ksdkjlf t1_iy2grx7 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 6:04 AM

Reply to comment by Panamaned in TIL that FIFA is a French abbreviation, it would be IFAF in English, and England weren't an original member despite creating the game. FIFA also now has more members than the UN by BXCellent

It's the International Federation of Association Football. "Association" here is an adjective, not a noun.

Back in the day, each school that played "football" had their own rules. There were Cambridge rules, Eton rules, etc. Eventually a group — the Football Association — got together to try to agree to a standard set of rules. The result was "association football". The folks that didn't agree to the rules that barred running with the ball in hand and heavy contact broke off and formed the Rugby Football Union, whose rules were based off those used at Rugby School. Eventually some of those rugby folks would give us American and Canadian football (aka "gridiron football")

"Association" is the source of the word "soccer", though British school slang (association > assoc > soc > soccer; compare "rugger" for rugby).

You'll still sometimes hear football/soccer called "association" in places like Australia, which has an abundance of footballs they need to differentiate (rugby league, rugby union, Aussie rules).

Panamaned t1_iy3hbnf wrote on November 28, 2022 at 1:49 PM

Thank you very much for your very informative comment. I am going to fall back on English being my third language which will enable me to justify to my self about just how wrong I was. Cheers.

ksdkjlf t1_iy4f9g9 wrote on November 28, 2022 at 5:54 PM

Ha, no worries. 99.99% of the time "association" is a noun, and it's rare to hear it referred to in full as "association football", so your confusion was understandable, even if you'd been a native English speaker. Hence my giving the rather drawn-out explanation, rather than simply leaving it at that first line :)