Why is Football Called Soccer? How 19th-Century British Trend Left a Global Legacy

The debate over why football is called soccer becomes a common topic of discussion every time a global tournament takes place. The sport is strictly football for billions of fans across Europe, South America, and Africa. But a larger population in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Ireland prefers to call it soccer. 

Many language enthusiasts often criticise the word soccer as a modern US invention. But the origin history as mentioned in England’s Football Association (FA) tells us that the word came from British schoolboys and not from American broadcasters. 

Let’s read more about the history behind why some people call football soccer when the entire world refers to the sport as football or fútbol hereonwards. 

Where does the Word Soccer Come From?

The modern day soccer terminology originated in December 1863 when the newly formed Football Association of England codified the first official set of rules to standardise the sport. 

Before that there were different versions of folk football around the world. The most notable football type sport to the Association was played at the Rugby School which allowed players to carry the ball. 

So to differentiate football from rugby the versions played under the new FA rules were officially named association football and the other remained rugby football. 

Then a popular trend emerged among some linguistically creative students at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the 1870s and 1880s. They loved to add the suffix ‘-er’ to shorten both words. 

For example, rugby football quickly became ‘rugger’. They similarly took the ‘Assoc’ from association football and twisted it into ‘assoccer’ which has now evolved into the word Soccer. 

Which Part of the World calls Football Soccer?  

Both soccer and football were used interchangeably for decades in Great Britain. It has been since the mid 20th century that British newspapers started using soccer freely. 

But today the choice between soccer and football terminology entirely depends on two things. First is whether a country has its own major home grown sport by the name of football. The second reason can be that the sport has been adopted by a country after gaining popularity as soccer. 

Influence of America in Popularising Soccer over Football 

Calling football soccer in countries like US and Australia became a linguistic necessity to avoid confusion with their own highly watched football (oval ball) game.
The American culture later influenced parts of East Asia mainly Japan. And post WWII the term soccer as sakkā became a part of local dictionaries. 

But South and Southeast Asia mainly adopted football due to direct British colonial sporting ties.

Meanwhile back in Great Britain the term gradually faded from everyday use. And by the late 20th century the British public largely rejected the word as it was a foreign Americanisation of the sport name despite its elite English roots.