Firstly ‘Football’ means Gaelic Football. In Ireland, football doesn’t mean ‘soccer’ which is a shame as it suggests Gaelic Football is the number one form of football in Ireland, but it’s not. Soccer is. Technically, Gaelic Football isn’t football anyway, as you’re allowed use your hands so where that term came from is beyond me.
To all of my American readers you’re probably going WTF? football IS soccer. But no, i live in Ireland and we do everything arseways here so if you ever come to Ireland, never refer to ‘football’ as ‘soccer’ or ‘soccer’ to ‘football’ as it will confuse people..
Anyway, I was asked which is the more skillful game and why.. So here goes.. i dare someone to steal this post and post it over on boards.ie GAA forums section 
You’d be a dead man walking.
Hands
If a ball comes near you, your instinct it to raise your hands to protect your face/catch ball. In soccer, you have to think, and head the ball in a certain direction, no hands allowed which is un-natural. This is the biggest difference imo – it’s what makes soccer more skillful.
Air -v- Ground
Football is played in the air. Rarely will you see a player choose ground over air in open play. Soccer must be played on the ground, if you play it in the air, it means you’re a defensive side that aren’t skillful enough to play it on the ground.
Targets/Goals
In football, you have goals and points, a huge target of unlimited height. In soccer, the area to score in is limited, and rectangular in shape, meaning the ball must go left or right/ not up. Therefore control is needed to keep the ball not only on target, but relatively low to the ground.
Space
In football, you have more space, but less time. In soccer you have more time but less space. If you gave Leonardo Da Vinci a day to paint the sistine chapel, he’d get a door painted and a pretty rushed door at that. Give him a week to paint a door, and you’ll have a door of the finest quality 😉
Offside
Another huge difference… football doesn’t have this rule, soccer does. This requires both defenders and forwards to predict/anticipate what direction and pace a ball will be played at. It requires teamwork and high levels of awareness. Therefore a tremendous amount of skill is required to get the offside trap just right.
For anyone who doesn’t know what offside is, basically it’s a rule which stops goal hanging (staying around the goal area to act as a threat). In football, you can goal hang and get away with it.
And that’s it. Soccer wins every time. Let the bloodbath of comments commence 😎
Not so sure Soccer is bigger
Football is way more skillful.
skills:
catching, kicking, shooting, picking the ball, hand passing
also no fear of going a full game without a score like in soccer.
we mightn’t have offside but we do have square balls which also require prediction and anticipation.
penalties in football are taken from further out, with a harder ball, and a smaller target. it takes class to score penalties in football. it takes flutes earning millions to score in soccer and some (beckham) still miss.
The pace of the game is much more intense adding to the excitment.
here are 101 more resons:
http://www.listowelemmets.com/gaabetterjokes.html
You’re some joker with your assessment of soccer V Football.
Real football is Gaelic Football. Faster, more skills needed, mor fitness needed.
Gaelic players only play soccer when they have gotten too slow and old to play gaelic football.
And it is not just in Ireland that this is the case – in Europe Gaelic Football outperforms Irish Soccer and Rugby
http://www.europeanirish.com/blog/2007/11/02/in-europe-gaelic-football-outperforms-irish-soccer-and-rugby/
man, you must be joking! i play both and good enough at ’em, but gotta say you could learn how to play soccer in a day no problem, as i basically did, jus started goin to training at 16 years old and no bother, id being play football since i was 10 and i find it more physically demanding( the difference in size of pitches are massive, games are much more physical), you said it takes more skill to score in soccer? not likely, a football travels much faster than a soccer ball, when did you last see anyone score from 30/40/50 yards out from goal, with a man “hanging” out of a player?? sure in football the targets bigger than soccer, but theres proably more goals scored in football than soccer also! and the biggest point, the best footballers in the country are amatuers, they work during the week and football is a huge commitment to al involved as what fianancial benefit can ever come out of it? i look at soccer players every week on huge wages getting roasted, diving, scuffing goals, professsional misconduct. what would john terry do if he came up against francie bellew?run! ronaldo if ryan mc menamin was marking him, probably dive alot, rio ferdinand if he was markin gooch cooper,id say fall over himself! not sayin soccer isnt a good game, it is and i enjoy playin it and watchin it but for me footballs much ahead in such as skill wise and speed of reaction. and hurling is above football again.
wha do fuck
wha da fuck kkka
it doesn't matter if it is football or soccer as long as will get the advantages from both “words” or kind of sports 😀
Movies and Soccer
Did you play “SAY” soccer…I don’t know what you played, but the soccer my son playes is very physical. He gets taken out all the time, and has no pads (except shin guards) to protect him.