2007-02-08 07:36:22 · 7 answers · asked by david w 1 in Sports ➔ Football ➔ Other - Football
Soccer and rugby were essentially invented at the same time, and both were called football. (One grew out of the other, but which really came first is hotly debated). "Soccer" was intially just a means of distinguishing football where you cannot use your hands from rugby. As the name "rugby" stuck, most people still just call soccer "football." That is what it initially was called.
When the United States and other countries invented their own "football" sports, they started using the "soccer" term, too, hence the reason so many other countries call it soccer and not football. People in Britain who use the term "soccer" are either influenced by these other countries, or they are simply distiguishing their sport of choice from rugby, which is still, technically, a form of "football." It is just not generally accepted to be called that anymore.
2007-02-08 07:43:13 · answer #1 · answered by Mr. Taco 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer first appeared in the 1880s as a slang abbreviation of Association football, often credited to Charles Wreford-Brown.
Today the sport is known by a number of names throughout the English-speaking world, the most common being football and soccer. The term used depends largely on the need to differentiate the sport from other types of football played in a community. Football is the term used by FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee.
2007-02-08 07:41:17 · answer #2 · answered by Paula 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the UK, soccer refers to indoor football- in my high school, we use to refer to indoor football as soccer.
2007-02-08 07:40:46 · answer #3 · answered by Canuck 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because americans have there own sport called football
2007-02-08 07:45:09 · answer #4 · answered by chimsy 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i've never heard anyone call it soccor apart from in the usa n 'down under'
2007-02-08 07:49:17 · answer #5 · answered by -x-lil-kate-x- 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Good question..ask the yanks they seem to know everything.
2007-02-08 07:41:06 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's not! only the yanks call it that.
2007-02-08 07:43:59 · answer #7 · answered by pigletsam 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋