The Big Question: Football or Soccer?

Brazilian coach Professor Neto gave a speech in South Africa recently, arguing that for football to develop in the 2010 World Cup host nation, the word “soccer” needs to be abandoned. Apparently the 74 year old gave an impassioned speech arguing that the use of the term “football” is integral to developing a strong national football culture. “Our game is football, not soccer … Football is played with the foot obviously. What is soccer played with?”

The socks maybe? It was probably a rhetorical question. I personally prefer “football,” but it seems the term “soccer” has been unnecessarily demonized. Two conflicting schools of thought can be summed up by leading intellectuals Bill Shakespeare and Homer J Simpson.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.” - William Shakespeare.

“Not if you called it a stink blossom.” - Homer Simpson

So is soccer the stinkblossom to football’s rose?

It’s not just a crazy made up word, it’s an abbreviation of Association football dating back to the 1880s. So the idea that Americans invented the term just to be awkward is harsh. On soccer and on Americans. Neto noted that “soccer” is necessary in America to avoid confusion with NFL pointyball, but the same is true in plenty of other countries. In Australia soccer is used to differentiate the game from Aussie Rules Football (worth a look if you ever get the chance, it’s like Ultimate Fighting meets rugby) and even across the sea from England the Irish use soccer to avoid confusion with Gaelic Football (again, a brilliant sport if you get an opportunity to see it.)

And let’s not sanctify the word “football” either. It didn’t necessarily get the name just because the ball is played with the foot. One theory goes that it was used to distinguish between upper-class sports played on horseback and peasant sports played on foot. And one of the world’s great football cultures does’t even use the word, Italians calling the game “calcio” which simply translates as “kick”.

So, yes, “football” is preferable because of its links to the game’s beginning in England. But “soccer” shares that heritage too. More importantly, if not for the word “soccer” then the game wouldn’t even have a name in countries like America and Australia, two countries where the game is finally taking a hold via MLS and the A-League (not forgetting the Socceroos, which sounds a lot better than the Footballroos.)

So rather than betraying the sport, “soccer” is making it possible for the game we love to spread around the world. It may be the football equivalent to a stinkblossom, but it smells OK to me.