'Soccer' or football?
The absolute history of the word 'soccer'. The facts speak for themselves.
The word 'soccer' is a classic example of old university slang. It simply took the 'soc' from 'Association' and added the '-er' suffix—exactly how 'rugby' was shortened to 'rugger'.
Before the official rules were ratified by the English Football Association in 1863, traditional British football was a chaotic free-for-all where handling, carrying, and kicking the ball were all allowed in the same match. The nearest modern equivalent to this shambles would probably be Gaelic football. The 1863 split drew a hard line between the two disciplines of rugby and football.
While it was used for decades as a common nickname in British newspapers, 'soccer' has never been part of the official names of global governing bodies like FIFA or UEFA, who strictly use the original term 'Association Football'.
It is only called 'soccer' in countries with alternatively described 'football' games, such as in the USA and Australia, purely as a distinction between their game and proper (association) football.
Association football is the only game in the world that predominantly uses the foot or feet to mostly propel the ball. Heading and chesting the ball is also permitted in association football but they are by no means the dominant features of the game.
American and Australian rules football are mostly hand propelled games and, as such, should not really be termed 'football' as that just confuses the matter.
'Footer' is a far superior slang description to use instead of 'soccer' and 'footer' is in fact often used in many levels of (association) football in the UK.
People who say 'soccer' are not necessarily 'uneducated', although they may be just a little bit 'ill-informed' but, everyone who reads this now knows the hard facts behind 'soccer', the unofficial word for football.