{"id":741221,"date":"2026-06-17T00:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741221\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T00:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:11:10","slug":"watch-why-canadians-call-it-soccer-instead-of-football-videoclip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741221\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH \u2014 Why Canadians call it soccer instead of football | videoclip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n          Published 2026-06-16 18:00\n        <\/p>\n<p>                      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-img author-img-1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Krishen_200x200.png\" alt=\"Krishen Persad\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-img author-img-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781655069_408_4.png\" alt=\"Natasha Manikavasager\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        The term soccer actually originated in the U.K.<\/p>\n<p>Soccer fans around the world are watching the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/kidsnews\/post\/the-fifa-world-cup-kicks-off-today-heres-what-to-know\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n<p>Most of these fans call it football \u2014 but in two of the three host countries, it\u2019s officially known as soccer.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a debate that\u2019s almost as old as the game itself \u2014 and it all started in England, according to the Football Association in England.<\/p>\n<p>CBC Kids News contributor Natasha Manikavasager explains why Canadians call it soccer instead of football.<\/p>\n<p>Why people in North America are unlikely to start calling it football<\/p>\n<p>For a while, the terms soccer and football were used interchangeably.<\/p>\n<p>But the debate really heated up when the sport became more popular in North America during the 1900s, according to the Football Association.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because there was already a sport in Canada and the United States named football \u2014 the one with touchdowns and endzones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The rest of the world is] never going to change it,\u201d said Stefan Shemanski, a sports management professor at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>He said the debate is pointless because it\u2019s really just a matter of popular culture.<\/p>\n<p>The United States dominates things like music, film and television \u2014 but football is one area where English culture continues to dominate.<\/p>\n<p>For the most part, that\u2019s why people around the world prefer to call it football, including Shemanski.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Americans took it over, then good heavens, we&#8217;d all have to call it soccer. And that would be a terrible thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff\ufeffHave more questions? \ufeffWant to tell us how we&#8217;re doing? Use the \u201csend us feedback\u201d link below. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>With files from Laurence Watt\/CBC British Columbia<br \/>TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Stu Forster\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/kidsnews\/content\/static_images\/buttons\/btn-icon-print.svg\" alt=\"Print page\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Print Story<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/btn-google-classroom.png\" alt=\"Google classroom\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Share to Google Classroom<\/p>\n<p>                  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781655069_408_4.png\" alt=\"Natasha Manikavasager\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Natasha Manikavasager<\/p>\n<p>CBC Kids News Contributor<\/p>\n<p>\n                Natasha is a Grade 11 student from Brampton, Ontario. She loves acting, singing and music. She was able to express her creativity thanks to the drama program at her high school, which also helped grow her love for musical theatre.\n              <\/p>\n<p>  Was this story worth reading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published 2026-06-16 18:00 The term soccer actually originated in the U.K. Soccer fans around the world are watching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-741221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}