And what is it called in Australia?
2006-10-11 07:41:19 · 17 answers · asked by ono 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Soccer has been an alternative name for association football (i.e. football to most of the world) since the 19th century. It comes from the public school fad of adding '-er' to the end of words as they were codifying the laws of the sports in the 1800s; hence rugby football was often called 'rugger' and association football managed somehow to become 'soccer' (from the association bit). Soccer was used specifically to describe association football, whereas the word football could mean either rugby or soccer (or any of the other types of football-type games that were being played at the time: most public schools had their own football version). But in actual fact because of the popularity of AF, both soccer and football were (and are) interchangeable as words at the expense of rugby, which is not normally just known as 'football' now. As the US had already appropriated the word football to mean American Football (just as in Melbourne football means Aussie Rules) they had to call the beautiful game soccer when it started becoming well known there. Confused?!
2006-10-11 12:24:15 · answer #1 · answered by Samuel O 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, Hungarians and Italians do not call the sport football, It is not called football in South Africa, and the Australian national team is not nicknamed the football-roos, they are the soccer-roos.
The etymology of soccer is not American but British. It comes from an abbreviation for Association Football, the official name of the sport which still governs English soccer, to differentiate itself from Rugby Football, which was named after the Rugby School. FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, is French for the International Federation of Association Football… Fédération Internationale de Football Association). For obvious reasons, in the 1880s and 1890s, English newspapers couldn't use the first three letters of Association as an abbreviation in their pages, so they took the next syllable, S-O-C. With the British penchant for adding "-er" at the end of words, soccer was born, over a hundred years ago in England, the home of soccer. Clear like spring water!
2006-10-11 18:36:20 · answer #2 · answered by Dr. Phil 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because by the time we figured out how great football (soccer) is we already had a sport called football, so we had to come up with something to avoid confusion.
Edit: It makes more sense to call Soccer football since you actually control the ball with your FEET. American football has not much to do with the feet except to run while controlling the ball with your HANDS. Maybe we should have called it handball...wait...that name's taken too.
2006-10-11 07:47:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
For all those Americans who have questioned "why is soccer called football in Europe".
Football is football in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, South America, Central America - in fact everywhere in the world except the States and Canada.
I think the answer to why they call it Soccer in America is because they are just wrong!
2006-10-11 07:49:44 · answer #4 · answered by andy_bermuda_2003 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
No, no, no. Football is called football in America: people in other countrys call soccer football for no apparent reason.
2006-10-11 07:44:26 · answer #5 · answered by swordsdragonsanddietcoke 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything has to have a name. There is no law saying that America must confer with England before naming anything. If you want to call it football, fine. If we call it soccer, what's your objection ?
2006-10-11 07:57:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God, I've pondered this question myself many times. Having lived in Costa Rica and Holland for long periods, I've had this question thrown at me a lot. I've read that it was an abbreviation for "Association" blah blah blah...a nickname for "Oxforder"...but the more I look on the net, the more I figure out it's just not worth trying. In my head soccer, fútbol, and voetbal are fine.
I think the people arguing that it's more about differentiation than anything else these days are probably closer to the mark.
And people calling it gay rugby...umm..yeah...throw one of your tiny 5'10" English rubgy players in with a 6'5" 300 lb guy with anger issues without padding and see how well he does.
2006-10-11 08:23:49 · answer #7 · answered by Allybally 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because there're 2 types of football match, the one that NFL promotes and the Soccer one. In order to differentiate them one from another sometimes one is refered as Soccer.
2006-10-11 07:51:11 · answer #8 · answered by Lil' Gay Monster 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its called soccer in Ireland too cause we have Gaelic football over here
2006-10-11 07:51:49 · answer #9 · answered by Deep Throat 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why is soccer called football in Europe?
2006-10-11 07:44:00 · answer #10 · answered by carolinayaya 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋