The 2026 FIFA World Cup is now in full swing across North America, and it's bringing more than just brilliant football to the continent – it's reigniting a familiar debate about what to actually call the sport.
Americans say "soccer" while virtually everyone else says "football," and it turns out this drives Brits absolutely mad.
But here's the thing: the word "soccer" is actually British.
Yes, really. The term that makes English fans cringe was invented right here in England, not across the Atlantic.
England and Scotland are taking part in this year's World Cup across the pond
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With 48 nations competing this summer, fans are only just discovering this delightful irony.
It all started at Oxford University back in the 1880s, where students had a habit of shortening words and sticking "er" on the end.
The sport's official name was "association football" – a title given when the Football Association established the rules in 1863.
Oxford students took "association," chopped it down to "assoc," and eventually landed on "soccer."
Rugby football got the same treatment, becoming "rugger" for a while, though that nickname didn't quite stick around.
Americans have adopted the word "soccer" despite the rest of the world calling it football
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A Victorian-era dictionary, Passing English of the Victorian Era, describes this as classic "Oxford minting" – taking common words and playfully mangling them into something new.
For decades, British newspapers used "soccer" without anyone batting an eyelid.
When England suffered that humiliating defeat to the USA at the 1950 World Cup, the Daily Mail called it "the biggest soccer upset of all time."
Sir Alf Ramsey, who played in that match, used exactly the same phrase in his autobiography.
And when Ramsey led the Three Lions to glory in 1966, the word "soccer" appeared right there on the Daily Mirror's front page.
Papers kept using the term happily until the 1990s, and Sky Sports' beloved Soccer AM ran until 2023 before finally being cancelled.
The term gradually fell out of favour in Britain but found a permanent home in America, where it helped distinguish the beautiful game from American football – the padded, touchdown-scoring sport that dominates stateside.
It's not just Americans who say "soccer," though.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and Japan all use the term too.
Meanwhile, fans across the 16 World Cup host cities will hear countless variations of "football" – from the Spanish "fútbol" to the German "fußball" and the French "le foot."
Some critics have even jokingly suggested American football should be called "handegg" instead, using the same naming logic.