In this week’s football language post we look at some of the newspaper headlines that described the departure of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich from the club. We look at four different headlines from The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Star and compare the ways they have used language to tell the story of how the owner left Chelsea. You can see more newspaper headlines here and don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
The Guardian: End of the Roman era
In the Guardian newspaper’s headline, they use the first name of the Chelsea owner, Roman, to describe his departure from the club. They use the phrase ‘End of the Roman era‘ which of course means that his time as the club’s owner is now at an end – the end of an era suggests that someone or something has gone on for quite a long time – Abramovich was owner of Chelsea for 20 years. There is also a sense of history involved with this phrase as the Roman era describes the time when the Romans ruled over much of western Europe nearly two thousand years ago.
The sub-heading gives some more information about the departure and focuses on the future of the club: Chelsea face uncertain future which means that we do not really know what is going to happen with the club because the chairman has sold up – to sell up means to sell a home or a company so that you can move somewhere else which is what he wants to do.
The Star: Moving Out
In the Star newspaper they have used the phrase ‘moving out‘ to describe Abramovich’s departure and this phrase is used when a person changes their home – the tabloid has used an image of a ‘For Sale’ sign in front of the Chelsea stadium.A In the sub-heading the paper has used, ‘Roman reign over as he writes off A£1.5bn debts‘ which is a reference to the fact that the owner had lent Chelsea a huge amount of money over his time at the club but he would not be looking for the money to be paid back. Similar to many newspaper headlines, they have used the present form in the next part of the headline: writes off a debt which means that the person or company that is owed money will not collect the debt and that the debt no longer exists. The word ‘reign‘ has a similar meaning to era in the Guardian headline though probably because of alliteration with Roman they have decided on using this word (Roman reign).
The Telegraph: Billionaire duo prepare bid after Abramovich confirms Chelsea sale
The Telegraph newspaper has decided to focus on what happens after Abramovich’s departure as they mention that two billionaires (a duo means two people) want to buy the club. Again, the headline uses the present form (prepare and confirms which is typical in headline writing.
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