Common Versus Official Usage
See also: Lists of nicknames in association footballIt is not uncommon for a club to be known in common usage by a name other than its official name, or the name on the badge.
Official names may reflect the instances where two different clubs with exactly (or more or less) the same name, prompting one or both to be suffixed with a geographical distinction. Famous instances of this are PFC CSKA Moscow and CSKA Sofia; Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Dinamo Bucharest, Dynamo Dresden, BFC Dynamo, Houston Dynamo, Dinamo Zagreb and Dinamo Tbilisi; América de Cali (Colombia) and Club América (Mexico).
Other clubs are more usually known by nicknames or contractions of their full names, for instance, Vasco da Gama is usually called simply "Vasco", F.C. Internazionale Milano is contracted to Inter or Inter Milan, Sporting Clube de Portugal is often called Sporting or Sporting Lisbon. Manchester United is often shortened to Man Utd, and Lyon used instead of Olympique Lyonnais.
Some clubs are commonly referred to by their initials, such as QPR, for Queens Park Rangers.
Read more about this topic: Association Football Club Names
Famous quotes containing the words common, official and/or usage:
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“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)