Football: What's in a word?

Alejo Orvaņanos of Mexico asks: "Don't you find it interesting that a game played using the feet, and occasionally the head, chest and shoulders, is called soccer and that a game which is played with the hands, carrying and passing the ball, with an occasional kick to score is called football?. Should it not be the other way around?: I propose soccer be called football, period, as it indeed is in many countries, and that "football" be called "knocker", since the players spend most of the time banging against each other".

My response: The US is the only country in which football is called soccer. The confusion will be solved when American football disappears, with bullfighting, bear-baiting, and other primitive sports. The rise of soccer has been swift. The Oxford English Dictionary gives no example of the use of the word until the late nineteenth century, when an association was formed to lay down the rules. The word "soccer" is said to be a corruption (!?) of "association football". Cf Westminster Gazette 11 Jan. 7/1/1894: "The rival attractions of 'rugger' and 'socker'". "Rugby" is named after the school where it started, and was the basis for American football.

WAISers may be surprised to hear that I, the critic of the competitive spirit, have decided that soccer will save the world. The players show extraordinary physical fitness. If kids around the world play it, they will stay in good shape. The players show an equally extraordinary sense of cooperation as they pass the ball from one to another in complex combinations often over long distances. People must cooperate. Finally, teams learn to lose, as political parties must. In many countries itf a party loses it screams "we wus robbed" and start a revolution. That is why I was sorry to hear the Korean referee damned, albeit justly. Poor fellow! For the rest of his life he will be a sports leper. Happily, there was no riot, as there so often is in such circumstances. The Turks present were few and well-behaved.

Ronald Hilton - 6/6/02