political football

English

Etymology

An allusion to being "kicked back and forth" by opposing politicians, like a ball.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

political football (countable and uncountable, plural political footballs)

1. (countable, idiomatic) A contentious political issue or problem that is often debated or discussed, but that remains unresolved; an issue or problem which is avoided by authorities and handed off to others.
   • 1944 September 11, “Foreign News: Free Sicily”, in Time:

     Last week the most curious sidelight on Winston Churchill's recent trip to Italy was the revelation that Sicily was once again becoming a political football at the toe of the Italian boot.

   • 1992 August 15, Larry Rohter, “Retrial of a Miami Policeman Could Test Judiciary on Race”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 November 2012:

     It is a trial that no city in Florida wants to hold, a political football that has already bounced from Miami to Orlando to Tallahassee, back to Orlando.

   • 2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 58:

     Obtaining approval for West Coast Main Line electrification south of Crewe became a political football in 1960.

2. (uncountable, idiomatic) Ongoing unproductive wrangling or posturing between political factions, resulting in failure to deal with an issue or problem in a decisive or appropriate way.
   • 1936 April 13, “The Press: Loudspeaker”, in Time:

     Throughout the month preceding Bruno Richard Hauptmann's electrocution, Carter had relentlessly goaded New Jersey's Governor Harold Giles Hoffman and his henchmen for playing political football with the...

   • 2000 March 25, Karen Armstrong, “A Pilgrim, Not a Pawn”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 November 2012:

     The pope's visit to the Holy Land seemed to be a game of political football, with both the Israelis and the Palestinians claiming he was rooting for their team.

Translations

often discussed yet unresolved issue

• Finnish: kuuma peruna

ongoing wrangling

• Finnish: poliittinen pallottelu

References

• “political football”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “political football”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.