Tautology in Football

Have you ever heard tautology? If ever I will say “good” but that is not problem if I tell and describe what a tautology is for people who they don’t know about it.

Tautology that I know and take from many sources is something belongs to linguistics. If I tell about it you would say that relates with languages. Yes, you are true. But Tautology itself is a phrase of words or sentences that often has a repetition although one of word in this phrase is clear to give a meaning. So, it always causes a double meaning.

Ok, for the example I give a simple. Many of you should know about Mississippi River. Well, in English there is no a problem if we look from syntactic view but if we try to know a meaning from this word step by step we could find a problem then. Mississippi word comes from an Indian languages and it means “Big River”. So, you can guess it what next. If we translate into English the words comes into “Big River River”. It heard strange but many of us have received it for a long time ago.

In football there is a tautology too and it happens in football club of course. And if I look for this tautology always happens in Indonesian clubs. Ok, I give direct a simple example. Now you have to look this word. Persija. Maybe many of you are confused with this but this is an Indonesian word and name of Indonesian football club. Persija is abbreviation of Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta of we translate into English is Association football union of Jakarta. So, you know now that Persija is football club that comes from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

And now what should I give to you? Like I said there is a tautology in this club. In media name of Persija for many journalist is not enough to know where the club comes from and then they increase a name of club basic after club’s name. And the result is Persija Jakarta. If we try to know step by step the word will be Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jakarta Jakarta.

Not only Persija other clubs in Indonesia has it too. Persib (Bandung), Persipura (Jayapura), Persela (Lamongan), Persebaya (Surabaya) are other examples of many Indonesian that have a tautology. In Indonesia only a few clubs deny it. Sriwijaya FC (Palembang), Arema FC (Malang), Semen Padang and many clubs in Indonesian Premier League are for the examples. Persib, Persipura, Persija and Persela are clubs that compete in Indonesian Super League.

Why tautology always happens in Indonesian football club? The simple answer of this question is many clubs in this country are always displayed in abbreviation form and maybe it relates with Indonesia-ion in many fields when Soekarno, the Indonesian famous leader had prohibited something that had a west (Europe and America) culture in 1950-60’s era.

Out of Indonesia the Netherland, former country that had ever occupied Indonesia for 350 years, maybe only that has a tautology in its football club. For the examples are AZ Alkmaar, VVV Venlo, and NEC Nijmegen. AZ is an abbreviation of Alkmaar Zandstreek, VVV Venlose Voetbal Vereninging, and NEC Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie. Well, you can guess that yourself!