The English word football may mean any one of several team sports (or the ball used in that respective sport), depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word; the use of the word football usually refers to the most popular code of football in that region. The sports most frequently referred to as simply football are American football, association football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league football and rugby union football.
Of the 45 national FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names, while Canada and the United States use soccer. In those two countries, other codes of football are dominant, and soccer is the prevailing term for association football. In 2005, Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term.Soccer to become football in Australia (SMH.com.au. 17 December 2004) "ASA chairman Frank Lowy said the symbolic move would bring Australia into line with the vast majority of other countries which call the sport football". In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit.NZ Football - The Local Name Of The Global Game (NZFootball.co.nz. 27 April 2006) "The international game is called football and were part of the international game so the game in New Zealand should be called football".
There are also many other languages where the common term for association football is phonetically similar to the English term football. (See Names for association football.)
Etymology An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David".Francis Peabody Magoun, 1929, "Football in Medieval England and Middle-English literature" (The American Historical Review, v. 35, No. 1). Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down, being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.Irish inventions: fact and fiction Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "during the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".
Although the popularly believed etymology of the word football, or "foot ball", originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, this may be a false etymology. An alternative explanation has it that the word originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.(a.) ICONS Online (commissioned by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport; no date) "History of Football"; (b.) Bill Murray (sports historian), quoted by The Sports Factor, 2002, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 31 May 2002) and Michael Scott Moore, "Naming the Beautiful Game: It's Called Soccer" (Der Spiegel, 7 June 2006); (c.) Professional Football Researchers Association (U.S.A.), (no date) "A Freendly Kinde of Fight: The Origins of Football to 1633" . Access date for all references: 11 February 2007. These sports were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports more often enjoyed by aristocrats. In some cases, the word has been applied to games which involved carrying a ball and specifically banned kicking. For example, the English writer William Hone, writing in 1825 or 1826, quotes the social commentator Sir Frederick Eden, 2nd Baronet, regarding a game which Hone refers to as "Foot-Ball" played in the parish of Scone, Perthshire: The game was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, run [sic] with it till overtaken by one of the opposite part; and then, if he could shake himself loose from those on the opposite side who seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was wrested from him by the other party, but no person was allowed to kick it.William Hone, 1825–26, The Every-Day Book, "February 15." Access date: March 15, 2007. [Emphasis added.]
Conversely, in 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",Derek Baker (England in the Later Middle Ages). 1995. Boydell & Brewer. p. 187. suggesting that "football" may have been differentiated from games that involved other parts of the body, although the medieval English game 'handball' was a predecessor to tennis called in French .
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces the written use of the word football (as ), referring to the game, to 1409. The first recorded use of the word to refer to the ball was in 1486, and the first use as a verb in 1599.
The word "soccer" originated as an Oxford "-er" slang abbreviation of "association", and is credited to late nineteenth century English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown. Ekblom mentions that while he was up at Oxford, Charles Wreford-Brown was asked at breakfast if he was playing rugger "No" he replied "I'm playing soccer" (Granville, 1969, p. 29). Ekblom opinions that like the William Webb Ellis rugby story it is most likely apocryphal. It has been speculated that both this story and the William Webb Ellis rugby story are apocryphal; however, this appears to be a revision of history as the English term "soccer" fell out of favour while England differentiated their language from America's (where the term soccer had become widely used) English in the 20th century due to growing American popularity. "Socker" with a k appeared in print at least as early as 1889. The New York Times, published in 1905: "It was a fad at Oxford and Cambridge to use 'er' at the end of many words, such as foot-er, sport-er, and as Association did not take an 'er' easily, it was, and is, sometimes spoken of as Soccer." There is also the sometimes-heard variation, "soccer football".
National usage Australia
Within Australia the term "football" is ambiguous and can mean up to four different codes of football in Australian English, depending on the context, geographical location and cultural factors; this includes soccer, Australian rules football, rugby league and rugby union. In the states of Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania the slang term footy is also used in an unofficial context, while in these states the two rugby football codes are collectively called rugby. The reverse applies in New South Wales, Queensland and ACT, where rugby league dominates and football can refer to this code. The oldest existing clubs in the three non-soccer codes are all called FC (Football Club), including Melbourne FC (AFL), Sydney University FC (Shute Shield) and South Sydney DRLFC (NRL). Australia-wide, soccer is commonly used to describe association football, with this usage going back more than a century, with football gaining traction amongst soccer followers since Soccer Australia was renamed Football Federation Australia in 2005. The men’s national team are still known by their nickname the Socceroos.
Canada In Canada, football refers to Canadian football or American football, often differentiated as either "CFL" (from the Canadian Football League) or "NFL" (from the US National Football League). Because of the similarity between the games, many people in both countries do not consider the two styles of gridiron football separate sports , but rather different codes of the same sport which has a shared origin in the Harvard vs McGill game played in 1874 credited with the creation of this sport. If a Canadian were to say, "My brother plays football in the States", it would be clear from context that American football is meant.The Canadian Soccer Association / L'Association canadienne de soccer Canadian French usage parallels English usage, with usually referring to Canadian or American football, and referring to association football. When there is ambiguity, or is used.LCF.ca :: Site Officiel de la Ligue Canadienne de FootballFédération de soccer du Québec (Soccer gains ground!)Sometimes and are interchangeable: "" (Société Radio-Canada)
Rugby union football in Canada is almost always referred to simply as "rugby".
Caribbean In most of the English-speaking Caribbean, "football" and "soccer" are both used to refer to association football, but use of the word "football" is far more common. The exception is the Bahamas, where the term "football" is used exclusively (while not actually in the Caribbean, usage in Bermuda follows that of the Bahamas). The nickname of the Trinidad and Tobago team, "The Soca Warriors", refers to a style of music, not the word soccer.
Ireland In Ireland, "football" can mean association football, Gaelic football, or rugby union.
New Zealand
New Zealand Football is the governing body for association football in the country.About NZ Football , New Zealand Football, 2015. Accessed 22 November 2015. The term can also be used to refer to rugby league or union, better-known as simply rugby. The slang term footy generally only means either of the two codes of rugby football, while rugby league is traditionally known as rugby league or just league. Usage of the term soccer has gone through a period of transition in recent times as the federation changed its name to New Zealand Football from New Zealand Soccer and the nickname of its women's team to Football Ferns from SWANZ.
South Africa In South Africa, the word football generally refers to association football. However, association football is commonly known as soccer despite this.Football in South Africa The domestic first division is the Premier Soccer League and both in conversation and the media (see e.g. The Sowetan or Independent Online), the term "soccer" is used. The stadium used for the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was known as Soccer City. Despite this, the country's national association is called the South African Football Association and "football" is mostly used in official contexts.
Rugby union is another popular football code in South Africa, but it is commonly known as just rugby as rugby league has a smaller presence in the country.
United Kingdom
The general use of football in the United Kingdom tends to refer to the most popular code of football in the country, which in the cases of England and Scotland is association football. However, the term soccer is understood by most as an alternative name for association football. "Although not so widely used as the term 'football,' in England the term 'soccer' is widely understood. It is not so widely understood in continental Europe or Central and Southern America"Oxford English Dictionary:Soccer "The game of football as played under Association rules." and Rugger "Slang or colloquial alteration of RUGBY (in the sense of 'Rugby football'). Freq. attrib. rugger-tackle" The word soccer was a recognised way of referring to association football in the UK until around the 1970s, when it began to be perceived incorrectly as an Americanism.
For fans who are more interested in other codes of football, within their sporting community, the use of the word football may refer to their own code. However, even within such sporting communities an unqualified mention of football would usually be a reference to association football.Tony Collins. Football, rugby or rugger?, BBC sound recording with written transcript, and a comment in prose by Jonnie Robinson, Curator, English accents and dialects, British Library Sound Archive. In its heartlands, rugby league is referred to as either football or just league.
Fans of Gaelic football in Northern Ireland may use football for the sport (see above). Outside the nationalist community in Northern Ireland, Gaelic football is usually known by its full name.