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''For other usages of the word "football" see: Football (word) .'' BACKGROUND The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 , and the name ''association football'' was coined to distinguish the game from the other versions of football played at the time. The word ''soccer'' is a colloquial abbreviation of ''association'' (from ''assoc.'') and first appeared in the 1880s . The word is sometimes credited to Charles Wreford Brown , an Oxford University student said to have been fond of shortened forms such as ''brekkers'' for breakfast and ''rugger'' for Rugby Football . In the late 19th Century the word ''soccer'' tended to be used only at Public Schools ; most people knew the game simply as ''football''. Today the term ''association football'' is rarely used, although some clubs still include ''Association Football Club'' (''AFC'') in their name. The game is sometimes known colloquially as ''footy''; the term ''footer'' was also once used but is now obsolete. ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD Football is more commonly known as ''soccer'' in certain English-speaking nations where the word "football" refers to a rival Code Of Football developed within that nation, specifically Australia , Canada , Ireland and the United States , and also in areas where Rugby Football is more popular than association football, such as Australia , New Zealand and the white communities of South Africa . In these countries "football" was often included in the names of the earliest leagues and governing bodies of the sport, but as that word became increasingly associated with other domestic forms of the game, soccer became more widely used. In the United States, the sport's governing body is the United States Soccer Federation . This body was originally called the ''U.S. Football Association'', and was formed in 1913 by the merger of the ''American Football Association'' and the ''American Amateur Football Association''. The word "soccer" was added to the name in 1945 , making it the ''U.S. Soccer Football Association'', and it did not drop the word "football" until 1974 , when it assumed its current name. Today, "soccer" is the standard name for the sport in the United States, with "football" referring instead to American Football . In Australian English , the word football usually means either Australian Rules Football or Rugby League depending on the Regional Background of the speaker. Soccer is the name used for Association football by most Australians. The usage of football to mean Australian rules or rugby football was already fixed when the first reports of Association Football In Australia occurred, in 1880 . However, the popular usages are not fixed in any legal form, such as a trademark on the word "football", and by the late 20th century, a few Australian authorities began to use the word football in relation to soccer. For example, the sports department at the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), has always used the name "football". In 2004, the Australian Soccer Association changed its name to Football Federation Australia (FFA), and announced that the official name of the sport in Australia had been changed to "football". The FFA mounted a campaign for the new name to be adopted by its subsidiary state organisations and clubs, most of whom have changed their names and/or terminology (with exception of Soccer New South Wales ). This was met with antipathy and/or bemusement by followers of Australian rules and rugby league and the game is still mostly known as soccer. Some media sources besides SBS adopted the new usage or used qualifiers such as "the world game", to avoid confusion with the more popular codes of football. However, most media outlets have not adopted the new usage. The National Team is still commonly known by its longstanding nickname, ''The Socceroos''. In Canada, "football" (or ''le football'') refers only to Canadian Football or the closely related American Football , in both of its national languages. The usage of "soccer" is so uniform that even in French -speaking Quebec , the game is known as ''le soccer'' and the provincial governing body is the ''Fédération de Soccer du Québec''. In Ireland, Gaelic Football is also played and slightly more people call it football than call it Soccor but nonetheless the governing bodies for football are the Football Association Of Ireland , in the Republic Of Ireland , and the similarly titled Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland . Many Irish people refer to both codes simply as "football" while reserving the terms "soccer" and ''Gaelic'' for occasions when context cannot resolve any ambiguity. In the Irish Language , the word for association football is ''sacar''. "Soccer" is the slightly more common name in South Africa, although black South Africans generally use "football" and the country's national association is called the South African Football Association . However, "soccer" is used by speakers of both English and Afrikaans , in which the name is ''sokker''. Outside of these countries the word "soccer" has not been commonly used and "football" remains by far the most common name to describe the sport, being the name officially used by both FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee . However, the use of "soccer" is on the rise, perhaps due to the global influence of American culture on the English language. NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD Football, in its modern form, was exported by Britons to much of the rest of the world and many of these nations adopted this common ''fotbal'') and the French , ''le football'' is often shortened to ''le foot''. Similarly, the Russian word is ''futbol'' (Футбол) and the Turkish word is ''futbol''. In (''kurat al qadam'') and Hebrew (''kaduregel''). In Polish both ways (''futbol'' and ''piłka nożna'') are used, as well as in Czech (''fotbal'' or ''kopaná''). The official name in Slovak is ''futbal'' (''fucík'' in common language) and in Hungarian there are ''futball'' or ''labdarúgás'' (meaning ''ball-kicking''), but ''foci'' is used in the common langaugage. In Italy , football is called ''calcio'', from ''calciare'' meaning ''to kick''. This is due to the game's resemblance to Calcio Fiorentino , a 17th Century ceremonial Florentine court Ritual , that has now been revived under the name ''il calcio storico'' (''historical kick'' or ''kickball in costume''). In Japan, use of the term ''sakkā'' (''サッカー'') is more common than that of the term ''futtobōru'' (''フットボール''), although the latter term would seem to be gaining popularity. In , literally means football (足=foot, '''球'''=ball), and is always associated with association football. No other sport known as football (in English) shares this name. ''Rugby'' is known as 橄榄球 (olive ball). In Thai , the word football (ฟุตปอล) is used. In Vietnamese , the term "bóng đá" is used to denote "football". Its literal meaning is "kicking ball". Aside from the name of the game itself, other foreign words based on English football terms include versions in many languages of the word ''goal'' (often ''gol'' in Romance languages) and ''schútte'' ( Basel ) or ''tschuutte'' ( Zürich ), derived from the English ''shoot'', meaning 'to play football' in German-speaking Switzerland . There's also ''nogomet'' in Croatian and Slovene which is composed of the words for "foot" and "target". Also, words derived from ''kick'' has found their way into German (noun ''kicker'') and Swedish (verb ''kicka''). In France ''le penalty'' means a Penalty Kick , however the phrase ''tir au but'' is often used in the context of a Penalty Shootout SEE ALSO
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