Football or Soccer?

Today we’re kicking around some historical trivia. Have you ever wondered why Americans call it soccer instead of football? Well, lace up your cleats, because we’re about to dive into the fascinating origins of the word "soccer."

It all starts in 1863 in England, the birthplace of what Americans now know as soccer but is called football almost everywhere else. When the Football Association codified the rules, they needed a way to distinguish this game from the other popular sport of rugby football.

The students at Oxford had a trendy way of shortening words and adding "-er" at the end. So, they took "assoc," short for "association" from "association football," and added "-er," giving birth to the nickname "soccer."

For a while, both "soccer" and "football" were used interchangeably in Britain. But as the sport grew in popularity, "football" became the preferred term in the UK, reflecting its broad acceptance and national affection.

Across the pond, however, the situation was different. In the United States, "football" already referred to the completely different sport involving touchdowns and field goals. To avoid confusion, Americans adopted the term "soccer" to refer to the game known worldwide as football.

Today, "soccer" remains a distinctively North American term, although it's also used in a few other places where other forms of football are the dominant sport, like Australia with Australian rules football and Ireland with Gaelic football.

So, while it might seem odd to some that Americans don't just call it football, there's actually a logical, historical explanation behind it. It’s a reminder of the sport’s rich and diverse history, branching across different cultures and continents.

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