The British Are to Blame for the Term "Soccer"

As an American, I often use the term “soccer” to describe the game the rest of the world calls “football”. As an American, who started playing the game after forty so he could coach his kids, I often use the term “football” to describe the game. They are both burned deeply in my brain. After you play the game, you cannot help but refer to the game as FOOTBALL. You spend the whole game using your feet to move the ball around…unless you are a goalkeeper.

Once I had played a bit, using the term football was an easy thing to do. Unfortunately in America, there is already something we call football. This led me to begin referring to the NFL as “American football”. However, doing this led many of my fellow Americans to see me as some kind of poser or worse, a communist. Even then it failed to help very much in distinguishing the two sports in America because football has such a strong zeitgeist in America. The word literally means tailgating, and giant men pushing each other around to get to the Super Bowl.

So strong is the desire to use the term football for soccer after one has played, that it is very difficult to get it out of one’s head. Therefore as time went on, I would have to catch myself. In my brain would rise the term “football”, and then I would simply prefix it with “American” before I finally replaced it in my head with the American term, “soccer”. After all, I didn’t want to be seen as a communist and get deported to Gitmo.

This takes some serious pre-thinking about one’s words. If I had been spending a lot of time with Americans at work or in other social situations, “soccer” would get stuck in my head. Inevitably, I would eventually end up in a chat with a non-American somewhere sometime. I would be chastised for using the term “soccer”. As someone who had now played, it all made sense. Of course, it should be called “football”, but in America, it just was not practical to use that term.

I decided I needed to do some research. Why the heck do Americans refer to “football” as “soccer” anyway? It made no sense in terms of etymology. My high school Latin could produce no origin for it. I dug deeper. Lo and behold it turns out Americans did NOT invent the word “soccer”.

It was the British. I found this particularly ironic. Most of the individuals who noted my American foolishness in using the term “soccer” were of the British Commonwealth. Now to learn it was a British term annoyed me. I am here to arm all my fellow Americans who will be at pubs watching the World Cup this Fall.

Yes, indeed my fellow Americans, the British invented the term “soccer”. You are going to be able to win a few bets at the pub on this one. It is without a doubt a British term.

Here is the backstory

Originally, there were not many rules in this game of kicking a ball around. Whole towns would compete against each other. These large “games” could turn into roving brawls and even riots. There were no real set rules and things could get very ugly.

The original game was more like rugby or Gaelic Football than the one which will be played in Qatar right now. Everyone agreed that rules needed to be set. What were the rules of the type of football the two sides engaged in? An association was formed to set up the rules.

Association Football was created. This was the original Premier League. However, there were rebels of course who still wanted to play their brand of tackle football. They saw the advocates of Association Football as a bunch of wimps. It was these Brits who coined the term “soccer” to refer to those who played by the rules of Association Football. They bowed to the association’s rules. They were playing soccer, NOT football.

Americans were a rowdy crowd in the nineteenth century. Rules were not something Americans liked. They preferred to play a brand of football much like rugby. In their minds, Americans back then felt they were playing REAL football. Americans played the man’s game of football, not that association stuff. For this reason, “soccer” became the favored term in America for a more gentlemanly game and a way to differentiate the game from REAL football.

Actually, for years both “soccer” and “football” were used interchangeably in Britain, though “soccer” picked up use after World War II. In the end, British fans gravitated to the term “football” to distinguish themselves from Americans. As the sport picked up popularity in the States in the 1980s, there was a backlash in England. The term “soccer” dropped out of use.

Now you are forewarned and forearmed when you are at the pub watching the World Cup. If you happen to slip and use the term “soccer” to refer to the beautiful game, fear not. It will most likely be a Brit who challenges you and calls you a fool. You will then of course challenge this assertion, and substitute your own. It is in fact the British who invented the term, “soccer”.

Now bet the bloke a pint that you are right. Thank me later for the free Guinness.

Also published here.