Once upon a time some boys were playing with a ball.
Other boys elsewhere also played with a ball.
Someone had the bright idea of having a competition and the boys lined up in their teams ready to play.
Boys, boys, teachers said, we will play the game in 2 parts. The first part we will play by team As rules and the second by the rules of team B. Everyone was happy, that was fair.
All across England, for yes, that is where we are, boys played lots of different games with balls. Some only used their feet and some used their hands too. They all played against each other, learning each other's rules.
- here we must ignore the challenges and opportunities raised by the class system, trains, communications and all sorts of other technological advances, for that would take far too long.
Soon some boys decider they didn't want to play with the ball in hand, others that they really did.
Those that did wrote down some rules and called it Rugby Football, or Rugger.
The others, who may not have been quite so we'll off, had to go to work, maybe played for their employer, couldn't afford injury time etc, called their game Association Football, or Soccer.
Oh how they loved words that ended in -er. Such fun!
Both games went all over the world. In some places they were added to local games, in others they were kept separate and loved for themselves. Many places had their own games of football but love Rugger and Soccer too.
Many years passed. And back in England their was some consternation. Why is our lively original game of football being relegated to a second rate game? You nasty colonies have stolen The Beautiful Game's name!! We won't play any more. Down wiv soccer, we don't like -er words so much any more... and other daft ideas!
So England now also plays football, but ours is the real and original football, so nah!!
And rugby? I hear you ask. Well, those mainly Northern working class men, who couldn't afford injuries, had their own rules, they called it League. The other boys called theirs Union, for many reasons.
Interestingly when Rugger is played against other nations, mainly Northern against Southern hemisphere, they still have a chat to decide which bits of whose rules they will play by.
And that is, allowing for the most incredible simplification, is why football is soccer and also is not!