Soccer or Football?!

[soccerisfun1988 0]

When was American football started? Was it well before football in the UK which is why it is called soccer here and not football?

[JoyfulSolitude 0]

I would say so

[pons 0]

soccer

[Kontermann 1]

"Soccer" is some kind of abbreviation of "Association" like in "Football Association".

[Rigafan 17]

5 hours ago, Kontermann said:

"Soccer" is some kind of abbreviation of "Association" like in "Football Association".

Exactly, the term soccer is from Association Football, nothing else!

Football is quite a broad term, it doesn't have to mean 'kicking ball with foot'. 

Rugby for instance is 'Rugby Football' or Australian Football

[TimthyZ 0]

I prefer using soccer so no one gets confussed with the sport

[Rhett08 0]

Soccer

[SwinnDE 4]

I'm pretty sure soccer came first, at least in other parts of the world.

But for me football will always be good old fashioned American football.

My European wife likes to call football "handegg" because soccer is football to her. And in soccer you actually kick the ball with your foot for most of the game, blah blah blah.

I can see her logic, but I will never relent!

 

[Mooky 1]

soccer

[Merque 0]

Football, full stop  

[TheSportsGoth 3]

Football comes from a middle ages sport played by the peasentry. It doesn't come from feet being used to kick the ball, it comes from it being a ball sport played on foot.

Soccer is a contraction of "Association." It comes from the Oxford or Cambridge University in the late 19th century, where shortening words and adding "-er" or "-ers" on the end was a common way of nicknaming things. Soccer (Association Football) and Rugger (Rugby Football) were the commonly played codes of football there.

Countries tend to call their most popular code of Football, "Football".  For most of the world that's Association. For the US it's the NFL, for Canada they might ask whether you mean the NFL or CFL,  for the Irish it might mean Rugby Union, Gaelic Football or Association Football.

If you're an Australian, Football means either Rugby Union, Rugby League OR Australian Rules Football and definitely NOT Association Football.

The correct answer is... if the person you're speaking to understands you, you're right.

[TheSportsGoth 3]

As for the history...

The Rugby Rules and the Sheffield Rules date from the 1850s

Ivy League teams  started playing each other using a hybrid rule set in the 1860s, then more closely resembling Rugby in the 1870s

1872 The first meeting of the Football Association meets in London where they adopt the Sheffield Rules for Football, creating Association Football. The members who supported the Rugby Rules quit and form the Rugby Football Union.

1880-1890s Down and dstance rules, the forward pass and scrimmages are introduced into the collegiate game in the US by legends like Walter Camp, Pop Warner and John Heisman.

So... American Football is slightly younger than Association Football. But there's not a lot in it.

[Intelekkt 0]

The first American football started in 1922 so Soccer and even Rugby is much more old.

[TheSportsGoth 3]

First citation for medieval football is 1314, when King Edward II banned it. You can still find people playing mob football yearly in the Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide game.

The first written rules for Rugby were in 1845
The Sheffield Rules which Association Football is descended from were codified 28 Oct 1858.

Intercollegiate football began in the US in 1869 (Rutgers vs Princeton) but the introduction of the line of scrimmage and the snap happened in 1880 (as well as a reduction of players from 15 to 11) and that's the big fork between American Football and Rugby Football. Blocking was made legal in the 1880s and the forward pass in 1906.

The first professional American Football league was the America Professional Football Conference in 1920, which was renamed the National Football League in 1922. This makes it the youngest of the professional football associations (the Football Association 1872, the Rugby Football Union 1871, the Gaelic Athletic Association 1884, the Victoria Football League, now the Australian Football League 1896, The Canadian Rugby Football Union, now the Canadian Football League 1884, the Northern Rugby Football Union, now the Rugby Football League 1895)

Unless you're Sky Sports, in which case Association Football began in 1992

Edited October 8, 2020 by TheSportsGoth

[4343 0]

Soccer is much older

[Oakbank01 0]

American football is a derivative of ruby FYI