Association Football Terminology - M

M

• Magic sponge: sponge filled with water which has a seemingly miraculously reviving effect on injured players.
• Manager: the individual in charge of the day-to-day running of the team. Duties of the manager usually include overseeing training sessions, designing tactical plays, choosing the team's formation, picking the starting eleven, and making tactical switches and substitutions during games. Some managers also take on backroom administrative responsibilities such as signing players, negotiating player contracts. Sometimes these tasks are also undertaken by a two separate individuals: a Head coach for on-field tasks, and a General manager or Director of Football for off-field administrative duties.
• Man of the match: award, often decided by pundits or sponsors, given to the best player in a game.
• Man on!: warning shout uttered by players (and fans) to a teammate with the ball to alert him of the presence of an opposing player behind him.
• Man-to-man marking: system of marking in which each player is responsible for an opposing player rather than an area of the pitch. Compare with zonal marking.
• Marking: Defensive strategy, aimed at preventing an attacker from receiving the ball from a teammate.
• Match fixing: expression used to describe the situation when a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result motivated by financial incentives paid to players, team officials or referees in violation of the rules of the game.
• Medical: mandatory procedure undertaken by a player prior to signing for a new team which assesses the player's fitness and overall medical health. Usually the procedure includes muscle and ligament/joint examinations, cardiovascular tests to identify potential heart problems, respiratory tests, and neurological tests to identify possible concussions or other such problems.
• Mexican wave: self-organised crowd activity in which spectators stand up, raise their hands in the air, and sit down in sequence, creating a ripple effect that moves around the stadium's stands. Despite having been carried out in stadia for many years previously, it was first brought to world-wide attention during the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, hence its name.
• Mickey Mouse cup: cup, league, or other competition considered of a lower standard, importance, or significance.
• Midfielder: one of the four main positions in football. Midfielders are positioned between the defenders and strikers.
• Minnow: see underdog.
• Multiball system: the use of several balls during a game, intended to reduce the amount of time the ball is not in play. Historically, the same ball was used throughout the entire game, and had to be retrieved every time it went out of play. Under the multiball system, as soon as the ball goes out of play, a new ball is passed to the player by a ball boy, who then retrieves the other ball while the game continues.