Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Naming convention for sports teams

• PURPOSE: To arrive at a consensus on the issue of Naming Convention for Sports Teams
• METHOD:

Step 1 - summary of current policy

Step 2 - discussion and criticism of flaws

Step 3 - concrete recommendations for improvement

Step 4 - formulation of the Naming Convention for Sports Teams based on the consensus arrived

• RATIONALE:

1. To address back-and-forth "move" requests
2. To provide clarification for editors
3. To establish Wikipedia based consensus for sports teams
4. Other...

STEP 1 - summary of current "policy"

This is the English language Wikipedia so generally the regular English name should be used. For example, use Bayern Munich rather than FC Bayern München, Red Star Belgrade rather than Crvena Zvezda and so on. Note the English name is not always the 'authentic' name used on the club crest and so on. For example, Sporting Clube de Portugal are always called Sporting Lisbon in the English-speaking world.

Note: As was pointed out by Prolog (talk · contribs), this "policy" was added single-handedly without explanation, four months ago; see here.--Riurik^(discuss) 05:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A totally meaningless "policy"... Nothing more than a tool to be used selectively, for example against clubs from Eastern Europe (typically). The above rule says "For example, Sporting Clube de Portugal are always called Sporting Lisbon in the English-speaking world." Of course if you go to Sporting Clube de Portugal you will see that the article is called exactly that way (and not "Sporting Lisbon"). Of course there's a reference to a commonly used name inside the article but not in the title (in the same way as one would call an article "British Airways" even though hardly anyone calls it that way in the real world, almost everyone says "BA"). I would challenge the wandering admin who moved "FC Arsenal Kyiv" to "FC Arsenal Kiev" to try and move "Sporting Clube de Portugal" to "Sporting Lisbon" and see what happens! Dkua (talk) 00:41, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

STEP 2 - discussion and criticism (for previous debates, see Dynamo's talk page, Arsenal's talk page, WPFootball discussion, and others. (Warning: If discussing the Kyiv/Kiev entries, this discussion is restricted to the NC sports teams, and is not about the name of Ukraine' capital).--Riurik^(discuss) 07:24, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Here is my take on the issue. Dynamo Kyiv and Arsenal Kyiv were recently moved after a thorough discussion among editors, with the prevailing opinion going for keeping both. Yet, hiding behind the above mentioned "policy", these football club entries were moved. I think this was unwarranted for at least three reasons:

1. the official name is FC Dynamo Kyiv (for example, ESPN coverage of recent Manchester United vs Dynamo Kyiv utilized the name of the club in English as used on the team's English website),
2. the name of sports clubs and organizations, particularly those utilizing Kyiv are brands and property of their respective owners, utilizing a different version breaches ownership rights,
3. English speaking fans visiting an official website of their favorite team, will find out that contrary to Wikipedia - which currently uses FC Dynamo Kiev - their team's official full name is FC Dynamo Kyiv.--Riurik^(discuss) 07:24, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
4. And also in the emlem of Dynamo we can see the word KYIV.--Ahonc (Talk) 12:38, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]