Serge from BabkaDec 7

I used to say that soccer is the real football, but...

“When you look at what has happened to the sport, which we call soccer in the U.S., we never call it that because we have another conflict with a thing called football," Trump said while attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw Friday in Washington D.C. "But when you think about it, this is football, there is no question. We have to come up with another name for the other one. It really does not make sense when you think about it."

Show threadKerploppusDec 7
@serge Brits came up with the name "soccer", and now pooh-pooh Americans for using it. For that reason alone, Gridiron is football and the munted version of hockey with the super corrupt world org and the players who take dives to try and cheat is Soccer, and this should be enforced with all the muscle the American hegemon can muster.
Show threadTerryB
@kerploppus @serge The British (English) called it "soccer". But that's missing the point. The world now calls that game "football"- as do we in Britain. And tends to see the US calling their domestic game "football" and actual football "soccer" as American exceptionalism. Which makes Trump's meandering quite strange even by his own doolally standard. Since it's the opposite of his normal shtick. (And me all of a sudden curiously reluctant to oppose US calling their game football).
Dec 7 at 10:53amWeb
Show threadKerploppusDec 7

@terryb @serge That's really funny. See, the reading I've done on it told me that football and rugby were evolving apart at the time, and all three sports were getting their names. Brits named soccer soccer and football football. Football died a quick death in the UK in favor of rugby. We kept those names, though.

That brits see our use of the name football as American exceptionalism instead of just being a different convention (which is absolutely is, nobody here actually puffs up their chest about it, much less gives it much thought) makes me wonder if there's not some of the old British Empire thinking bubbling up. I've seen it a number of times around the world in the form of Brits being able to speak the local language yet refusing to.

I'm reminded of how the world complains that they can't wrap their heads around how we measure things, and call us stupid for it. The best part is that we know and use metric all the time.

Show threadKerploppusDec 7

@terryb @serge And actually, come to think of it, I don't think the point you say I missed is actually a particularly good one- "Football" isn't what the world calls it, they have different names in different languages, many of them a cognate to football, but that falls off outside of European languages pretty quick. Japan calls it "Sakkaa", for example. Soccer. It's "Sokker" in Afrikaans. China calls it zuqiu, which is football.

I forget what they call Mt. Everest in the Himalayas, but you get my point. Different languages means different names get to all be correct.