A S S O C C E R

In the 1880s, students at Oxford distinguished between rugby football and a soccer. The latter term was further shortened to just soccer, sometimes spelled as S O C K E R. By the 20th century, rugby football was more commonly called rugby while association football had earned the right to be known as plain old football. In Australia, we don't say football for soccer,. We say soccer, and it's the same for the US. It would be confusing. But most people never bothered with the first word or words. And as a result, Americans called it football and Australians called their respective sport, Australian rules football, football as well.

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