# Why soccer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562 "2000-11-03T16:24:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hazza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@hazza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazza)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/1 "2000-11-03T16:24:18Z")
i’ve always been slightly mystified and, if the truth be known, slightly miffed at the fact that America has taken it upon themselves to lift the word football from a sport that it describes quite succinctly, and apply it to a sport that involves very little contact of foot to ball. Not only that but they then apply a word, soccer, to afore mentioned sport which then rather insidiously has made its way into common usage, even over here in blighty. Is there anyone out there that can explain why? also where on earth did the word soccer come from. ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/2 "2000-11-03T16:49:33Z")
It’s from “assoc.”, an abbreviation of Association Football, which is, basically, football (soccer that is) by the proper rules as opposed to all those other games where you kick a ball around for fun. I suppose American Football used to involve more kicking or something… ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/3 "2000-11-03T16:51:17Z")
“Football” has always described a group of sports, including Rugby, Australian Rules, Gaelic football and the various, highly local, variants on football that have been played in places like Yorkshire for hundreds of years. Association football is just one of these variants, albeit the most popular, and AFAIK is unusual in prohibiting handling of the ball. I know Welsh people who say “football” when they mean Rugby and call the round ball game “soccer” (or sometimes, “the round ball game”, with a sneer). That said, I guess that 90 per cent of the World’s population would think of Association football as “football”, and our American friends are unusual in referring to it consistently as “soccer”. Even in other European languages, the name of the game is something like “football” (e.g. _football_, _fussball_, _voetball_). ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/4 "2000-11-03T17:19:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TomH \* > [BEven in other European languages, the name of the game is something like “football” (e.g. _football_, _fussball_, _voetball_). \*\* Good answer, but I’ve always wondered what’s up with _calcio_? Considering that in all other romance languages the game is known by a cognate of _football_, how did it get to be _calcio_ in Italian? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/5 "2000-11-03T17:22:33Z")
Incidentally, the word “soccer” as derived from Association Football, is an English invention, not an American one. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/6 "2000-11-03T17:54:57Z")
I believe “calcio” comes from the Italian word for “to kick”, which is “calciare”. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/7 "2000-11-03T18:12:59Z")
> [@](#): > > …or sometimes, “the round ballgame”, with a sneer… Round ball = Basketball 'round here. ---
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/8 "2000-11-03T20:51:38Z")
up here in scotland we call it fitba - does this help? ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2000, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-soccer/39562/9 "2000-11-04T02:33:04Z")
Well Down Under we have four codes all claiming to be football. Rugby League, Rugby Union, Aussie Rules and Soccer. The first two are laughable applications of the word, though Aussie Rules has a fair claim. However football is really soccer.