Related Topics:
football

One of the best-known differences between British and American English is the fact that the sport known as football in Great Britain is usually called soccer in the United States. Because the sport originated in England, it is often assumed that soccer is an Americanism. In fact, the word is thoroughly British in origin. So why is it that Americans (not to mention Canadians, Australians, and others) are likelier to use the word than Brits are? The answer lies in how the sport developed in each country.

Although football-type games have been around for centuries, the sport we know today is often said to have begun in 1863, when England’s newly formed Football Association wrote down a set of rules. At the time, it was the most widely played game of its kind in the country, but it wasn’t the only one. Rugby football, named after an English boarding school, was a variation that allowed players to carry and run with the ball to advance it toward the goal. The game played under the Football Association’s rules thus became known as association football.

Inevitably, the names would be shortened. Linguistically creative students at the University of Oxford in the 1880s distinguished between the sports of “rugger” (rugby football) and “assoccer” (association football). The latter term was further shortened to “soccer” (sometimes spelled “socker”), and the name quickly spread beyond the campus. However, “soccer” never became much more than a nickname in Great Britain. By the 20th century, rugby football was more commonly called rugby, while association football had earned the right to be known as just plain football.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a sport emerged in the late 19th century that borrowed elements of both rugby and association football. Before long, it had proved more popular than either of them. In full, it was known as gridiron football, but most people never bothered with the first word. As a result, American association-football players increasingly adopted soccer to refer to their sport. The United States Football Association, which had formed in the 1910s as the official organizing body of American soccer, changed its name to the United States Soccer Football Association in 1945, and it later dispensed with the “Football” altogether. No longer just a nickname, soccer had stuck.

Other countries where the word soccer is common include those that, like the United States, have competing forms of football. For instance, Canada has its own version of gridiron football; Ireland is home to Gaelic football; and Australia is mad about Australian rules football (which is derived from rugby). In places where football can be ambiguous, soccer is usefully precise.

John M. Cunningham

World Cup

football tournament
Also known as: FIFA World Cup
Formally:
FIFA World Cup
Key People:
Sepp Blatter
Zinedine Zidane
Birgit Prinz
Top Questions

What is the World Cup?

Why is the World Cup every four years?

How does qualifying for the World Cup work?

Where does World Cup prize money come from?

Who is the World Cup’s top scorer?

World Cup, in football (soccer), quadrennial tournament of men’s national teams that determines the sport’s world champion. It is likely the most popular sporting event in the world, drawing billions of television viewers every tournament. Countries worldwide compete vigorously, many years in advance, to host the lucrative event, and accusations of bribery connected to the awarding of hosting rights have long shadowed the tournament. In fact, the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal implicated more than two dozen FIFA officials and their associates in a 24-year self-enrichment scheme that reached the highest levels of FIFA management. The equivalent tournament for women’s national football teams is the Women’s World Cup.

The first competition for the cup was organized in 1930 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and was won by Uruguay. Held every four years since that time, except during World War II, the competition consists of international sectional tournaments leading to a final elimination event made up of 32 national teams. Unlike Olympic football, World Cup teams are not limited to players of a certain age or amateur status, so the competition serves more nearly as a contest between the world’s best players. Referees are selected from lists that are submitted by all the national associations.

The trophy cup awarded from 1930 to 1970 was the Jules Rimet Trophy, named for the Frenchman who proposed the tournament. This cup was permanently awarded in 1970 to then three-time winner Brazil (1958, 1962, and 1970), and a new trophy called the FIFA World Cup was put up for competition. Many other sports have organized “World Cup” competitions.

Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)
Britannica Quiz
Great Moments in Sports Quiz

For a list of World Cup champions, see table.

FIFA World Cup—men
year result
*Won after extra time (AET).
**Won on penalty kicks.
1930 Uruguay 4 Argentina 2
1934 Italy* 2 Czechoslovakia 1
1938 Italy 4 Hungary 2
1950 Uruguay 2 Brazil 1
1954 West Germany 3 Hungary 2
1958 Brazil 5 Sweden 2
1962 Brazil 3 Czechoslovakia 1
1966 England* 4 West Germany 2
1970 Brazil 4 Italy 1
1974 West Germany 2 Netherlands 1
1978 Argentina* 3 Netherlands 1
1982 Italy 3 West Germany 1
1986 Argentina 3 West Germany 2
1990 West Germany 1 Argentina 0
1994 Brazil** 0 Italy 0
1998 France 3 Brazil 0
2002 Brazil 2 Germany 0
2006 Italy** 1 France 1
2010 Spain* 1 Netherlands 0
2014 Germany* 1 Argentina 0
2018 France 4 Croatia 2
2022 Argentina** 3 France 3
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.