《中英對照讀新聞》England's Football Association red cards the wives and girlfriends 英國足協給了娘子軍紅牌

◎胡立宗

The "WAGs" — the wives and girlfriends of the hapless England football squad—have seen their last World Cup, if the English Football Association （FA） has its way, English press reported.

如果英國足協堅持的話，「英國娘子軍」—倒楣的英格蘭足球隊隊員的老婆跟女朋友—大概是最後一次看世界盃了，英國媒體報導。

The FA aims to ensure that the WAGs, who generated reams of copy for Britain's tabloid and mainstream press through their all-day shopping and late-night partying, will not again be able to block-book hotel accommodation, according to the Sunday Times.

英國足協想要確定，這批透過整天血拼和深夜狂歡，製造了大量題材給英國小報及主流媒體的娘子軍，不能再塞爆旅館訂房，根據週日泰晤士報報導。

"While it cannot stop the relatives making their own arrangements, it hopes to avoid a similar situation to that in Germany where the WAGs were all ensconced in the spa town of Baden-Baden and each time they stepped outside were pursued by paparazzi," the Times said.

「雖然無法制止球員的親友自己安排房間，但是英國足協希望避免出現類似這次發生在德國的情形，也就是娘子軍全都住在以Spa聞名的小鎮巴登-巴登，每次的外出都引來狗仔隊追逐」，週日泰晤士報說。

The paper said the women had run up a hotel bill of more than 250,000 pounds. It cited tales of 65,000-pound shopping bills being run up within an hour and of bottles of champagne at 40 pounds a throw being consumed a score at a time while the WAGs danced on chairs.

週日泰晤士報說，這些女人累積的旅館帳單費用超過25萬英鎊。報導也引述傳聞說，單是一小時內的帳單就高達6萬5千英鎊，那時這批娘子軍在椅子上跳舞，40英鎊一杯的香檳就這樣消耗掉二十幾瓶。

A report headed WAGageddon said some of the younger WAGs had been overheard calling their boyfriends as late as 4 am, despite coach's imposition of a 10.30 pm bedtime on match days and midnight at other times.

一篇題為「娘子軍大決戰」的報導說，有人聽到一些較年輕的娘子軍到了凌晨4點還打電話給她們的男朋友，儘管教練要求比賽日須在晚上10點半就寢，其他時間則須在午夜就寢。

新聞辭典

red card：名詞，（足球的）紅牌；動詞，給…紅牌，禁賽。

WAGageddon：報紙為諷刺娘子軍創出來的新字，由wives and girlfriends 所指的「WAG」和「Armageddon」合成。Armageddon的意思，除了特指聖經中的善惡最後決戰外，也可以用來指戰爭中或政治角力的混戰、惡戰。