‘Soccer’ is incorrect, or is it still the fine term for the beautiful game?
Key takeaways
- (*) - At the 2026 World Cup draw, FIFA Peace Prize recipient and U.S.
- To me, this disparagement of the word soccer is not only petty and tiresome – it is also incorrect.
- Rather than making the word taboo, the football ecosystem should embrace it.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
(*) - At the 2026 World Cup draw, FIFA Peace Prize recipient and U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the game should really be called football. <br /> There s no question about it. We have to come up with another name for the NFL. It really doesn t make any sense, said Trump, an apparently new convert to the round-ball game.He isn t alone. The word soccer is, in some parts of the world, shunned by some fans.
Indeed, as a scholar of the sport who teaches a course called Soccer and Global Politics, I am bombarded with comments that the word soccer does not make any sense, and that people who use that term obviously know nothing about the beautiful game.
To me, this disparagement of the word soccer is not only petty and tiresome – it is also incorrect. It ignores the roots of the sport and the development of the language of the game.