Comments on: Some Team Names Are All Greek to Me

By: escafeld

escafeld — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:15:33 +0000

The Spartak clubs were affiliated to the oldest Soviet Voluntary Sports Society – Spartak – hence their names. This was derived from the German revolutionary Spartacist League which in turn is derived from the name of the slave leader Spartacus. Other Soviet VSS include Lokomotiv & Zenit. Dinamo is the oldest Soviet Sports Society & then there is CSKA the military sports society.

Back to Greek referenced names. There all the clubs called Olimpia: Club Olimpia of Paraguay, Olimpia Elblag of Poland, Club Deportivo Olimpia of Honduras & FC Olimpia Balti of Moldova.

More Greek names: Crewe Alexandra of England, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical of China used to be called Guangzhou Apollo, FC Atlas of Mexico, & FC Helios Kharkiv of Ukraine,

Pegasus A.F.C. of England, now defunct, is an interesting one in that the club was formed to revive Corinthian ideals.

By: Michael McCarthy

Michael McCarthy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:46:30 +0000

I will be traveling to Corinth during this summer for a month and I wanted to know if you knew of a place to play soccer there? I will be excavating at Isthmia and I wanted to make sure I was able to play some soccer/fussball while I was there. Thank you for your help.

By: philbert

philbert — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:51:00 +0000

Just thought of a couple – Olympique Marseilles and Olympique Lyonnais in France

By: philbert

philbert — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:49:48 +0000

Oh, and by way of completeness, virtually every side in the Greek league has a Greek-derived name.

Sorry.

By: philbert

philbert — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:47:51 +0000

“Oops – I see I’m late on this.

But I assumed Eastern European Spartas and Spartaks took their name from Spartacus, and not Sparta.”

I’d always assumed the opposite, but in any case there’s always non-league English side Blyth Spartans – no arguments there

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:31:48 +0000

Oops – I see I’m late on this.

But I assumed Eastern European Spartas and Spartaks took their name from Spartacus, and not Sparta.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:05:12 +0000

Got beaten to Hellas, who take their name very seriously.

Hercules (of Alicante) in Spain, and Heracles Almelo in the Netherlands.

Sparta Praha of the Czech Republic, and arguably all of the Spartaks in the Russian Federation and former Soviet Republics.

By: David

David — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:52:00 +0000

Thanks, Sean. I didn’t think of Hellas Verona!

I’ve changed the name of the Isthmian / Ryman league.

By: seanachie

seanachie — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:31:19 +0000

There is also Hellas Verona, Serie A champions in 1985 and now the second team in the city after rivals Chievo. And the Isthmian League, one of the main amateur/semi-pro leagues in England, known these days as the Ryman League.

By: Jason.Burke,Murphy

Jason.Burke,Murphy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:22:15 +0000

Another reason Ajax is a good name. In the –Iliad– Homer states Ajax made his achievement without any help from the gods. Ajax now pushes on without the billionaire graces of an Abromovitch.

When Europeans looked at our professional sports and their rather quiet crowds, they often don’t know that our college scene resembles their club scene much more closely. Crazy fans born into their loyalty rooting for teams that are often named after greek tropes.