footballing

1. 1
   adjectivebefore a noun

   Relating to the sport of football, including its players, teams, and the way the game is played.

   The club built its reputation on decades of footballing excellence.

   He came from a family with deep footballing roots in the region.

   Note

   An adjective that stands only before its noun: footballing excellence, footballing roots, a club far below its rivals on the footballing ladder. It does not follow a verb, so a team is never "very footballing", and it takes no more or most. Built from football plus -ing, it looks like a participle. Here it does a classifier's job, sorting the noun into the world of the sport.

2. 2
   verbrare

   Present participle and gerund of football. The verb is rare; playing football is the usual phrase.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is itself rare: to football simply means to play football, and it takes no object. So the form stands on its own (the children were footballing in the street) and never takes an object, as in "footballing a ball". The same spelling serves the adjective of the sport. The verb describes someone doing it, while the adjective classifies a noun, as in footballing roots.

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