I’d argue that Europeans get uptight because they get told that what they call “football” isn’t “football”, they should call it “soccer” because there’s this real sport called “football” that Americans play and is for real men, unlike those pansy Europeans.
No one gets annoyed with Australians for calling it “soccer”. Hell, we’ll happily call them the “Socceroos”. In the UK we do actually use the word “soccer”, it is just that “football” is more common.
Want an example? Well here you go:
Note the way we are told that it isn’t football, it is soccer, and that in the US “real football” is played.