football is a sport where on kicks a ball around into a goal. It is the largest-played sport in the entire world. Pretty much ever European national sport is football.
So...two things i want to discuss
1. Why did Americans decide to name their sport "football" when it has already been taken?
2. when Americans discuss football, when they mention the real football they say "that's British football" or "soccer is the sport that British people call football" when it's basically the whole world?
ok, number one. Americans made a sport involving mainly running and throwing, and a kick once in a while. The Americans wanted to name their new sport, hmmm...what to call it? They had it! Football! Regardless that it was taken by every other country as the #1 sport in the world (that's no opinion)
number two. When Americans talk about football (soccer), they think of it as a British sport...No one is sure on who created football, the Chinese have had it pretty close to being the inventors, others believe Romans created it, but why say the British did? The spanish word for football is futbol (sp?), the french is somewhat the same as english, maybe that's the reason...
I'm not trying to insult/offend Americans in any way...i'm just extremely curious.
and for the record i'm english (yes, English. From the country of England, on the island of Britain)
If you are from Britain you must know that there is Irish football, Australian rules football, and rugby football. The evolution of football into a game where the ball is picked up as well as kicked is not unique to the US.
"Regardless that it was taken by every other country as the #1 sport in the world (that's no opinion)."
Conceptually incorrect. When American football was invented, or rather, developed, association football (i.e. soccer) had not yet reached its present-day popularity. Furthermore, both American football and Association football, as well as Canadian football, rugby, and Australian rules football, diverged from a common game that did indeed originate in the UK. Other countries may have had their own games of football but during the twentieth century, an international standard for Association football was adopted and I believe it was based on the British rules.
Also, association football is becoming very popular amongst Americans and it is no longer associated with the UK. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where I currently live, it is a more common sight to see children playing the international game rather than American football.
And for your record, though everyone else knows this already, I'm also English, from the south of England, on the island of Great Britain.
As Random Chappie explains, it was the English who created SOCCER (abbreviation for Association Football), the form of round-ball football exported to all countries and played internationally today. It emerged from a common pool of football games in the UK:
1) one played by kicking a ball along the ground
2) the other that involved picking up the ball
In Australian rules football or AFL footy, (pronounced foody) kicking is a major part of the game, and kicking is required to score "goals" as opposed to "behinds" (minor score).
http://www.afl.com.au
It's true that you can also use your hands and other parts of your body, not just the foot in AFL/Gridiron/Gaelic footbal. But it's the same in soccer, (except for the hands) where you don't just use the foot -- you also use other parts of the body -- so it isn't really "foot"-ball either.
For the majority of a game of football (soccer), the foot is used to propel the ball. I think I understand what Daniel is saying, which doesn't make a lot of sense to call a game 'football' when you mainly use your hands, and also when that name is already used for a game in which the feet are mainly used.
Also, is rugby really short for rugby football or where you just emphasising your point, Steve K?
With all due respect, how can you learn anything, including a language, if you refuse to listen to what is said and refuse to use any initiative.
It was explained in this thread that rugby, Australian rules, American football all come from the same origin. Surely people who play that game are entitled to continue to call their game what they have always called it without having to check with the European Union commissar for political correctness.
Now go to Google and search for "Rugby Football" and you will find that most rugby leagues are called Rugby Football Unions or Leagues.
Do you need help with feeding yourself too?
Yeah, actually, if you could just cut this up for me, that would be great.
Good sense of humour for putting up with me playing the smart ass. Have a good weekend.
Also, would you really refer to it as political correctness?
Ah yes, political correctness.
I probably got a little carried away. I guess I am so used to the idea that the traditions or idiosyncracies of what is perceived as the dominant, Western, especially Anglo-Saxon (usually a most inaccurate epithet) culture are bad. Whereas the supposedly universal values proposed by a certain intellectual elite are good, rational, and progressive.
Thus American football is wrong and soccer football is right. Inches and pounds are bad, the metric system is good. In Canada, why support hockey, it is only our old tradition. We should support badminton to make the new immigrant feel at home.
But the people of the British Isles (not necessarily Anglo-Saxon) developed football which evolved into other sports in Britain and elsewhere. Leave them alone. Their sport, their tradition, their language.
Why should these societies become "multicultural" while the cultures that are infiltrating them accept no such diversity in their homelands.
If MacDonald's sets up shop in Asia that is bad. If there are Chinese restaurants in the ancient cities of Europe that is multiculturalism. That idiot fake French peasant Jove what's his name drives his truck into a MacDonald restaurant but wants the Americans to eat French cheese?
The Chinese movie "Hero" and Latino or Black music are popular, not because they are promoted at tax-payers' expense as an expression of anti-racism or multiculturalism, but because they appeal to people.
I am against everyone speaking English. I speak nine languages going on eleven. I value the cutlures of all places, but that includes the cultures of the West. The move to multiculturalize the west, is just cultural annihilation. Respect all cultures in their homeland. Leave peoples' traditions alone.
All this as a digression on football.
I agree with everything Steve K has written, especially:
"Why should these societies become "multicultural" while the cultures that are infiltrating them accept no such diversity in their homelands?"
"The move to multiculturalize the west, is just cultural annihilation. Respect all cultures in their homeland. Leave peoples' traditions alone."
110% !
People use PC to hide these home truths.
<<soccer football is right>>
yep
<<the people of the British Isles developed football>>
yep
<<Inches and pounds are bad, the metric system is good>>
yep
<<I am against everyone speaking English>>
yep
<<Leave them alone. Their sport, their tradition, their language>>
yep
<<I value the cutlures of all places>>
yep
<<Respect all cultures in their homeland. Leave peoples' traditions alone>>
yep
<<I probably got a little carried away>>
nope
<<political correctness>>
;-(
If you say "football" in Australia, it's usually taken to mean Rubgy League or Aussie Rules depending on the state. There are many different games they are all football if you ask me.
Come and vote for which one you think is the real "football" on the poll I made. Click here:
http://p081.ezboard.com/feuropa2frm3.showMessage?topicID=22.topic
Here are the results out of a total seventeen votes so far.
"Football is ...
"A) soccer. 9 / 52.9%
"B) American/Canadian football. 4 / 23.5%
"C) rugby league/union. 1 / 5.9%
"D) Aussie Rules football. 0 / 0.0%
"E) all of the above. 3 / 17.6%"
I voted "Football is all of the above." I hadn't included Gaelic football I'm afraid. This is because I wasn't aware of it when I made the poll but I'd say that it's football too along with the rest of them.
"... association football ... is no longer associated with the UK."
Perhaps they should start calling it "Dissociation Football" ... or, maybe, "Disser" for short.
"... doesn't make a lot of sense to call a game 'football' when you mainly use your hands,"
Ah, yes, but if we started calling it "handball", the handball fans would complain that that name was already taken and that it doesn't make sense to call such a game "handball" when you so often kick the ball.
"Political correctness" is nothing but a label. It's used to describe too many things of too wide a variety. Some of these are valid others are not. By lumping all these things together under the umbrella of so-called "political correctness" people "use PC to hide ... home truths." I would have this blanket term bannished and get people to make the effort to back their opinions up on truer and more fundamental principles without the crutch of the latest buzzword. Anyway back to football.
We all know what political correctness means. It is the assumption that certain attitudes, opinions, policies etc. have been determined to be progressive, modern, correct, post-modern, whatever. Discussion is over. The correct position having been decided by our intellectual and moral superiors, to challenge these positions brings forth much shrill frothing at the mouth from these self-styled progressives. These people pervade our government institutions, educational establishments, NGO's and other organizations that live off the financial contributions of people in commerce and industry. Intolerance is perhaps a better word.
I still think that the day is coming when "political correctness" will become "politically incorrect" and thus implode upon itself.