World Cup Referees learned how to curse in 17 languages

June 2010

OK, so England didn’t fare well in the 2010 World Cup. But it turns out that the English language wasn’t too high on the agenda either...

At least 17 languages were spoken by the 32 teams at the 2010 World Cup. In preparation for the tournament, FIFA referees had the task of learning curses in 17 tongues, so they would know when to red card a player for the use of offensive language.

 So don’t get on the wrong side of a ref, you may not know what he’s saying to you!