In Australia, “football” may refer to any of several popular codes. These include Australian Football, rugby league, rugby union, and association football. As is the case in the United States and Canada, association football is most commonly referred to in Australia as soccer.
The name “soccer” was brought to Australia by fans of the game played under the title “British Association Football”. This contraction of “association football” (soccer) was commonly used by people who followed and played the game.
footy - the name for Australian football throughout most of Australia (with the exception of NSW, Qld and ACT); it refers to Rugby League Football in Sydney and Brisbane. Also the name of the ball itself. foopy - another term (relatively new) used to describe the ball.
In May 2007, the organisation was renamed New Zealand Football (NZF), replacing the word "soccer" with "football" in line with the common usage in other parts of the world. Although formal organisations for football have always referred to the sport as football, it has commonly been called soccer.
Terminology. Soccer is played in Canada according to the rules of association football. What is called soccer in Canada today was generally known as football in Canada in the early days of the sport, as it is known in much of the rest of the world today.
Although the official English name of the Japan Football Association uses the term "football", the term sakkā (サッカー), derived from "soccer", is much more commonly used than futtobōru (フットボール).
Mexico's most popular sport is football (called fútbol in Mexico). As of 2020, the top tier leagues in Mexico are Liga MX for the men and the Liga MX Femenil for women.
Football (soccer), known in Germany as Fußball, is hugely popular in all parts of the country and can be considered a national sport.
Association football, or soccer, as it is typically called in South Africa, is the nation's most popular sport and South Africa national soccer team (Bafana Bafana) is the nation's favourite sports team followed by rugby union and cricket.
dinger (Australian slang) franger (Australian slang)
Aussie Word of the Week
In New South Wales and Queensland, footy generally means rugby league. In Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, it means Aussie Rules. For British backpackers, it means soccer. Do you pray to the footy gods?
In reference to the British, first attested in Australia in 1912 as rhyming slang for immigrant with additional reference to the likelihood of sunburn turning their skin pomegranate red.
It has long been one of the more minor dividing lines between Britain and the US: in the UK we say football and in America they say soccer. But whilst the word soccer is dominant across the pond, it is - like the beautiful game itself - very much British in origin.
The Australian National Dictionary explains that the Australian usages of mate derive from the British word 'mate' meaning 'a habitual companion, an associate, fellow, comrade; a fellow-worker or partner', and that in British English it is now only in working-class use.
It is the most popular sport in Brazil, and Brazilians passion for the sport makes them often refer to their country as "o País do Futebol" ("the country of football"). Nevertheless, this was not always the case.
Sport in Cuba
Whilst baseball is Cuba's national sport, football (or what Americans know as soccer and is known in Spanish as futbol), is becoming increasingly popular.
The terms "football" and "soccer" are used interchangeably in Ireland's media. In most of Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland, East Donegal and Inishowen, association football is usually referred to as 'football' while Gaelic football is usually referred to as 'Gaelic'.
In France, they call it football; in Latin America and Spain they call it fútbol.
Either way – it's piłka nożna in Poland and футбол (futbol) in Ukraine.
Fútbol is a direct Spanish translation of the English word football. It is an international team sport more commonly known in the United States and Canada as soccer.
The team is known as gli Azzurri (the Blues), because Savoy blue is the common colour of the national teams representing Italy, as it is the traditional paint of the royal House of Savoy, which reigned over the Kingdom of Italy.