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In football, communication on the field is usually reduced to the transmission of information. Yet in top-level games this accounts for only 12% of all interactions. Apart from those directly linked to the implementation of a task (passes, shoots, interceptions, tackles), the interactants use a “secret and complex code” to understand one another. The aim of this article is to reveal this “code”, that is, the physical signs constituting it and their possible articulation. To that end the authors closely examine the communicational behaviour of 40 top-level players. An understanding of the “code” affords stimulating prospects for both research and training.