[lg policy] Swedish football club bans foreign languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Swedish football club bans foreign languages
Posted on21 March 2010.

The Swedish football club Brommapojkarna (BP) has introduced a
contentious language policy that demands all players at the club
converse only in Swedish, or find they are ineligible for team
selection. Despite some public criticism, the chairperson of BP, Ola
Danhard told The Local that: “this is a non-issue”. Danhard pointed
out that given that almost all of the BP squad is home grown, with the
club’s renowned youth team providing 17 of the first-team’s 23
members, and therefore the language ruling was merely a formality.
Danhard confirmed that a vote by the BP board led to the
implementation of the exclusively-Swedish language usage policy within
the club, which will extend from on the pitch into the changing rooms.
“It is important for the collective that everyone in the team speaks
the same language,” Danhard stated.

“In the changing room if you are going to use a language then it is
much nicer if it is a language that everybody understands,” said
Danhard, adding that most players are from around the Stockholm area.
He also stated that although some team members are from immigrant
families, all are multilingual and can speak Swedish. “Like I said,
this is a non-issue. We should all speak Swedish within the club.”
Brommapojkarna is widely recognised as having the best youth set-up in
Sweden and possibly the largest overall in all of Europe; with some
250 teams turning out each weekend.

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/03/21/swedish-football-club-bans-foreign-languages/
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.
(H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list