Football - Use of The Word "football"

Use of The Word "football"

The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word "football" is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant within a particular region. So, effectively, what the word "football" means usually depends on where one says it.

Association football is known generally as soccer where other codes of football are dominant, including: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. American football is always football in the United States. In francophone Quebec, where Canadian football is more popular, the Canadian code is known as football and association football is known as le soccer. Of the 45 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, most currently use Football in their organizations' official names. The FIFA affiliates in Canada and the United States use Soccer in their names.

A few FIFA affiliates have recently "normalized" to using "Football", including:

• Australia's association football governing body changed its name in 2007 from using "soccer" to "football"
• New Zealand also changed in 2007, saying "the international game is called football."
• Samoa changed from "Samoa Football (Soccer) Federation" to "Football Federation Samoa" in 2009.