Rooney's on the edge of the 16.4592 metre box ...

April 28, 2007 7:06 AM

FootballFilter: What do they call the 18-yard box in France?

On a UK football pitch (soccer to USians), we talk about the 18-yard box and the 6-yard box. What do they call these in countries that have a metric system and use only metres, not yards?

posted by essexjan to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

Well, as far as the metric culture goes, I'm Australian, we use entirely metric, and we call it the 18 yard box (and the 6 yard box). The technical term for it in french is 'surface de reparation' or penalty area*, and from a quick browse of the french wikipedia entry on 'football words', it seems like they call it the 'surface' for general discussion.

*We often refer to it as the penalty area as well, I don't know if that's common for you or us avoiding the imperial terminology.
posted by jacalata at 7:37 AM on April 28, 2007

If you call it an "18 yard box" or a "6 yard box" in your answers to the written exam to become a referee, you lose marks. Officially, they are the penalty area and the goal area.

They're 16.5m and 5.5m respectively, so, as jacalata says, I would imagine the French call them something like goal/penalty area rather than their metric sizes, which don't exactly roll off the tongue.
posted by caek at 7:50 AM on April 28, 2007

Australian usage is penalty box, goal box/area.
posted by zamboni at 7:52 AM on April 28, 2007

From Lois de Jeu (Laws of the Game). Law 1 states:

A chaque extrémité du terrain, est délimitée une surface de but (i.e. goal area) répondantaux spécifications suivantes : Deux lignes sont tracées perpendiculairement à la ligne de but, à 5,50 m de l’intérieur de chaque montant du but. Ces deux lignes avancent sur le terrain de jeu sur une distance de 5,50 m et sont réunies par une ligne tracée parallèlement à la ligne de but.L’espace délimité par ces lignes et la ligne de but se nomme surface de but.


A chaque extrémité du terrain est délimitée une surface de réparation (i.e. penalty area) répondant aux spécifications suivantes : Deux lignes sont tracées perpendiculairement à la ligne de but, à 16,50 m de l’intérieur de chaque montant du but. Ces deux lignes avancent sur le terrain de jeu sur une distance de 16,50 m et sont réunies par une ligne tracée parallèlement à la ligne de but.

The same Law in English, for comparison.
posted by caek at 7:56 AM on April 28, 2007

It's called "la surface de réparation". it's also sometimes referred as "dans les 16 metres", literally "inside the 16 meters".
posted by McSly at 9:19 AM on April 28, 2007

Here in Germany these areas are called "Strafraum" (= penalty area) and "Torraum" (= goal area), but "16 Meter-Raum" or "5 Meter-Raum" are also used very often.
posted by cwittmann at 9:37 AM on April 28, 2007

16-metergebied in dutch as well.
posted by Skyanth at 9:46 AM on April 28, 2007

They do use some imperial measurements references in France, actually. I've not heard of yards being used, but 'livres' is sometimes used instead of 'lbs', and a livre is made up to 16 onces ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 10:35 AM on April 28, 2007

seconding McSly (and my mother tongue is french)
posted by Baud at 11:02 AM on April 28, 2007

I´m late to the party but here's my datapoint for Mexico: "Area Grande"(Big Area) and "Area Chica"(Small Area).

Also, it's not commonly used, but some TV announcers use phrases like "el area de los dieciseis cincuenta" (The sixteen fifty area) to show off.
posted by fjom at 10:58 AM on April 30, 2007