Hi, Dallas!  Recently you wrote in a message to Roy Witt:   
      
    DH>  Actually spelled "Soccer" :-)   
      
    DH>  Dunno how that name change came about.   
      
      
             I guess it's my turn to do the research, eh...?  :-))   
      
             According to our North American dictionaries, the word "soccer" is a   
   contraction of Association Football + er which has been used since the 1890's.   
      
             According to the ex-Brit friend we visited not long after you posted   
   this reply, her brother referred to the sport as football but to the ball as a   
   soccer ball.  I have noticed the "FC" in the formal names of teams such as the   
   Vancouver Whitecaps & Manchester United too.  I wonder if the word "soccer" is   
   (or was at one time) regarded as informal usage in the UK....  :-)   
      
      
    Note to Alexander:   
      
             Our dictionaries & FIFA agree that soccer = a game which comes under   
   the general heading "Football".  In many parts of the world it is probably the   
   only type of football which really matters to large numbers of people.  In the   
   *English-speaking* New World, where it coexists with USAian &/or Canadian &/or   
   Australian Rules football, people call it "soccer" to avoid confusion... or at   
   least they do in Z1.  In Z3 this situation may be reversed (of course).  AFAIK   
   folks Down Under specify Australian Rules when they don't mean soccer....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)