Andere Institutionen haben oder hatten aber auch soccer bzw. soccer football in Namen, und das seit mindestens 1921.

Was man im Alltag mehr hört, müssen die Australier beantworten.

Australian Football bezeichnet die mit größerem Körpereinsatz verbunde Sportart, die Anleihen an Rugby hat.

 

Prior to the 2006 World Cup, when we almost beat Italy and drew with Croatia, “soccer” (your European football) was seen as something exotic played only by the Italian and Yugoslavian immigrants at Olympic Park – hence its nickname “Mario football”. I well remember the year 1974, but I have no recollection of our participation in the World Cup that year; it seems to have hardly registered with most Australians. We also call soccer the “round-ball game” to distinguish it from real footy, i.e. Australian Rules Football. Actually, rugby is still the preferred game of many inhabitants of New South Wales and I think Queensland, and they have been known to call this game “football”. But that has changed since the original Victorian Football League (VFL) expanded in the 1980s to become the Australian Football League (AFL). “Aussie Rules” was the game I grew up with, and I was a boundary umpire at school; I was also one of 121,696 spectators at the 1970 Grand Final (imagine the noise!).

 

Our 2006 World Cup appearance was a big boost for soccer in Australia. When we were kids, we often used to play “kick to kick”, with two packs of boys kicking the ball to each other in turn and jumping up to take a “mark”; on one of my recent visits I was dismayed to see that soccer balls now seem to be becoming the standard utensil for kids playing in a park.

 

But the kids still refer to this game as “soccer”; calling it “football” would be misleading.

 

BTW, our Finals series is now under way, and the Grand Final will be staged in Melbourne (as always) on 30 September.

 

As in Australia and South Africa, New Zealanders usually refer to association football as soccer; football – typically 'footy' – refers to rugby.

#7 I know you didn't say that but just to make sure. Rugby is never called "footie" in South Africa. The 11 man game with the round ball is called soccer, and the 15 man game with the egg shaped ball is always called rugby (even in Afrikaans) - as is Sevens (or Sevens rugby).

And the main reason I am writing this post is because I wanted to mention that as of yesterday South Africa is the 2018 winner of the Sevens World Series, second time in a row. The series was decided in the last game of the season.