Soccer' is a fine term for the beautiful game - don't let anyone tell you otherwise this World Cup

The conversation around this World Cup centers on naming the sport; President Donald Trump argued the game should be called football, while the article notes a broader debate about the term soccer. It traces the etymology back to ‘Association Football’ in 1863, shortened by British students to ‘assoc’ and then ‘soccer,’ a term widely used in Britain and elsewhere before a shift in the 1980s. The piece argues both terms deserve inclusion, highlighting the global reach of football’s vocabulary and the practicality of the shorter form in headlines and media, framing language as cosmopolitan rather than divisive.