US President Donald Trump argued that soccer should be changed from ‘Soccer’ to ‘Football’, which is widely used around the world.
“The world is not big enough to contain two sports with the same name,” said President Trump at the 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup draw ceremony held at the Kennedy Center in Washington on the 5th (local time). “If you look at what has happened to soccer in the United States, it is ‘soccer.’ I think it is called that because there is a conflict with another thing called ‘football.’” “If you think about it, there is no question that this sport is called ‘football,’” he said. “We need to come up with a different name for NFL. It doesn’t make sense.” The audience responded to President Trump’s remarks with applause.
The ‘Football vs. Soccer’ debate is an age-old topic that has divided fans around the world. Most countries around the world call soccer ‘football’, but the United States sticks to the term ‘soccer’. The term ‘football’ is used to refer to American football, the most popular sport in the United States.
‘Soccer’ is known to be a term that originated in England. In the UK, ‘football’ is also called ‘association football’ to distinguish it from ‘rugby football’. Rugby football players began to be abbreviated as ‘ruggers’ and ‘association football’ players as ‘soccers’, but this term soon disappeared.
In North America, a sport called ‘Gridiron Football’ was popular long before ‘Association Football’ spread. Fans used to call it ‘football’ without ‘grid iron’. As ‘football’ took precedence over other sports, soccer came to be called ‘soccer’.
The name ‘Soccer’ was only made official in the late 1900s. The United States Football Association became the United States Soccer Football Association in 1945, and finally became the United States Soccer Federation in 1974. NFL has maintained its current name since 1922.
Washington/Kim Won-cheol Correspondent
wonchul@hani.co.kr
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