User talk:Jnestorius/2004

Association Football
Hi.

I had been making the same point as you about the officialness of "association football" as a name some time ago so I wrote to the FA in October of last year regarding their official position of whether the name of the sport is officially "football" or "association football" Here is their reply.

Hi xxxxxx,

Our official publication on the laws of the sport, updated every June, is called "Laws of Association Football". On that basis it could be said that "Association Football" is the official name of the sport.

However, I don't think there is any dispute that, in common parlance, we call it merely "football". There is a distinction now between "football" and "rugby" to follow a previous distinction between "Association Football" or "the Association game" and "Rugby Football" or "the Rugby game".

Interestingly, you allude to the fact that the sport's original rules or laws were not expressly "for Association Football" or "for the Association game", i.e. not expressly within those rules or laws. I believe they were understood as rules or laws for that form of football - bearing in mind that there were many forms before 1863 - which the new "Football Association" had created. So it was "Association Football" in the sense of "Association's Football".

"Association" quickly abbreviated to "soccer" (or "socker") in public school slang but the term is, in my experience, rarely seen or heard now. Not in this country, anyway.

So where does that leave us? Well, Rule 1 of the "Rules of The (Football) Association" includes the line: "All Clubs and Affiliated Associations shall play and/or administer football in conformity with these Rules and also (a) the Laws of the Game and (b) the Statutes and Regulations of FIFA and UEFA".

We call it "football" but its official name is "Association Football".

Regards,

David Barber Library The Football Association


 * Mintguy (T) 10:58, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

All things Irish
Hi there!

A very belated welcome to Wikipedia!

I notice you've edited some Irish topic articles. If you are interested, there's a Irish wikipedians' notice board. Feel free to call over and take a look, or drop a note!

Regards, zoney ▓  ▒ talk 09:53, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)