HOWEVER

Then, by your own rules, shouldn’t everyone in Australia/American call Association football soccer, and isn’t soccer damaging their name by trying to pass off as football there (where it isn’t, and hasn’t been, known as football)?

AND

Whilst I can see your point of view I disagree. The only time I ever call football Aussie Rules or Australian football or AFL is for clarification reasons.

ON ANOTHER NOTE

“the other codes that use the same name are being forced to change their rules that they have developed just so their elite athletes can play international level games.”

Aussie Rules’ international aspect has been growing at a huge rate. In fact in two years time South Africa is expected to have 20,000 Australian footballers in 2009 from around 2,500 in 2006.

International Rules (the hybrid game you speak of) is argued by some fans of both codes as a waste of time. I agree somewhat, but I think the exposure my game gains in Ireland as a result, and the gaelic players ’stolen’ by the AFL as a result makes everything worthwhile. Whether ethically correct or not, most of us want to see out own code flourish, even if this is at the expense of other games. (It’s a little like footy fans who argue the Grahams and the Roccas in the NFL are bad for footy, but as a recent Philadelphia newspaper showed, it also spells exposure for footy – both the AFL and USAFL). Oh and the IR series has been axed, or at the least is on hiatus.

ONE LAST THING

“if you are a historian then you will remember we officially changed the national games name from soccer to football – hence FFA aligning oursleves to the rest of the world.”

A historian would also note that the A-League season in held in the Rugby/AFL offseason. I wonder why?

Anyways, I’d guess that the point Henry is making is that they don’t use their feet directly on the ball. It is a silly thing to say, but I’m not sure that Henry was being entirely serious.

i love it

as far as “soccer” goes, we are a country that plays “football” – if you are a historian then you will remember we officially changed the national games name from soccer to football – hence FFA aligning oursleves to the rest of the world.

personally i feel what ever you want to call your game needs to reflect what happens in that sport (or atleast differentiate it from other sports) for this reason, “soccer is football” and other codes using the name are harming their global popularity.

i am not putting down the validity of the other sports, different games, different skill. maybe the global appeal of the world game is because so many countries in the world identify football for what it is, and the other codes that use the same name are being forced to change their rules that they have developed just so their elite athletes can play international level games. (afl/gaelic)

do you see where i am going with this.

the name means nothing, what it represents is important. thats the arguement, and these other codes should realise they will never become global by hijacking the name of the world game.

(rugby union is international, but it has a long way to go before it can even come remotely close to an organisation – FIFA – that has more members than the UN)

so from that perspective i see alot more relevance to credit a name to a certain game than another.

if its a matter of choice then you can call it what ever you like, because at the end of the day, its how you identify it that brings meaning to you.

Soccer is not the most popular spectator sport in these markets and that is something soccer fans need to come to terms with. I am a fan of soccer but I lose patience with supporters of the game who tell me that my football, should be known as Aussie Rules.

And as far as tradition is concerned, I have read on a few occassions that football (i.e. soccer) was called football because it was played by foot (i.e. by peasants, lay people) as opposed to games played on horseback. If this is true, aren’t all the footballs just as entitled to use the word. And if we were looking for more ‘appropriate’ terms, wouldn’t soccer be known as kickball? And one last thing, for those ‘football-fans’ that can’t stand the word soccer (I’m not quite sure why), check your facts before you discredit the word as an Americanism…it was a word coined by soccer-playing British.

i hope you can prove me wrong with your history lesson as i am very interested to know how your take on football relates to the technical use of your feet with acheiving the desired objective of scoring a point, try, TD etc what ever you want to call it.

european hand ball should be named football, so should volley ball with your view. i can go on with a list of sports (without the boring history lesson) that all fit under your banner of what is football, that is a game that you use your feet, to move the ball for a desired outcome.

respect to your blog but write constructive arguements that are meaningful.

your points are not valid but you have succeeded with getting attention and a comment to your post.