[mikemike]

If it's so popular, how come you only have this World Cup every 4 years?

The players play for professional teams the rest of the time. If the WC was every year it would be pretty hard to have the regular pro leagues.

IIRC there are regional qualifying tournaments that are held the year before the WC, but of course nobody cares about those games.

Regarding xenophobia, I think its very interesting that a lot of the western European where they bemoan immigration are so aggressive at pursuing international superstars and even grant them citizenship to play in WC events instead of them returning to play for their home country.

Come play on the field but don't even think about coming to sell beer in the stands.

[falconeye]

Regarding xenophobia, I think its very interesting that a lot of the western European where they bemoan immigration are so aggressive at pursuing international superstars and even grant them citizenship to play in WC events instead of them returning to play for their home country.

I think it's less remarkable than it appears from the outside.

Think of the Boateng brothers, both born and raised in Berlin and both are German citizens. Both played for the German junior national team and Jérôme Agyenim Boateng was in the German national team at WC. OTOH, Kevin-Prince Boateng played for Ghana this year.

So e.g., this is a German playing for Ghana, not the other way round

In general, immigration after obatining a work permit is a natural thing happening in all western countries.

[MPrince]

I don't think any country where football is top 1 sport in the country call it 'soccer'. I always thought the Americans just did it because they have another sport that's more popular that they themselves call football. Hence "american football". I refuse to call it soccer just because America think they're so big they own the world and therefore they can use "feet", "inches", "miles", "soccer" etc.

But I say, keep going! Diversity is awesome!

See post #2 where I provide the origin of the word soccer. The word did not originate in America, it originated in England.

[Blue]

It's anticyclic with the Olympic games.

The other years are crowded with other international events (Euro Cup, Champions League etc.) the US never qualified to participate in

That is probably because about 98% of us haven't heard of them and are busy with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Even motor sports draw huge fan bases. Tennis and golf get more coverage than soccer.

I see. So I guess that soccer must be played with the mouth, right?

I thought maybe the Germans did! After all, you were calling it succa earlier.

[mikemike]

I see. So I guess that soccer must be played with the mouth, right?

Thats how essex girls play it.

[Nimrad]

You Tube

You Tube

[Kguru]

It's meant to be football. The world body FIFA has the word football in it. Many English clubs have the letters FC in their names for football club, the English FA Cup is a major tournament, etc.

Not too many years ago this game wasn't played in US and Australia so the word was taken unopposed by American football and Aussie-rule football. When it was eventually imported it couldn't beat up the too big brothers so was stuck with being called soccer.

That's my interpretation

[falconeye]

Not too many years ago this game wasn't played in US and Australia so the word was taken unopposed by American football and Aussie-rule football. When it was eventually imported it couldn't beat up the too big brothers so was stuck with being called soccer.

Yes,
except that Aussie recently officially renamed soccer to football.

[Blue]

It's meant to be football. The world body FIFA has the word football in it. Many English clubs have the letters FC in their names for football club, the English FA Cup is a major tournament, etc.

Not too many years ago this game wasn't played in US and Australia so the word was taken unopposed by American football and Aussie-rule football. When it was eventually imported it couldn't beat up the too big brothers so was stuck with being called soccer.

That's my interpretation

Walter Camp changed a variation of Rugby as originally played in a game between Rutgers & Princeton in 1869 to what we call American football before it was codified by the British. The 1st American style football game was played in 1875 between Tufts & Harvard. The NCAA was formed around 1905 because President Teddy Roosevelt threatened to ban it. In 1906, the NCAA rules committee approved the forward pass. It got here from the Britain via Canada and was picked up by colleges in Canada and the U.S. It was called Rugby football after Rugby School. Some of the older colleges/Universities still have an old Rugby style field around. The University of Tennessee does. There is a town in Tennessee called Rugby about 40 miles west of U.T. (in Knoxville).

I was talking to some fellows here at the University about this name controversy and they are more than willing to get together at midfield with the World Cup Team and work out the name controversy.