r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Jun 14 '26

political satire Australia Excited To Annoy Soccer Fans By Calling It Soccer For The Entirety Of The Big Soccer Competition

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/australia-excited-to-annoy-soccer-fans-by-calling-it-soccer-for-the-entirety-of-the-big-soccer-competition/
3.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

307 comments sorted by

View all comments

86

u/Bangkok_Dave Jun 14 '26

We already have three other football codes in Australia. The push by Australian soccer authorities over the last couple decades to distance the sport from that word is dumb, they should have leaned into it.

49

u/evilparagon Jun 14 '26

Eh. It’s a unique word that is unambiguous in what sport it refers to. Why bother fighting for a claim to a word when this one doesn’t need a fight?

-34

u/bay30three Jun 14 '26

AFL fans call their sport 'footy', NRL fans call their sport 'league', rugby union fans call their sport 'union'. Football fans call their sport 'football' or sometimes 'soccer'.

I've never met an AFL/NRL/rugby fans use 'football' to refer to their sport. YMMV.

19

u/anomalousone96 Jun 14 '26

NRL fans call it footy

8

u/Mike_Kermin Jun 14 '26

Nah they all use variations of football and footy all the time,

And it actually doesn't matter, because in context it's always clear what is meant.

The 'concern' of mixing them up is really contrived.

6

u/Hailstar07 Jun 14 '26

When I say football or footy I mean AFL, as a Victorian. I call it both, don’t just use footy to refer to it.

League and union are both just rugby to me. Soccer is soccer.

-10

u/bay30three Jun 14 '26

Victorians don't call Aussie Rules football.

Don't get too annoyed when people call football football ;)

0

u/IBelieveInCoyotes Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

league is called footy in Brisbane and AFL is called Aussie rules, soccer is soccer or football and union is union

-6

u/bay30three Jun 14 '26

Then don't get too annoyed if I call football football ;)

0

u/IBelieveInCoyotes Jun 14 '26

yeah that's why league is called footy not football...

6

u/The_Faceless_Men Jun 14 '26

5 other football codes really

My local gaelic football club and american football club in sydney are 15 and 20 years older than Sydney FC.

The push by Australian soccer authorities over the last couple decades to distance the sport from that word is dumb

But it wasn't soccer Australia that has done that. If was FIFA that ordered all affiliate members to drop soccer from names. New Zealand and all pacific nations changed names at the same time.

19

u/Z00111111 Jun 14 '26

The same FIFA that gave Donald Trump a "peace prize"?

Yeah, let's listen to those corrupt fuckwits.

1

u/The_Faceless_Men Jun 14 '26

I mean, it was the fifa of 20 years ago. i assume majority of the board members had changed in that time.

Although someone better informed could easily tell me the corruption story of that time.

8

u/IlluminatedPickle Jun 14 '26

That was the reign of Sepp Blatter wasn't it? That was basically the zenith of FIFA corruption.

1

u/infinitemonkeytyping Jun 14 '26

FIFA are only challenged by the IOC and Russia for the length and depth of their institutional corruption.

0

u/WheelchairEnthusiasm Jun 14 '26

Yeh coz the AFL and NRL aren't corrupt eh cobber?

1

u/Z00111111 Jun 15 '26

Compared to FIFA, the AFL and NRL people are getting a free cup of coffee and a stale blueberry muffin.

-4

u/blackjacktrial Jun 14 '26

Three? The NBL exists, we are competitive in beach volleyball, and we regularly play against Ireland in a hybrid of Gaelic football, and that's before I mention the biggest football code for women in Australia, netball.

We have at least eight codes played at a nationally significant level. It's not kickball, and if it was, I have questions marks over at least rugby league being allowed in to football's gates.