Football’s laws dictate that players are not allowed to shout anything that “verbally distracts an opponent during play or at a restart” and leads to an advantage being gained.
Shouting “Mine!” or “Leave it!” isn’t explicitly against the rules, but it is all down to the context.
If two players from the same team were to use them out of their opponents’ earshot, it would be fine. But in a crowded penalty area, it may cause confusion. “It’s an unsporting act that’s impacted on the game and that would fulfil the criteria for a yellow card offence,” a former Premier League referee explains.
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If a player has ghosted into an unmarked position and as a team you don’t necessarily want to draw too much attention to this fact, then using a short, sharp code word can be a cunning alternative. It can be uttered by either the passer or receiver to instruct a third party, often stuck in the middle, to let the ball run.
Although it’s unclear whether code words were explicitly used in this instance, Mason Greenwood’s goal for Manchester United against Burnley last season that originated with a Marcus Rashford pass and went via Bruno Fernandes is a perfect example…
The Athleticasked a host of current and former players and coaches the words that are used instead of “Leave it!” on a football pitch. Their answers highlighted that a footballing enigma machine would not be needed to crack the code.
A few offered the rather unimaginative “Over”. But 70 per cent came up with the same response: either “Sid”, “Jack” or both.
“Those names are everywhere,” remarked one former Premier League striker.
“We use ‘Jack’s’ now,” said a coach at a Championship club.
The Athletic takes a (semi) serious look at the not-so-secret world of footballing code names…
It’s widespread that either “Sid’s” or “Jack’s” is shouted to advise team-mates to leave the ball alone in whatever way they see fit. But what if you’re called Sid or Jack?
“All the teams I played in, it was always ‘Jack’s’,” a relieved Steve Sidwell, who made 200 Premier League appearances for Reading, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Fulham and Stoke from 2006-16, tells The Athletic. “I heard other teams use ‘Sid’s’, but not mine.”
Former West Ham midfielder Jack Collison, now coaching at Atlanta United in MLS, had to live with both. “Yeah, it could cause confusion, to be fair,” he says with a laugh.
Spare a thought for Northampton Town of League Two, who have two Jacks (midfielder Sowerby and forward Connor) plus Sid Nelson, a centre-back. “Those words aren’t used as much here,” confirmed a source on their coaching staff.
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One of the most high-profile footballing Jacks — Mr Wilshere — avoided any confusion during his Arsenal days as his nickname was ‘Wilsh’. More recently, when Wilshere was at Bournemouth, they used both.
With so much use of the same ‘secret’ code words, it opens up football to cases of deliberate deception.
It was at the Vitality Stadium in August 2017 where the most obvious incident occurred.
Watford’s Nordin Amrabat pulled the ball back for Nathaniel Chalobah inside the Bournemouth box but instead of shooting, he let the ball run past him and the home side’s Harry Arter picked it up instead.
This was gamesmanship of the highest order. Close-up images from Sky Sports’ TV coverage even capture Arter uttering the signal that changed Chalobah’s path.
The Watford midfielder threw his hands up in the air and pursued Arter: a clear indication he had been duped by an opponent using the same code word — “Sid’s” — to gain an unfair advantage.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was non-committal afterwards on exactly what happened but when pushed about whether his team (like Watford) may need to change their code word, he said: “Looks like we might have to.”
Watford won the game 2-0 anyway, but it was felt a line had been crossed.
“The biggest outrage is when an opposition player shouts something and takes the ball away. That causes ‘murders’,” jokes former Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers defender Nedum Onuoha. “It’s one of those unwritten rules to not do, as it’s literally cheating.”
Roger East was the referee that day in Bournemouth and it’s known that Premier League assessors paid special attention to the incident and told his fellow officials to remain vigilant, but it’s not easy.
“The referee has to hear it (the deception) and see it and witness the impact on the opponent, so it’s such a rare occurrence,” explains a former official. “The issue of detection is a big problem. Especially with modern referees, because they seem to be more detached from play with all sorts of distractions like earpieces and conversations with their assistants going on.”
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It’s a stretch to expect referees to cross-reference everything players shout against their actual names in the middle of a match, too.
“The bigger the game, the less you hear. Unless I see the guy face to face I have no idea, because it is a cacophony of noise,” says a former Premier League referee.
“I actually feel more intimidated at my local park, where there are six people watching. If they or a player has a go you can hear every word, including when shouting ‘Jack’s’, ‘Sid’s’, ‘Leave it’, ‘Mine’, or whatever, whether they’re trying to use code with a team-mate or stitch up their opponent. It’s quite common at grassroots level.”
So is trying to put an opponent off by shouting anything in their direction in a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop them from scoring.
Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson tried that against Manchester United in the FA Cup last season, when Greenwood was about to pull the trigger. It didn’t work.
Andrew Robertson letting Mason Greenwood know he's there with a tactic straight out of the playground 👀
Didn't work this time…#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/7ImOFGoNYP
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 24, 2021
More recently, William Troost-Ekong inexplicably ducked under a ball instead of heading it away to allow James Maddison to score the opening goal in Leicester’s 4-2 win over Watford last month. It is not known what was said but it brought back memories of the Chalobah and Arter incident detailed above.
“I spoke with him after the game and he definitely heard a ‘Leave it! Leave it!’, and that’s why he put his head down,” a source close to Troost-Ekong explains to The Athletic. “He wouldn’t normally do this, so I’m 100 per cent convinced someone said something. Who it was, I don’t know.”
Code words stretch beyond “Sid’s” and “Jack’s” meaning “leave the ball”.
“We also had ‘Jack’ and ‘Fred’ for other calls,” former Norwich and Leicester winger Darren Eadie tells The Athletic. “‘Jack’ was a flick around the corner and ‘Fred’ was a backheel. It was ungentlemanly conduct and against the rules, but you were allowed to shout a name, even if you don’t have anyone in your team with that name.”
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One Champions League winner said he never went in for code names but became aware of them earlier in his career under the tutelage of England Under-21 manager Peter Taylor in the late 1990s.
“We used to do it with the under-21s but looking at it now, we probably didn’t need to because we were playing with foreign teams and referees,” Taylor, now managing non-League Welling, tells The Athletic. “Most common has always been the ‘Sid’s’, ‘Jack’s and ‘Over’, but it’s not as simple as just leaving the ball; they have to disguise it too. It comes down to the execution in the end.
“There’s another one which I still use now called the ‘Fiver’ ball. I got it off Dave Sexton when he was at Chelsea and he coached the attackers. It’s a reverse run by the striker towards the corner flag rather than towards the goal. If you can do it right and you’ve got clever players, then it works.”
Hand signals are also part of the secret footballing code.
“Signals are very important,” a set-piece expert explains. “Meanings often change from game to game, as otherwise the analysis staff for the opponent might clock that a left hand raised always means the ball is going to the back post, so variation is needed. Most common is right or left hand raised or both, or sometimes bouncing the ball before placing it down. Hands tend to be easier than words over the noise of the crowd.”
Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City wait to take a free kick (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
But there’s deceit involved in this area, too.
“I still get my team to use hand signals,” says Taylor. “But they’ve got nothing to do with the free kick, because I’ve already agreed with them what areas they are going to put it into. I actually say to people that all it’s going to do is confuse the person from your future opponent who will think, Oh, he sticks one hand up for this or for that.
“I give the runners the areas to run into. ‘If the server of the ball underhits it, it’s going there, if he overhits it, it’s going to go there, and if he hits it perfectly it’s going to go there’, so that’s where the signals have no importance of what I want them to do. So you’re covering your tracks and if he does hit it well, then that’s great.”
So the next time you’re close enough to the action and you hear some names being shouted out that don’t match those on the teamsheet, you’ll know footballers are still up to their old tricks.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)
