Association football is often abbreviated to "football" where it is the main code of football but in places where other codes of football, such as rugby football, Gaelic football, gridiron football or Australian football, are popular, association football is often known as "soccer" to distinguish it.
Background In English, the word football was known in writing by the 14th century, as laws which prohibit similar games date back to at least that century.
The football rules of Rugby football were codified in 1845. Association football rules were codified by the Football Association in England, in 1863. The alternative name soccer was coined in late 19th century England to help distinguish Association football from other football codes. Soccer is an abbreviation of the slang "associationer" (from "Association footballer") and first appeared in English public schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker"). The word "soccer" is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford-Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football (see Oxford "-er") but the attribution is generally considered to be spurious. Clive Toye notes that "they took the third, fourth and fifth letters of Association and called it SOCcer."
Some clubs in rugby or other football code strongholds adopted the suffix Association Football Club (A.F.C.) or "Soccer Club" to avoid confusion with other football codes in their area. FIFA, the world governing body for the sport, is a French-language acronym of "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" – the International Federation of Association Football. "Soccer football" has been used sometimes. The United States Soccer Federation was known as the United States Soccer Football Association from 1945 until 1974. The Canadian Soccer Association was known as the Canadian Soccer Football Association from 1958 to 1971.
Transition away from soccer in Britain and spread of football in Britain and Commonwealth
For nearly a hundred years after it was first coined, soccer was used in Britain as an uncontroversial abbreviation of Association football, in formal speech and in writing. "Soccer" was more commonly used by the more educated and those of wider experiences, whereas "football" was more commonly used by the less educated and insular working class adherents of the sport, while working class adherents of Rugby League used the term "soccer". With the popularity of what was the English Football Association football code in other countries where it was called "football", that term was imported into Britain with migration, ties with Europe and globalization of media resulting in the decline in use of soccer. In the early twenty-first century, association football organizations in Australia and New Zealand, where use of "soccer" was prevalent, have promoted the use of "football" to mirror international usage and, particularly in Australia, to rebrand a sport that had been experiencing image troubles. The attempts to occupy the name "football" in the face of other football codes have not taken effect well in Australia.
English-speaking countries Usage of the alternatives "Association football" "soccer" or "football" vary in and among the countries and territories where English is the prevalent language. In many places, such as the United Kingdom, all three terms are used. Association football is known as "football" in the Commonwealth Caribbean (including Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, and others), Nepal, Malta, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Cameroon, Pakistan, Liberia, Singapore, Hong Kong and others, stretching over many regions including parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. In North America and Australia, where approximately 70 per cent of native English speakers reside, soccer is the primary term.
North America In the United States, where American football is more popular, the word football is used to refer to that sport. Association football is most commonly referred to as soccer.
As early as 1911, there were several names in use for the sport in the Americas. A 29 December 1911 New York Times article reporting on the addition of the game as an official collegiate sport in the US referred to it as "association football", "soccer" and "soccer football" all in a single article.
The names of Association football organization in the United States, such as United States Soccer Federation reflect the common usage. The federation was originally called the U.S. Football Association and was formed in 1913 by the merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association. The word "soccer" was added to the name in 1945, making it the U.S. Soccer Football Association. The word "football" was dropped in 1974.
In Canada, the term "football" most commonly refers to gridiron football (either Canadian football or American football; i.e. football canadien or le football américain in Standard French). "Soccer" is used for association football in Canadian English and, similarly, le soccer is used in Canadian French. The Canada Soccer Association is a national-level organization, although its original name was the Dominion of Canada Football Association. Likewise, in the majority-francophone Quebec, provincial, there is Soccer Québec (previously Fédération de soccer du Québec). This is unusual compared to francophone countries, where football is more commonly used.
Some teams based in Canada and the United States have adopted the abbreviation FC as a suffix or prefix in their names. In Major League Soccer, these include Atlanta United FC, Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Chicago Fire FC, FC Cincinnati, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo FC, Los Angeles FC, Minnesota United FC, New York City FC, San Diego FC, Seattle Sounders FC, Toronto FC, and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Two Major League Soccer teams, (Inter Miami CF and CF Montréal) use CF as a suffix or prefix in their names, reflecting the Spanish-speaking and Francophone communities where they play. Most teams in the Canadian Premier League use FC as a suffix. Exceptions are FC Edmonton (now defunct) and FC Supra du Québec which use a prefix, and Atlético Ottawa which uses neither, to match its parent Atlético Madrid.
In Central America, the only country in which English language is prevalent is Belize and, like the other six Central American nations, the term football refers to association football, as used in the Football Federation of Belize and in the Belize Premier Football League but the term soccer is sometimes used in vernacular speech and media coverage.
In the Caribbean, most of the English-speaking members use the termfootball for their federations and leagues, the exception being the U.S. Virgin Islands, where both the federation and league use the word soccer but both terms are known and understood.
An exceptional case is the largely Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico, where the word football is used in the Puerto Rican Football Federation, while the word soccer is used in the Puerto Rico Soccer League, the Puerto Rican 1st division; however, its 2nd division is named Liga Nacional de Futbol de Puerto Rico. Soccer is the most common term in vernacular speech, however. Another case is the Dutch island of Sint Maarten, where soccer was used in Sint Maarten Soccer Federation, but it is now the Sint Maarten Football Federation.
Australia
In Australian, the sport has been mainly referred to as soccer. This is primarily due to Australian rules football, rugby union and rugby league taking precedence of the name football in conversation due to their greater cultural prominence and popularity – similarly to North America along with American football and Canadian football. However, in 2005, the Australia Soccer Association changed its name to Football Federation Australia and Football Australia Limited it now encourages the use of "football" to describe the association football code. All its state and territory member organisations and many clubs and some media outlets and politicians have followed. In the Macquarie Dictionary, it was observed that, "While it is still the case that, in general use, soccer is the preferred term in Australia for what most of the world calls football, the fact that the peak body in Australia has officially adopted the term football for this sport will undoubtedly cause a shift in usage." The Australian men's team is still known by its long-standing nickname, the Socceroos and the Soccer Ashes are still referred to as such, and "soccer" is still the most popular term for the sport in Australia.
Historically, what was a derogatory term, "wogball" was often used to refer to the sport, "wog" being a derogatory (but since appropriated in some contexts) term referring to Australians of Mediterranean background (particularly Croatians, Egyptians, Greeks, Italians, Lebanese, Macedonians, Maltese and Turks), among whom the sport was popular.
Australian media Debate over whether "soccer" or "football" should be used has extended to the media. Many media outlets, like the populace, use the different terms interchangeably, in context.
Association football is referred to as "football" by many outlets, including ABC News, News.com.au and The Australian. However, many others still use the term "soccer", including The Sydney Morning Herald and The West Australian.
New Zealand
In New Zealand English, association football has historically been called "soccer". As late as 2005, the New Zealand Oxford Dictionary suggested that in New Zealand, "football" referred especially to rugby union; it also noted that rugby union was commonly called "rugby", while rugby league was called "league". A year earlier, New Zealand Soccer had changed the name of its leading competition to the New Zealand Football Championship and, in 2007, it changed its own name to New Zealand Football. According to The New Zealand Herald, "most people no longer think or talk of rugby as 'football'. A transformation has quietly occurred, and most people are happy to apply that name to the world's most popular game, dispensing with 'soccer' in the process."
Papua New Guinea In Papua New Guinea and other parts of Melanesia, the term "soccer" is the more common term for the sport, due to the large Australian influence in the region. In Papua New Guinea, the national association is the Papua New Guinea Football Association but the national league is the Papua New Guinea Premier Soccer League. In Tok Pisin, "soka" refers to "soccer", "ragbi" refers to both rugby union and rugby league and "futbal" refers to other codes of football (i.e. Australian rules football, or "futbal bilong Ostrelia").
Other English-speaking countries On the island of Ireland, "football" or "footballer" can refer to either association football or Gaelic football. However it may also refer to rugby union. The association football federations are called the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) in Ireland and the Irish Football Association (IFA) in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, those whose primary interest lies in association football often call their sport "football" and refer to Gaelic football as "Gaelic football" or "Gaelic" (although they may also use "soccer"). The term "soccer" is most commonly used in Ireland's media to refer to association football.
In most of Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland, East Donegal and Inishowen, association football is usually referred to as 'football' while Gaelic football is usually referred to as 'Gaelic'.
In Pakistan, Liberia, Nigeria, both football and soccer are used.
Non-English-speaking countries