Mystery solved: Don’t blame the Americans! The real origin of the word ‘soccer’

It seems that we should stop deriding the Americans for calling 'football'  'soccer'...

'The word "soccer" is actually British. It derives from the game's proper name, association football, with the "soc" bit taken from the word "association" .

The reason it came into popular usage was simple: in the 19th century, football and rugby were both commonly known as football, the former dubbed "association football" and the latter "rugby football". But both phrases are a bit of a mouthful, however, so they were popularly shortened to "soccer" and "rugger" to keep things simple.'

More here https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rio-report/mystery-solved-don-t-blame-usa-real-reason-123344142.html and thanks to the wonderful Danny Baker for the link.