Welcome to the Reuters Soccer Blog, your forum for discussion and intelligent debate on the hot topics from the international soccer scene.
Reuters sports correspondents are experts in their field and football fanatics all. Reporters from Rio to Berlin, from Milan to Tokyo, will regularly give you the lowdown on what goes on behind the scenes with the big international players and the top clubs and national sides. They speak to players in their own tongue and want to start a conversation with you in the language of football.
We’ll raise the issues but it’s your discussion and we want to hear what you think. If there are issues you want to bring up, we want to know about them. We want to hear what you like about the world’s greatest game and what you don’t like. And if you’re not happy with the way we cover the sport, we’d like you to tell us how you think we could do better.
Some people tell us we should always say “football”, not “soccer”. Well, we don’t agree and this is why. There seems to be some strange misconception, especially in the U.K., that the term “soccer” is American. However, the term was probably coined in the 19th century by former England captain Charles Wreford-Brown as a contraction of Association Football — to distinguish it from Rugby Football or “rugger”. It’s a traditional name and we love the game’s traditions — which is why we still say “linesman” and not “assistant referee”. But you may think differently… Just let us know.
Paul Radford is Reuters Sports Editor
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I thought you might be interested in this. It is a link to a middle school soccer team website in Houston. It is pretty funny. Check out the “interesting facts”, “stone face”, “ask the ’stache”, and “photo album” sections. A lot of the boys have chosen your blog to read and report each week in class so it would mean a lot to them. Let us know what you think. Thanks.
-Coach
- Posted by CoachHi Jan, and thanks for your comment. Just in case you haven’t seen there are a couple of pieces about england’s coach which you can find at the main page, http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer. I’d love to see you comment over there as well. All welcome.
- Posted by kevin fylanThis is a vey interesting discussion about the history of football, and whether or not you should call it soccer, but it’s not really going to get us anywhere. Let’s start talking about some current football news - e.g. England’s attrocious performance in recent games, culminating in one of the most boring matches I’ve ever seen against Israel. Why is our team so much worse than the sum of its parts, and should McClaren’s head roll asap? (BTW, my opinion is yes)
- Posted by JanWell, now that the name’s been dragged through hell are we going to debate the “Great game”?
- Posted by aidy parkerShould proffessional players be penalised for not obeying the games laws? i.e. not retreating 10 yards, claiming throw ins/ fouls/ corners/hand balls, when the referee has clearly seen and made a judgement on any given incident. If as i suspect that upcoming talent is taught to cheat to gain any advantage for the team should the team be penalised?
Yes,I think differently, the proper terms is football, not soccer. Even if the term soccer was used first time by an european, now is used frequently by the americans, so is american, not an UK term.
- Posted by masticCharles Wreford-Brown (9 October 1866 26 November 1951) is usually credited with inventing the word soccer as an abbreviation for association football.
He was born in Bristol and attended Charterhouse School before going on to Oriel College, Oxford University. He was a keen amateur sportsman and played both cricket and football for the university. He later played cricket for Gloucestershire and football for the Old Carthusians and Corinthians, and captained the English national football team several times between 1894 and 1895.
- Posted by JimI am surprised by the US vs other argument in this blog. In Australia Soccer was the traditional name for at least the last 70 years (pre US influence), and my travels suggest it is a traditional name in some other countries, particularly those with a UK historical connection. Does this suggest soccer was the global traditional name? So why is there an argument anyway? I have noticed a drive to rename all that was “soccer” in Australia as “football”. Is the passsion of the game being harnessed for commercial benefit? A commercial need to narrow and focus a brand might begin a push for a common name. A clever move would be to associate an alternate brand “soccer” as part of US culture - that would guarantee quick rejection in many places.
- Posted by Colin CunninghamFootball SHOULD be called football, wherever you are from.
why? simple,because that’s the rules of the game - you kick the ball with your feet. If you were meant to handle the ball, it would be called rugby, or anything else with ball.
with this definition in mind, it makes me wonder why did the founding fathers of american football decide to call it football, if they are supposed handle the ball?????
- Posted by JohnHow can anygame that uses”hands” be called “football”?
- Posted by willy250Why do you insist on renaming what BILLIONS of people call football around the world? Your job is to report the news, not make them or twist them. It would be very improper and occasionally silly to try and explain in 200 languages that what people have been calling football really isn’t or shouldn’t be called that. How about “letting freedom ring” and having the world have it’s say instead of imposing yet another americanism on them?
- Posted by dimitris economou