Why Americans say 'soccer' while the rest of the world says football | OneFootball

Americans say 'soccer' while most of the world says football, a contrast highlighted as the United States co-host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from 11 June to 19 July.

L'Équipe notes that the word itself was born in England, then used across the Atlantic to set the sport apart from another, more popular code also called football.

In 19th century England, early rules were set down and the game was called 'football association' to distinguish it from 'rugby football'. At universities such as Oxford, a fashion for adding '-er' produced 'assoccer', soon shortened to 'soccer'.

In England, 'soccer' never rose above a nickname and faded as 'rugby football' became rugby and 'football association' simply football. In the United States, a separate game, American football or 'gridiron football', surged in the late 19th century, boosted by the NFL's emergence in 1920.

With that popularity, it claimed the everyday name 'football', and to avoid confusion the association game settled as 'soccer'. The shift is clear in the federation's titles: 'U.S. Football Association' in 1910, 'U.S. Soccer Football Association' in 1945, then 'U.S. Soccer Federation' from 1974.

The United States is not alone. Australia uses 'soccer' to separate it from Australian rules football, Canada for similar reasons, and Japan adopted the term after the Second World War.

Source: L'Équipe