Where did the term 'Soccer' come from?

So why is it that the most popular sport in the world has two names? Well, because in England when football (soccer) first started it was known as 'association football' but there was already 'rugby football' which could cause some confusion.

The word soccer was just a shorting of the word association formed by university students from Oxford and Cambridge. As these were the more upper class people that called it soccer it probably explains why it did not spread through the rest of the working class and the name remained football through out most of the world.

Only three English speaking countries in the world refer to it as soccer in their rules and their association; United States, Canada and Samoa. Although it is often called soccer in Australia and their national teams nickname is the 'Socceroos' they still officially refer to it as football.

The US did not always call it soccer as when the game was first introduced in the late 19th century from England it was called football but after World War Two the growing popularity of the NFL caused the US to change it's name from football to soccer.