Association football is often abbreviated to "football" where it is the main code of football but in places where other codes of football, such as rugby football, Gaelic football, gridiron football or Australian football, are popular, association football is often known as "soccer" to distinguish it.
Background In English, the word football was known in writing by the 14th century, as laws which prohibit similar games date back to at least that century. The football rules of Rugby football were codified in 1845. Association football rules were codified by the Football Association in England, in 1863. The alternative name soccer was coined in late 19th century England to help distinguish Association football from other football codes. Soccer is an abbreviation of the slang "associationer" (from "Association footballer") and first appeared in English public schools and universities in the 1880s (sometimes using the variant spelling "socker"). The word "soccer" is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford-Brown, an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as brekkers for breakfast and rugger for rugby football (see Oxford "-er") but the attribution is generally considered to be spurious. Clive Toye notes that "they took the third, fourth and fifth letters of Association and called it SOCcer." Some clubs in rugby or other football code strongholds adopted the suffix Association Football Club (A.F.C.) or "Soccer Club" to avoid confusion with other football codes in their area. FIFA, the world governing body for the sport, is a French-language acronym of "Fédération Internationale de Football Association" – the International Federation of Association Football. "Soccer football" has been used sometimes. The United States Soccer Federation was known as the United States Soccer Football Association from 1945 until 1974. The Canadian Soccer Association was known as the Canadian Soccer Football Association from 1958 to 1971.
Transition away from soccer in Britain For nearly a hundred years after it was first coined, soccer was used in Britain as an uncontroversial abbreviation of Association football, in formal speech and in writing. "Soccer" was more commonly used by the more educated and those of wider experiences, whereas "football" was more commonly used by the less educated and insular working class adherents of the sport, while working class adherents of Rugby League used the term "soccer". With the popularity of what was the English Football Association football code in other countries where it was called "football", that term was imported into Britain with migration, ties with Europe and globalization of media resulting in the decline in use of soccer. In the early twenty-first century, association football organizations in Australia and New Zealand, where use of "soccer" was prevalent, have promoted the use of "football" to mirror international usage and, particularly in Australian, to rebrand a sport that had been experiencing image troubles. The attempts to occupy the name "football" in the face of other football codes have not taken effect well in Australia.
English-speaking countries Usage of the alternatives "Association football" "soccer" or "football" vary in and among the countries and territories where English is the prevalent language. In many places, such as the United Kingdom, all three terms are used. Association football is known as "football" in the Commonwealth Caribbean (including Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, and others), Nepal, Malta, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Cameroon, Pakistan, Liberia, Singapore, Hong Kong and others, stretching over many regions including parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. In North America and Australia, where approximately 70 per cent of native English speakers reside, soccer is the primary term.
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