RESEARCH IN IGBO FOOTBALL TERMINOLOGY: THE CASE FOR REVIEW AND EXPANSION.

Abstract

Football is no doubt the most popular sporting activity in the 21^st century. Interest in football is always on the increase, as it has proven to be perhaps the fastest and surest means of promoting universal understanding, culture, peace and unity, besides guaranteeing the physical fitness of its participants and entertaining the watching public. A recreation activity regularly used to entertain both the young and the old during festive periods like, New yam (festival), Christmas, Easter and New year, especially in Igbo land. Football has become a source of huge financial income to members of winning teams in major competitions, as well as professionals in the round leather game, to the benefit of their families and relatives. The Igbo nation of Nigeria famed for her inclination to activities geared towards guaranteeing economic growth is, to a very large extent now focusing on such developmental prospects of football, a trend that has constantly engendered rapid growth of football spectators in the region. Interestingly, indigenous language engineers have over the years been taken to task to create Igbo football terms that can readily serve as authentic equivalents to those of English, French and other languages of wider diffusion, with a view to attaining the vision of regular live commentaries in Igbo during football matches, especially those involving the Igbo, in particular, and Nigerians in general. Unfortunately, a breakthrough is yet to be recorded in the task, due mainly to apparent lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Igbo linguists, as a good number of the terms created have either not stood the test of time or have been wrongly used by the public, coupled with the trend of arbitrary creation of alternative terms by overzealous mass media practitioners. The need to review, expand and standardize Igbo football terminology through fresh research undertakings thus arises.