Football Phrase of the Week: Seal the title

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:37 — 2.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Blubrry | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | | More

Football Phrase of the Week: Seal the title

In this football phrase of the week we look at the phrase, ‘to seal the title‘ after PSG won their fourth Ligue 1 title in a row. You can read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.

DF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Languagecaster team and I hope you are all doing well. Welcome to this week’s football phrase, which is when we look back at an expression from the weekend’s football. And today we explain the phrase, ‘to seal the title‘ after PSG won their fourth Ligue 1 title in a row.

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Dutch)

Embed from Getty Images

Seal the title

DF: PSG defeated Angers 1-0 at home over the weekend to win their fourth French title in a row – they have now won four consecutive titles. They were confirmed as champions after this victory – in fact a draw would have done – which means, of course, that no other team can catch them at the top of the table. With six games to go in the season, PSG are 24 points clear of second-placed Monaco and so they cannot be caught. Another way of describing this victory is to ‘seal the title‘ – they have won the title. To seal in football means that something has been decided or finished and cannot be changed. So, if a team seals the title it means they have won the title – the season has been decided and this team has won.

PSG are also unbeaten in the league so far and if they avoid defeat in their remaining six games they will become the first French side to go undefeated all season. They are also still in the French Cup and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League so it could be a truly amazing season for Luis Enrique’s young side.

Here are a couple of examples from The Guardian newspaper:

1. Example: Paris Saint-Germain seal Ligue 1 title with win over Angers (Guardian.co.uk, April 5 2025)
2. Example: Inter seal historic 20th Serie A title with derby victory over Milan (Guardian.co.uk, April 22 2024)

Both of these examples follow a similar pattern: The name of the team + seal + the name of the country’s league + the title + how they did it (with a win over (or with a win against) + opposition.

I wonder will I ever be able to use this expression as a Tottenham supporter? Maybe not in the league but possibly this season in the Europa League? So, we could use ‘seal‘ to describe a team winning something, such as ‘Son seals Europa League trophy for Spurs with last-minute penalty’. I know, I know I am dreaming!

To seal the title. 

Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in French)

Yes, that message was in French – we also heard from a Dutch speaker during the show.

So, in this week’s football expression we looked at the phrase, ‘seal the title‘ after PSG won Ligue 1 this year. It looks as if Celtic in Scotland and Liverpool in England will also seal their respective league titles in the upcoming weeks. Do you know of any other teams that are about to seal the title? And how would you say these phrases in another language that you know? Can you try and maybe use this phrase in a sentence? Add it to our forum or to the comments section below.

Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you again later on in our regular weekly language podcast when we’ll be looking back at the European quarter-final first leg action and ahead to the weekend’s fixtures including Der Klassiker in Germany and Lazio versus Roma in Serie A. And of course we’ll be explaining more football language. Enjoy the football this week, we’ll see you soon. Bye bye.

Football Language Glossary