Talk:Association football/Archive 1

Why move

Why did you just move this without discussion? No one associates Soccer with "Association Football" --Robert W King 15:06, 26 January 2008 (CST)

I agree. This needs to be discussed. Review Naming Conventions: articles should live at the most common (correct) names for topics, not necessarily at their most "official" or "legal" names.

I'd suggest someone move it back, then discuss. Consult Wikipedia on this one; they probably have a sensible solution. --Larry Sanger 15:09, 26 January 2008 (CST)

May I be allowed to respond to the question before it is summarily "moved back"?

I'll try again. This is what I wrote before I discovered the "instant redirect".

In England and everywhere except North America, the sport is known as football. It is only known as soccer in North America where it is a minority sport; whereas elsewhere it is the major sport on the planet. Given that Citizendium is US-orientated, it seems sensible to split the divide between football and soccer by reference to the official name of the sport. To say that no one associates soccer with Association Football is I'm afraid very wide of the mark in world terms: it is called football worldwide and it is generally understood to be Association Football, which distinguishes it from the Australian, Canadian, Gaelic, Rugby and American variants. --John Leach 15:21, 26 January 2008 (CST)

Accoring to the naming conventions, however, if there are other instances of "Football" that are not the same as "Soccer" or "American Football" then it should probably named as such: "Football (derivation)". Example, Football (American), Football (soccer), Football (Gaelic). However, please note that there already is a Gaelic football which describes the differences already. Despite the fact that we are largely US-oriented, we still take into account considerations from worldly perspectives. For example, if you noticed on /Metadata pages, we have a "Variant" field which suggests articles can be written in American English, British, Australian etc... --Robert W King 15:24, 26 January 2008 (CST)

Just to follow up on Larry's suggestion to check WP, the article is named Association Football, with Soccer redirecting to it. Also, Gaelic football doesn't explain the differences of anything, it just points out what rules it took from soccer and rugby. --Todd Coles 15:29, 26 January 2008 (CST)

Additionally I'd like to mention that we have Football as a disambig page. --Robert W King 15:42, 26 January 2008 (CST)

Football is a disambig page because there are at least the six main variants I've listed above. But this variant is called Association Football in British English. The sport originated in England and remains the national sport of both England and Scotland, from where it has become the national sport of most countries in the world. Americans may choose to call it soccer but that is not what the rest of the world calls it. By suggesting football (soccer) as the name of the article, you are taking the American view and football in the US is a minority sport. In GB it is called football and nothing else: the German word is Fußball, the Spanish word is Futbol and nearly all other countries where it is the national sport follow suit. An exception is Italy, which had an early form of the sport called "calcio" (to kick), and this name has stuck. --John Leach 16:03, 26 January 2008 (CST)