Trump Proposes Renaming Soccer to Football in the US, Igniting Century-Old Battle Over the Beautiful Game
That's a ballsy idea! President Donald Trump weighed in on the age-old debate about the proper name for soccer — insisting it should be called football in the United States. Trump announced his controversial preference during the World Cup 2026 drawing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on Friday afternoon, where he was honored as the “very first winner” of the FIFA Peace Prize. “When you look at what has happened to football in the United States, [or] ‘soccer’ in the United States, we seem to never call it that because we have a little bit of a conflict with another thing that’s called ‘football’,” Trump said during an on-stage Q&A before the drawing. “But when you think about it, shouldn’t it really be called, I mean, this is football, there’s no question about that. We have to come up with another name for the NFL stuff. It really doesn’t make sense, when you think about it, it isn’t really football,” he added. Trump’s stance was met with raucous applause, encouraged by his longtime ally and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
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England is blamed for the soccer-football split, says Stefan Szymanski
The soccer-football debate has persisted for generations, with many claiming the US is at fault for rebranding the sport with an Americanized name. However, Stefan Szymanski, a professor in sports management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology, determined that England is actually to blame. In a paper-turned-book, “It’s Football, Not Soccer (And Vice Versa): On the History, Emotion, and Ideology Behind One of the Internet’s Most Ferocious Debates,” released in 2014, Szymanski breaks down soccer’s complex etymology to help clear the air. In the early 1800s in England, football and rugby were variations of the same sport, Szymanski explained in his original essay, as cited by TIME Magazine. It was a relatively lawless game, and groups tended to just adapt their own rules along the way, he said. In 1863, the Football Association was founded and codified the first formal rules of football — so that aristocratic boys at different schools could compete against one another, according to the essay. The Rugby Football Union did the same in 1871, and the sports officially split into their own realms. Still, the establishment of the two English associations created confusion amongst the boys, who adapted the terms “rugger” and “soccer” to differentiate between them, according to the essay. “It was a fad at Oxford and Cambridge to use ‘er’ at the end of many words, such as foot-er, sport-er, and as Association did not take an ‘er’ easily, it was, and is, sometimes spoken of as Soccer,” Szymanski writes, citing a 1905 letter published by The New York Times. During wartime, when American troops were stationed around Europe, the term soccer became even more popular, Szymanski said. The term’s acceptance, though, waxed and waned based on the status of the “Special Relationship,” or the ties between the US and UK governments. The 1970s were regarded as a low point in the relationship, spurred by the US’ growing isolationism and Britain’s dwindling influence on global affairs, according to a 2015 paper published by Edinburgh University. While things were righted during the 1980s, Szymanski said that the British had already turned against using the word soccer. “The penetration of the game into American culture has led to backlash against the use of the word in Britain, where it was once considered an innocuous alternative to the word ‘football’,” Szymanski writes. What do you think? Post a comment. Today, soccer is commonly used in America, Canada, and Australia — three countries that each have a different sport already called football. The first official game of American football was played in 1892, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The long arc of terms: wartime, prestige, and the public who uses the names
During wartime, when American troops were stationed around Europe, the term soccer became even more popular, Szymanski said. The term’s acceptance, though, waxed and waned based on the status of the “Special Relationship,” or the ties between the US and UK governments. The 1970s were regarded as a low point in the relationship, spurred by the US’ growing isolationism and Britain’s dwindling influence on global affairs, according to a 2015 paper published by Edinburgh University. While things were righted during the 1980s, Szymanski said that the British had already turned against using the word soccer. “The penetration of the game into American culture has led to backlash against the use of the word in Britain, where it was once considered an innocuous alternative to the word ‘football’,” Szymanski writes.
Today’s usage and the American football milestone
Today, soccer is commonly used in America, Canada, and Australia — three countries that each have a different sport already called football. The first official game of American football was played in 1892, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
