Soccer related: Team is or are?

I've been watching a bit more international football/soccer over the last few months and the English announcers seem to conjugate their verbs incorrectly. I would say something like "Croatia is a good team" like I might say "Croatia is a beautiful country". They say "Croatia are a strong side". I've heard this watching Premier League matches with statements like "Liverpool are the champions". I see this as a team (singular) and a verb (plural) not agreeing but this my North American perspective.

Is this common English phrasing or is it only in sports?

 

When talking about the team itself it's normal to say are rather than is.

 

The commentators are ex-footballers rather than normal people. Don't expect them to be too literate.

 

So from the two replies I am getting that it is "normal" and not "too literate", that almost makes sense.

 

Mad4 is right, it's certainly not correct English, but it's frequently used

 

Technically, if you are talking about the Team (yankees for example) as a whole.

The Yankees is a good team. Is the correct version.

But, it looks and sounds weird, so it is changed to plural.

New York is a good team.
The Yankees is/are a good team.

Same thing. I wouldn't quibble over it. I'd just use the common version that everyone uses or you'll be giving english lessons all your life.

 

Yep, it's normal to refer to teams like that. For example, I say "The Arsenal are scum", I don't know why, but it sounds correct to me.

 

Spurs fan by any chance