'Soccer' not 'football'?

I've been wondering the same thing. Any Brits around?

My grandad, who lived all his life in this area, always called rugby "football" and association football "soccer". Amongst people of my age (I'm 23), "soccer" is definitely considered American. In fact, it is just an old-fashioned phrase that has died out in Britain.

There are other cases of words that we British keep calling "American" when we used them at one point as well. "Cop" for a policeman. Spelling "analyze" instead of "analyse". Saying "gotten" as the past tense of "get". Young Brits think that these are American, but Brits used them once as well.

Rugby fans of both codes call it "soccer" because they refer to their own sport as "football." All three are football, so the context determines what term they use for the others.

"At least twice in this film Richard Harris refers to English football as "soccer". It was my understanding that in the UK it's always football, it's here in the US that it's soccer. Anyone know what's up with that?"

It's because association football's appropriation of the word "football" entirely for itself is a much more recent phenomenon than people realise.

Up to the mid-19th century, football in England referred to a carrying and scrummaging game. Soccer was the gentrified version which came out of Charterhouse, Uppingham, Harrow and Eton schools. The only similarities soccer had with old style football was two teams, one roundish ball, and two goals. That's it.

Rugby - of both kinds - has always been known as football, although this usage is nearly dead in the UK. People who assume that "football" always referred to a kicking and headbutting code similar to soccer don't know what they're talking about. The "foot" part of the name refers to a ball carried on foot, rather than on horseback.

In the 60's the word 'soccer', short for Association Football, was much more widely used than it is today.

Quite simple really.

Speaking of terms that confused me, I was wondering whether it was common for younger guys to call unrelated old men "Dad" at that time in that part of England. I am American so I wasn't sure whether Frank's use of "Dad" was normal and accepted or seemed strange even to the other characters. It took me a while to figure out that it wasn't his father. I had been puzzling about this up until the scene where someone asks him why he calls that man "Dad," which made me think it was supposed to be odd. Or was it?

When I was at school in the North West ten years after this film was made, we called the game with the round ball "soccer". The "officlal" school game was Rugby Union (which we called "rugger") and the local professional team was Rugby League. All these were types of football so "football" on it's own was a bit meaningless. Don't forget, this film was made in the sixties when things were a lot more local. There were only two TV channels, and no internet. These days, most things are infuenced by what they say/do in London and local variations are dying out. Nobody would say "football" and mean Rugby League today.