belgarion wrote:rowan wrote:It is invariably referred to as the
Men's World Cup in the American news reports. Fine, but if they want to be so precise, how about calling it the
Men's Soccer World Cup - because there happen to be a few other varieties around

Calling it the soccer world cup. It's the Association Football World Cup. Soccer is just an
Americanisation cos they
can't tell the difference between a game that is predominantly played by kicking a ball with your foot so is called
football&
one which isplayed by either throwing or carrying a ball yet is still called football. At least other variation of football eg rugby football, Gaelic
football, Aussie rules football have the decency to use the qualifier in the description of their sport & not just call it football
Oxford University, in the US? The term originates in the UK, in 1863, and was in common usage in the United Kingdom around the time football spread around the world, to differentiate it from the may varieties of football that existed. The Americans have just simply continued to use it like that for similar reasons.
By the way, are you going to give out at the Koreans and Japanese for referring it to soccer as well? There aren't any sports with significant followings that they refer to explicitly as "football" there after all.