s feeder club? (BBC.co.uk, Aug 2015)
- Example: Chelsea have sent a whopping 29 players to their feeder club Vitesse Arnhem (The Star, 21 January 2021)
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Czech).
Related Vocabulary/Glossary
Now, on our site here at Languagecaster, we have a huge football-language glossary and so here are a couple of more phrases linked to this topic ofA ‘feeder club‘ that you can find in this glossary.
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If you have any questions or comments then drop us an email at admin@languagecaster.com and you can also look out for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We also have a football-language forum where you can ask and answer any questions you have on the language of football. Recently we have had some questions on the word ‘to clear‘ and also the phrase ‘rocket of a finish‘.
Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (Greek football fan).
Goodbye
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster and that message was from a Greek football fan. Don’t forget there’s a transcript for this short podcast and there’s lots of vocabulary support – we explain lots of the meanings of these words in the transcript, which you can access by coming along to our site. OK, that’s it for this short explanation of the term ‘feeder club‘ which of course means that a team sells on many of its players to a bigger, wealthier club. I am hoping that Tottenham don’t become a feeder club for other bigger clubs in the future!
Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you again soon to explain and discuss some more football language; but until then bye bye!