Depending on where you are, the word football could refer to several different sports so using the wrong term could get you some awkward looks. In England and large parts of Europe, it would signify the game played around the world with a goalkeeper and 10 players in the field, but in the US or Canada it would mean full-contact sport where touchdowns are scored instead of goals. These nations use a different name – soccer – for the same sport other countries call football, so there is quite a bit of terminological confusion surrounding this issue.
To help players interested in BetOlimp soccer betting, we will try to explain how this sport is called around the world and which terms you can use without fear of being wrong.
British Origins or the Game and the Name Ambiguity
As we all know, this beautiful game originated in Britain in the 19th century, and both of its current names can be traced to this period. The game was officially named association football, so that it could be distinguished from several other games with somewhat similar rules, including rugby football. Pretty soon, the original name was abbreviated to soccer (from association), and the term that would remain in use for more than a century was coined. For the next hundred years or so, both words were used to refer to the same game quite interchangeably. Higher classes tended to favour the name soccer, while the working class mostly used the more generic version of the name. Things changed for good around 1960, when the word soccer went out of fashion in the UK and came to be seen as a purely American expression. Since in modern times no other widely played sport can be confused with football in Britain, the ambiguity in the past era is gone. It’s similar in numerous the non-English speaking nations in Europe and Asia where football (or a localisation of this word) is the only name used.
The Need to Separate Two Kinds of Football in the Americas
Soccer never became nearly as popular in North America as it did in Europe, while local versions of a game named ‘football’ gained widespread love of the populace. American football and Canadian football are nothing alike soccer and are more closely related to rugby, but they have very strong traditions in their respective native countries. That’s why these games were labelled ‘football’ while the rarely played game was referred to by its alternative, more obscure name. Once established, this convention carried on to the present day to the point that the game is exclusively called soccer in the USA, Canada, as well as Australia and New Zealand. An interesting case is Ireland where both terms are used without issues, while countries like Bulgaria and Japan have their own names derived from the word soccer. Overall, soccer is less frequently used than football except in North America where that term is already reserved for another sport that is more popular.
Some Countries Prefer Their Own Terms
Of course, there are countries who decided they were not completely satisfied with localisations of the British terms and invented their unique names for this game. This happened in a few places around the world, including some countries that have lots of international success in football. Most notably, the game is called calcio in Italy, which literally means to kick, while in Hungarian, Vietnamese and Indonesian the name used means some variation of ball kicking in the local language. In Croatia the game is called nogomet, literally meaning to push with legs. In most of these countries the term football is also understood, but they insist on their own cultural uniqueness when it comes to this sport. Full list of names used around the world is too long to include here, especially since the sport is beloved in almost every corner of the Earth. In addition to name of the game, other terminology could significantly differ depending on where you are currently located.
What Is the Proper Name of the Game?
It’s highly questionable that there is just one proper name for the sport that is played nearly everywhere on the planet. Great Britain may be the birthplace of the game, so it’s tempting to defer to its linguistic choice and adopt the term used in this country as the most appropriate one. The argument for using football as the right name also rests on sheer statistics – this name is the dominant one in more countries. On the other hand, it can cause confusion in some situations, which is why it’s possible to make a case for the use of the term soccer. This term always refers to the same sport, so it could be considered more specific than the broader word football. Of course, you should always pay attention to local sensitivities and try using the word that people you talk to will understand. In practice, that might require you to adjust your vocabulary when you are travelling to watch games, but that shouldn’t be too hard for any true fan.
