Comments on: Soccer by Any Other Name

By: The Big Question: Football or Soccer? - World Cup Blog

The Big Question: Football or Soccer? - World Cup Blog — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:28:24 +0000

[...] And let’s not sanctify the word “football” either. It didn’t necessarily get the name just because the ball is played with the foot. One theory goes that it was used to distinguish between upper-class sports played on horseback and peasant sports played on foot. And one of the world’s great football cultures does’t even use the word, Italians calling the game “calcio” which simply translates as “kick”. [...]

By: surge79uwf

surge79uwf — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:58:29 +0000

The original Japanese term was a Sino-Japanese one, shukyu (shu means kick and kyu means ball). In China and Korea the terms also derive from a root word adapted from the language (like Balompie and Nogomet): zuqiu and chukgu respectively.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:32:13 +0000

In England the word Soccer is used in the media to distinguish the game from Rugby football, but it is rarely spoken. It’s more likely to be abbreviated to “footy” in speech. The game is “football” though, not “Association Football”. The term “Association football” started to be used in “Rugby football” playing areas to make the distinction. The football asociation (not the association football association) was set up to codify the rules (each public school and football club had their own). It immediatly banned handling the ball leading to a rival organisation the “Rugby Football Union” being formed, which promoted the version of the game played at Rugby school. No one outside England uses the phrase Association Football as far as I know. In any case the Football Association no longer make the rules. This is done by FIFA.

By: David

David — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:42:07 +0000

Furtho - Thanks for your comment. When I was in Japan, I always found it interesting that the sport was called “sakka” not “futoboru” or something like that. Any idea on why this is?

By: Furtho

Furtho — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:04:57 +0000

The words “soccer” and “football” are used pretty much interchangeably in Japan, so some clubs in their full names use the initials SC (Soccer Club) instead of FC. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the pronunciation reflected by the katakana spelling of “soccer” in Japanese is clearly American rather than British.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:05:35 +0000

I think Rugby Football, also known as rugger to distinquish it from soccer, Association Football, was named after Rugby School where a boy first picked up the Ball and ran with it during a football game. Rugby School is a Public School, like Eton; confusingly they are not public but very expensive private fee paying schools.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:09:37 +0000

In Ireland, football is also called soccer because of Gaelic Football.