there is no such sport as soccer.all countries have football associations teams play in football leagues and teams are football teams.(fifa)federation of international FOOTBALL associations.fa cup FOOTBALL association cup

Pinochio

I absolutely agree. Is only that from the American point of view the World consists of two parts: The United States and, the Rest of the World.

josh deighan

well done old coach every thing you wrote down is fact and for me settles it, i would have imformed everyone one in the same way as you have had i found this topic before you. but i didnt, anywho nommater what we all call it only one is called the beutifull game i think that says it all no sport in the world is bigger no trophys more reconizable than that of the FIFA world cup, no fans more passoinate, no rivalrys more intense. it my game its your game the game of the rich the game of the poor the the beutifull game.

Simón T.

I read or saw in a documentary that in the US the dates are written backwards since the independence days, when it was decided not to write it as in GB, anyway, it was not just Gb, but not to do it as all the world does it. The logical order day-month-year, not backwards ... or sort of ...

Jonegy

Well it looks like the "yanks" have taken the brunt of it, the "canucks" have had their share - why not give the "ozzies" a going over too for their Australian Rules Football ????

worthbeads

it's football I say. But you could call it footlegschestheadbuttball

aussieperson

well, i completely agree. there is no reson for americans or any other country to call thier code football. to be honest. there are two things a fott and a ball. why do they insist on calling it football if they pick up the ball and run with it. it should be called run-ball or something like that. anyway, the real rugby was invented and dominated by the british and people from its colonies. the amrericans know they would get their arses kicked if they did play it. so quite frankly. i think it only makes sense that it is called football and is the sport that has the most right in the world to be called football. because obviously you use your feet. its just tyhat other sports were not creative enought ot come up with their own names so they oooched of the other sports names because they want to look good at sport. soccer comes from the phrase football asSOCCiation. besides. if football is so "gay" a sport then how come everybody that says its a gay sport insists on supporting a sport that involves jumping on top of people of the same sex

Skell

What about us here in oz?

We have Rugby League (called football)
Soccer (now called football in oz - our fedration changed its name recently from Soccer Australia to Football federation of Australia to keep in line with the 'rest' of the world)
AFL (called football)
Rugby Union (also called football at times)

You think it is confusing in america.

Come down under.

MARK M

I Think The Americans Are Just A Rule To Themselves After All The Baseball Finale Is Called The World Series. Doh!

califax

I don't care what word is used in USA to call what almost everyone else in the world knows as Football. After all, I'm used to that, as somebody said before, they (americans) change names to their convenience....they call themselves americans, as if nobody else in the continent weren't americans too.....

ItStruth

It's a little sad that with so many people so passionate about their chosen sport that they are also so ignorant of its history. I guess arrogance breeds ignorance breeds bigots.

The name soccer was not invented by the Americans. It comes from Association Football and was a slang term used in the universities in England soon after the formation of the rules of the game (and the Association). Much as Rugby Football is often called Rugger (and still is) Association Football was called Soccer (they couldn't exactly use the first syllable). I'm not sure why so many Poms complain about this. They even have (or had?) shows called Soccer Saturday on TV so the term must be frequently used there as well. I expect it's a form of tribalism trying to claim some moral claim to the word football because (as they see it) it's a superior form of the game. Here in Australia it's usually called soccer and only recently did the Soccer Federation change their name to the Football Federation of Australia. Increasingly though, the die hard pedant supporters are pushing for some moral right to the word football. In a country where there are three other footballs played at a national level this seems a little daft. But then there is a dollar war between all the codes so perhaps there's method behind it but nothing so pure as to be 'beautiful'. Some other countries also don't call it football. Hungarians don't and italians call it Calcio.

And the etymology of football is not known either. Some say it is to do with kicking the ball. But others say it is a way of grouping all games played with a ball on foot as opposed to the games played on horseback.

Early references to games called football usually involve some form of handling of the ball - in fact there was often very little in the way of rules. The rules eventually developed out of individual schools in England where each school had different rules altered by each intake of students. How much handling often seemed to be dependent on the type of grounds they had. If they had decent grounds there was more handling. Just courtyards, then less or none. The first Association rules came out of a desire for a standardised set to allow competitions between schools to proceed more smoothly. Not every school liked the rules and opted out of the Association. 10 years later many of these schools created the Rugby Football Union. The story of a kid at a Rugby School deciding to pick up the ball and run with it and therefore creating Rugby is thought to be largely myth. It was penned about someone (Web Ellis?), a passionate advocate of the game, after his death by someone that didn't know him at all and quoted an unnamed third party for the source.

The first set of Association Football Rules actually allowed catching of the ball. (Aghast - no - handling of the ball in the beloved 'football'.) When a player could do this they got a free kick. Interestingly this was called a 'mark', exactly the same term used in Australian Football Rules the first set of which were formulated around the same time as the associations (if not earlier).

All the football codes have diverged markedly from this time. Aussie Rules has gone on to have more running with the ball. Rugby Union initially had no points for tries, points only occurring by a conversion - kicking between the goal. Rugby League and Union were the same until around 1905 when the need for professionalism for the working classes, not allowed under Union, caused a split. The games are now quite different. The oval ball also developed later on

It's a pity that there isn't a little more tolerance and acceptance between the codes but then the people running the codes don't want that either. They don't want people who are quite happy to watch all codes because their money comes from die hard supporters and there's only so much viewing time people have so they want them committed.

Personally, on soccer itself, I appreciate the game and the skill behind it but are too often disappointed in the result which far less often than any other code reflects the relative skills of the team. Others see this as a plus as it allows the game to be more 'egalitarian' with smaller less powerful teams having a chance. This can also help to promote the international scene. It certainly promotes a greater fan loyalty if their team can win more often even if they don't have the same strengths. Ironically, I'd probably watch it a lot more often if it truly was only foot and ball and they got rid of the goally.

Anyway, each to their own.