“I think I could do that,” Trump says with a smile about replacing ‘soccer’ with ‘football.’
President Donald Trump has suggested, jokingly, that he may sign an executive order replacing the term “soccer” with “football” in the United States—an idea that could settle a long-running transatlantic naming debate.
Trump made the remark during a halftime interview with DAZN at the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium on Wednesday. Watching from the VIP box alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino, he quipped, “Gianni is a friend of mine… he’s done such a great job with the league and with soccer – or as they would call it ‘football,’ but I guess we call it soccer. I’m not sure that change could be made very easily.”
Asked if he would consider an executive order, Trump replied with a smile, “I think we could do that. I think I could do that.”
While the remark was made in jest, it reignites debate over terminology that has divided North America and the rest of the world for more than a century.