People are just realising why football is called 'soccer', it makes perfect sense

So many football fans are offended by the term "soccer", yet it turns out that the origin of the word actually stems from England.

It's common knowledge that folks in England absolutely detest what Americans call the beautiful game and the never-ending debate has reared its head again following on from Lionel Messi's move to the MLS - an abbreviation of Major League Soccer.

The official Twitter account infamously posted, "It's called soccer. If anyone disagrees, reply to this," on their page but were made to look a little silly when someone pointed out that a large number of their teams have FC in their names.

Over in the United States, football is the game which Tom Brady plays and the sport where you kick the ball in the net is called soccer.

Interestingly, one of the leading British football programmes is called 'Soccer Saturday' and as a matter of fact - the name was created on these shores.

The story goes that the game of association football was created in 1863 when the Football Association (FA) was formed and a set of rules were standardised.

Image: Getty

It was given the aforementioned game so that it was not to be confused with "rugby football".

As per History.com, players used to shorten the word "association" to "assoc" and "assoccer" - the "er" addition coming from Oxford students who brought in their own slang and called rugby "rugger".

Soccer and football were both used about equally into the 20th century and then football became the go-to name - though the former is still common phrase in the likes of Australia and the United States.

Image: Getty

Meanwhile, Americans' idea of football was created in the early 1900s and is easily the number on sport in the country.

So to summarise, we English are responsible for the term that we hate so passionately.

Topics: United States, MLS, American Football, Football

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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