Biffo
Ken Catchpole (46)
The claim of the roundball code to exclusive ownership of the title “football” is erroneous in fact and in history. That claim rests on the assertion that the ball in soccer is played by the foot, whereas in other codes it is played by the hand. The truth is that in soccer the ball is played by any part of the body except the elbow and below. So, the name of the code should be “anywhere but below the elbow ball”.
“Football” is a generic name to distinguish between games played on foot and on horseback and has nothing to do with the mode of play.
Back in the mid 19th century, many sets of rules were used by differing clubs playing games with some similarity to parts of rugby, soccer, gaelic football and the Eton Wall Game. These clubs found it hard to make matches with others because of the variations in rules and set out to solve the problem.
In the 1860s, someone had the very good idea of bringing together the clubs playing various types of game to standardize the rules. This succeeded and then England had two clear codes. Other countries subsequently adopted the same, or very similar, rules for those two codes.
At the 1860s meetings was a group representing clubs who played under rules similar to those which now apply to soccer. This group labelled itself the “Football Association”. The English, as they often do, coined an abbreviated name for this group – “the assocs” which was pronounced with a hard “c”. Quite seamlessly, the assocs were quickly deemed to be playing “soccer” – the game of the assocs.
An interesting development subsequent to the meeting was the naming of the controlling body for England’s rugby – it was the “Rugby Football Union” (my bold). The soccer mob called themselves the "Football Association".
“Football” is a generic name to distinguish between games played on foot and on horseback and has nothing to do with the mode of play.
Back in the mid 19th century, many sets of rules were used by differing clubs playing games with some similarity to parts of rugby, soccer, gaelic football and the Eton Wall Game. These clubs found it hard to make matches with others because of the variations in rules and set out to solve the problem.
In the 1860s, someone had the very good idea of bringing together the clubs playing various types of game to standardize the rules. This succeeded and then England had two clear codes. Other countries subsequently adopted the same, or very similar, rules for those two codes.
At the 1860s meetings was a group representing clubs who played under rules similar to those which now apply to soccer. This group labelled itself the “Football Association”. The English, as they often do, coined an abbreviated name for this group – “the assocs” which was pronounced with a hard “c”. Quite seamlessly, the assocs were quickly deemed to be playing “soccer” – the game of the assocs.
An interesting development subsequent to the meeting was the naming of the controlling body for England’s rugby – it was the “Rugby Football Union” (my bold). The soccer mob called themselves the "Football Association".
