total footballn.
/ˌtəʊtl ˈfʊtbɔːl/, U.S. /ˌtoʊd(ə)l ˈfʊtˌbɔl/, /ˌtoʊd(ə)l ˈfʊtˌbɑl/ Association Football.
An attacking style of football in which every outfield player is able to play in any position as required during the course of a game, to allow fluid movement around the pitch while retaining the team's overall structure as players exchange positions and fill spaces left by others.The emergence of this style of play is closely associated with the Dutch club Ajax and the Netherlands national team in the early 1970s, although other clubs and teams had previously played using a similar system.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > association football > [noun] > style or system of play
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total football1972
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1972 Evening Standard 14 June 47/3 Although Sir Alf Ramsey is not here, observers from all over the world—including China and all the major South American countries—have come to study the rising West Germans, like Ajax, the impressive exponents of the new 'total football'.
1974 Newsweek 8 July 63/3 There are just two things in football—attack and defense... Holland plays total football which embraces them both. All ten of the Dutch players appear to play in any position on the field.
2022 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 28 Jan. Swansea believe in their total football and plenty of possession, even if it has to be patient possession.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2022).
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n.1972