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29 minutes ago
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Why the US might finally start calling soccer 'football'
It is the world's most popular sport and yet there is still debate over what it should actually be called. Is it football or soccer? U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the topic while at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last Sunday. He joked that he could pass an executive order to bring the United States in line with much of the rest of the world and ensure that from now on Americans refer to it as football. 'I think I could do that,' he said with a smile during an interview with host broadcaster DAZN. It was a light-hearted comment, but at a time when the U.S. is playing an increasingly significant role in soccer the question of why Americans continue to call it by a different name to the one by which it is most commonly known has been raised again. 'They call it football, we call it soccer. I'm not sure that change could be made very easily,' Trump said. Soccer keeps growing in the U.S. and so does its influence on the sport. It is co-hosting the men's World Cup with Canada and Mexico next year — the third year in a row that it stages a major tournament after the 2024 Copa America and this summer's Club World Cup. Other factors are keeping soccer more often in the U.S. consciousness -- and perhaps they will make saying 'football" more commonplace in a tough sporting landscape. One of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi, plays for MLS team Inter Miami; the popularity of the Premier League and Champions League is booming; and the documentary series 'Welcome to Wrexham' about a low-level Welsh club co-owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, has attracted new eyeballs. Don't blame Americans for calling it soccer Despite 'soccer' being widely associated with the U.S., it is commonly accepted that the word was actually coined in Britain, perhaps as far back as the 1880s. The exact date when it was first used is not known, but it is believed 'soccer' was derived from 'association football,' which was the first official name of the sport. The charity English Heritage says the nickname may have first been used by pupils at the iconic Harrow School to 'distinguish the new association game from their older pursuit, known as 'footer.'' Numerous versions of football began to flourish, often involving handling a ball more than kicking it. One example dating back to the 1600s and still played today in England is Royal Shrovetide. Rugby is another example. The English Football Association was created in 1863 and drew up codified rules for associated football to set it apart from other versions being played elsewhere in Britain and, from there, soccer as we know it was born. Dr. Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, wrote the book 'It's Football, Not Soccer (And Vice Versa)' and explored the origins of the name. In a lecture to the American University of Beirut in 2019 he said soccer was 'very clearly a word of English/British origin.' 'And bear in mind that the name 'association football' doesn't really appear until the 1870s," he said, 'so it appears really very early on in the history of the game and the word 'soccer' has been used over and over again since it was coined at the end of the 19th century.' Soccer was a commonly used term in Britain 'Soccer' is not a commonly used term in Britain these days but that has not always been the case. It was the title of a popular Saturday morning television show, 'Soccer AM,' which ran from 1994 to 2023 on the Premier League's host broadcaster Sky Sports. England great and 1966 World Cup winner Bobby Charlton ran popular schools for decades, titled 'Bobby Charlton's Soccer School.' And Matt Busby — Manchester United's iconic manager who won the 1968 European Cup — titled his autobiography, which was published in 1974, 'Soccer at the Top, My Life in Football." That book title suggests the terms 'soccer' and 'football' were interchangeable in British culture at that time. Perhaps the word 'soccer' isn't the real problem Szymanski suggested the problem some people have with 'soccer' isn't the word at all. But rather that it is specifically used in America. 'It's when Americans use this word that we get the outpourings of distress and horror, and one of the most popular thoughts that people throw at this is to say that American football is not really football,' he said in his lecture. He argued that given the overwhelming popularity of the NFL in the U.S. it makes perfect sense to differentiate between soccer and its own version of football. Not just Americans call it soccer The use of the word 'soccer' is a bit more confused in other countries. Australia, which has its own Australian rules football along with both rugby codes, commonly uses the term and its national men's team are known as the Socceroos. It's soccer federation, however, is called Football Australia. It's a similar situation in Ireland, where Gaelic football is popular. The term 'soccer' is used but the national soccer team is still governed by a body called the Football Association of Ireland. Canada, like the U.S. simply calls it soccer, which clearly distinguishes it from the NFL and Canadian Football League. The Associated Press stylebook says soccer is the preferred term in the U.S. but notes that 'around the world the sport is referred to as football.' ___ James Robson is at ___ AP soccer:
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Kevin Holland targets seven fights in 2025, still trying to get Colby Covington
NEW ORLEANS – Kevin Holland is confident he can break the UFC record for most fights in a year. Holland (28-13 MMA, 15-10 UFC) competed and won five times in 2020, earning him MMA Junkie's Fighter of the Year. Just over halfway through this year, Holland enters his fourth fight when he takes on Daniel Rodriguez (19-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC) on Saturday's UFC 318 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) main card at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. Despite now being at welterweight, Holland plans on distancing himself from the UFC record of five fights in a year, which he's tied for with multiple fighters. "I've got to do seven just to go ahead and top the record," Holland said during Wednesday's media day. "We're four down. I think we're getting Neil Magny after this one since I think he's one of the fellow guys that has five wins in a row in a year, right? So that'll be five, and then we'll go get the fifth win against somebody else. And then – I mean, I can fight a lot to be honest with you, and at 170 pounds I'm learning each time, it's just not that f*cking hard to get to." Holland mapped out how he'd like the rest of his year to look like. "I'd like to fight the week after Noche UFC or two weeks after Noche," Holland said. "I'd like to fight on Noche, but I could fight two weeks after or even a week before. I just want to fight around that time so I can make some money in the (state) of Texas just doing sponsorship stuff. After that, you can give me another one before Thanksgiving, and then give me another one right before Christmas, and that would be a good year." If Holland can cap off a historic year, will he be looking at a title run? "No, I think I'm going to do all that and still trying to be fighting Colby (Covington) next year," Holland said. "When he thought he could fight Paddy (Pimblett), and go down a weight class, he was 100 percent healthy. As soon as they said my name, (his) vaginal muscle tore. So you know how that goes. That sh*t takes him like 8-12 weeks to heal, so not an easy process." This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Kevin Holland targets seven fights in 2025, still eyes Colby Covington
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Panthers urged to trade for another Bryce Young pass catcher
The Carolina Panthers may have lucked out. After it looked like Bryce Young might be a total bust, the former No. 1 overall pick played well down the stretch of the 2024 season. There might be hope with Young yet. To maximize that, though, the Panthers shouldn't sit still. They should continue adding talent around Young on the offense. Bleacher Report's Matt Holder specifically wants Carolina to go after another tight end. "The Panthers' current tight ends leave something to be desired," Young writes. "While the hope is Ja'Tavion Sanders grows in year two, he wasn't the same after suffering a neck injury last season, catching just four passes for 40 yards in five games after getting hurt. So, it wouldn't be a bad idea to add someone to the position group as an insurance policy at the least." MORE: Von Miller makes his free agency decision Carolina has done a good job of putting together a WR room with some depth. But Holder is right that the tight end spot could use some help. Even if it's just a free agent veteran like a Hayden Hurst to provide a steady presence, Carolina could certainly benefit from another talented body in that room. Young's development could be counting on every little move adding up in the right way. MORE NFL NEWS: Tua Tagovailoa's contract pays him extra if he stays healthy Browns' defender retires the day before turning 27 The locker room reason Trey Hendrickson's contract saga could go sideways Shemar Stewart takes step toward unprecedented path back to college football Justin Fields given a career ultimatum before Jets debut Johnny Manziel reveals a big college regret
