Oxford slang gave the world the word soccer
Association football takes its formal name from the 1863 Football Association in London—distinguishing kicking rules from rugby. Oxford students shortened association to assoccer, then soccer, alongside rugger for rugby. Today an estimated 250 million people play in over 200 countries.
Association football pits two teams of eleven players who mainly kick an inflated ball toward a rectangular goal. Matches traditionally run two forty-five-minute halves. FIFA estimates roughly 250 million active players across more than 200 countries and territories, making it the world's most popular sport.
Kicking games arose independently worldwide. China's Han-dynasty cuju passed a ball without letting it touch ground toward elevated goals; kemari in Japan and chuk-guk in Korea followed. Medieval European mob games mixed handling and kicking. Cambridge rules drawn up in 1848 influenced later codes. On 26 October 1863 the Football Association met at London's Freemasons' Tavern; eleven clubs ratified thirteen laws banning running with the ball and hacking shins. Blackheath withdrew, later helping form the Rugby Football Union in 1871.
Institutions spread the game. Charles W. Alcock founded the FA Cup in 1872 and arranged the first official international, Scotland versus England in Glasgow that same year. William McGregor launched the world's first football league in Birmingham in 1888 with twelve Midlands and northern clubs. The International Football Association Board formed in 1886; FIFA, created in Paris in 1904, joined IFAB deliberations in 1913.
Naming reflects history, not superiority. Oxford -er slang from about 1875 produced soccer from association and rugger from rugby. Britain and much of Ulster say football; Australia, Canada, and the United States usually say soccer where other codes compete. FIFA states modern rules descend from nineteenth-century English public-school standardization, while acknowledging ancient kicking games elsewhere without claiming direct lineage.
Source: Association football
