There are numerous types of soccer, although it is easy to find the differences between soccer and American football. However, there are those who doubt whether soccer has different rules.
Linguistic differences
One of the most well-known differences between British and American English is the fact that the sport known as football in Britain is often called soccer in the United States. Since the sport originated in England, it is often assumed that soccer is an Americanism. But the word is of entirely British origin. So why are Americans more likely to use the word than Brits? The answer lies in how the sport developed in each country.
Although football-type sports have been around for centuries, the sport we know today is said to have started in 1863, when the newly formed English Football Association drafted a set of rules. At the time, it was the most played sport of its kind in the country, but it wasn’t the only one. The rugby football, named after an English boarding school, was a variation that allowed players to carry and run with the ball to advance towards goal. The sport played under the rules of the Football Association became known as association football.
Inevitably, the names had to be shortened. Linguistically creative students at Oxford University in the 1880s distinguished between the sports of “rugger” (rugby football) and “assoccer” (association football). The latter term was further shortened to “soccer” (sometimes spelled “socker”), and the name quickly spread beyond campus. However, “soccer” never became more than a nickname in Britain. In the 20th century, rugby football was more commonly called rugby, while association football had earned the right to be known simply as soccer.
Are football and soccer the same?
In the United States, a sport emerged in the late 19th century that borrowed elements from both rugby union and association football. Before long, he had proven to be more popular than any of them. It was mostly known as gridiron football, but most people never bothered with the first word. As a result, American association football players increasingly adopted soccer to refer to their sport. In the case of the United States, the term soccer is used to differentiate it from American football. But yes, football and soccer they are the same sport.
The United States Soccer Association, which had been formed in the 1910s as the official organizing body for American soccer, changed its name to the United States Soccer Association in 1945, then dispensed with the ” soccer”. It was no longer just a nickname, soccer had stayed.
Other countries where the word soccer is common are those that, like the United States, have competitive forms of soccer. For example, Canada has its own version of field soccer; Ireland is the home of Gaelic football; and Australia is crazy about Australian rules football (derived from rugby).