On the occasion of the second edition of “Italian Sport Day Worldwide”
the Italian Cultural Institute in Haifa
is pleased to invite you to the first talk in the series:
The evolution of the Italian football language
FROM ENGLISH FOOTBALL TO ITALIAN CALCIO: ORIGINS AND FASCIST ITALIANIZATION
Presents Lev Kats, literary translator and interpreter
Tuesday, 11 November 2025, @ 18:00
ONLINE | Webex & YouTube
Free event, in Italian.
To receive the Webex link, please fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.
At the end of the nineteenth century, British sailors and merchants brought football to Italy, together with an English-based vocabulary — football, goal, corner, penalty — promptly adopted by the first clubs (Genoa Cricket and Football Club, 1893; International Torino). With the advent of Fascism in the 1920s, the regime’s language policy imposed a systematic Italianization: football became calcio, goal rete, corner calcio d’angolo, and penalty calcio di rigore. The lecture retraces this early phase and the use of sport in Fascist propaganda, following the shift from an imported lexicon to a “purified” one whose fortunes would change over time in the evolving language of the game.
- Participation is FREE. Event held in ITALIAN, online only.
- To receive the Webex link, please fill out the the REGISTRATION FORM.
Alternatively, you may follow the live event on:
The series | The language of football in Italy is not merely insider jargon for professionals and fans: it is a mirror reflecting the country’s history, its social dynamics, the interplay between popular and academic culture, Italy’s image abroad, and its linguistic and cultural exchanges with other nations. This lecture series is therefore aimed not only at supporters, but at anyone wishing to delve into Italian cultural history from the late 1800s to the present.
Free online event, in Italian.
Tuesday, 11 November 2025, @ 18:00
ONLINE | Webex & YouTube
Cover image: Carlo Carrà, Synthesis of a Football Match, 1934