FAIR PLAY
3.1
27
6
Justifying opinions
Work with a partner to discuss these
questions.
1
Do you think football is ‘the beautiful game’? Why?/Why not?
2
Which other sports do you think are beautiful? Why?
3
Miller felt football is about participation and doing your best, not
money. Do you think this is still true today?
VOCABULARY
IDIOMS
7
a
Many idioms are based on sport, and on football in particular.
Complete the idioms with the words in the box.
ball eye field game goal goalposts
1
be on the
5
a whole new ball
2
move the
6
score an own
3
take your
off the ball
7
start the
rolling
4
a level playing
1
Football is the most popular spectator sport
in the world – possibly the only global sport –
and Brazil is arguably the greatest footballing
naƟon in the world, having won the World
Cup more Ɵmes than any other country. Even
people who are not keen on football have heard
of Pelé, oŌen considered the world’s greatest
player. However, how many football fans are
familiar with the name of Charles Miller and his
contribuƟon to what Pelé called ‘the beauƟful
game’?
2
Known as the father of Brazilian football, Charles
WilliamMiller was born on 24 November 1874
in São Paulo to a Scoƫsh father and Brazilian
mother. In 1884, young Charles was sent to
school in England, where he learned to play
both football and cricket. Miller became skilled
in running with the ball, heading and taking free
kicks.
3
In 1894, Miller returned to Brazil with two
footballs and a copy of the rules of football. The
São Paulo AthleƟc Club (SPAC) had been formed
in 1888 by a group of BriƟsh men who played
mainly cricket. Miller persuaded them to take up
football. He was also instrumental in seƫng up
the Liga Paulista, the first football league in Brazil.
Charles Miller
Father of the
beautiful game
7
b
Match the idioms with their meanings.
a
a completely new or different situation
b
able to think or react very quickly
c
start something happening
d
change the rules/limits, making
something more difficult
e
lose concentration
f
do or say something which has the
opposite result to your intention
g
a fair situation
8
Work in groups of three. Pick two or
three idioms from Exercise 7 to talk about
experiences you have had.
I remember a time when someone moved the
goalposts on me. A lecturer gave me an essay
title and I did a lot of work on it. Then two
weeks later he completely changed the title!
Over the first twenty years of the next century, state
championships were formed throughout Brazil and in
1914 the first naƟonal side played against ArgenƟna.
4
Miller was not only a great player, but also an excellent
coach and administrator. In Brazil, he spent a lot of
Ɵme and effort teaching and coaching Brazilians. AŌer
reƟring as a player, he conƟnued to be a referee unƟl
the age of fiŌy.
5
When football became professional in Brazil in
1933, Miller was disappointed and decided to
have no more contact with the game. He felt that
sportspeople should be amateurs – he didn’t
like the introducƟon of money and business into
sport. For Miller, football was a game, and about
parƟcipaƟon and doing your best, not money.
6
Charles Miller’s memory lives on in the skilful individual
game which is Brazilian football. It is also kept alive
in another way. When the São Paulo sports writers
associaƟon brought out a dicƟonary of football
terms in Portuguese, only one word survived from
the vocabulary of the past: the charles or chaleira.
Named aŌer Charles Miller, it is a clever pass with the
heel of the foot. The exciƟng ball skills of all the great
Brazilian players, including Pelé, owe something to the
pioneering spirit of Charles Miller and his passion for
the game of football.
