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Association football is the most popular sport in the world, but there is no consensus around the world for what it is called. The chief governing body is FIFA - Fédération Internationale de Football Association, though you don't hear people calling it Association football, usually it's soccer or football, and in non-English speaking countries, it is often some form of the word football, written phonetically (e.g. "futbol") or a translation of the word football.

In the UK, the term Association football came about to distinguish the game from the other versions of football played at the time (e.g. rugby football), and from the 'association' part of the name came the word soccer (assoc.).

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Although the name soccer came out of the UK, there it is predominantly called football, while elsewhere in a few English speaking countries colonized by the British it is called soccer. You will find that soccer is still the main term for the game in countries in which there is another major sport called football (e.g. USA, Canada, Australia). Check out our poll on what do you call it?

As you can see in the list below, the sport is not just called either football or soccer. In some countries, the name of the sport may not be clearly one or another, and for some countries and languages it is evolving, typically countries that have traditionally called it soccer are starting to more regularly call it football.

I have tried to find the most commonly used name in each country, and included others if known. In countries in which there is more than one language spoken, there can be more than one name for the game. The lists are not complete. If you have any additions, comments or corrections, please let me know.

Name by Nation

sources: the names used around the world for Association Football has been collected from various sources, including originally many from wikipedia, google translate, and added to from visitor feedback.

Name by Language

Here are the names for Association Football in the languages of the world. There are 207 languages listed. The names are taken from each Wikipedia page for the sport 'Association Football' in each of these languages.

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Related Pages

• See the list of national team nicknames
• POLL: What do you call this sport - football or soccer?
• About sporting team nicknames from around the world
• About Soccer Teams and Leagues
• Soccer Lists
• Sport Names in Other Languages

Selected Comments

• I don't know where in Namibia someone would ever refer to football as "futebol". Either you get the hardcore fans of Man United, Chelsea or Arsenal who strongly believe in calling it football or anyone else would refer to it as sokker, similarly to the South Africans / the way it's spelled and called in Afrikaans. Only other more rare variation is "Fuà ball" due to a few Germans that arrived here late 1800s or early 1900s and left behind generations of heritage, however this is the same as saying football. But "futebol", no idea how that is even said or who ever used it in this country!? (from Wiegand, Dec 2023)
• in Australia we call it soccer, we don't use the term football as football refers to the sport that we are well known for, we love football but don't think of soccer too much. Football is the oval-shaped ball with lace on it in Australia, we call it soccer, the black and white circle ball. (from Ruby, June 2023)