Why is soccer known as Field fairies?

Answer 1

Short answer: Because some people are ignorant. Those people don't like soccer, so they decide to call it something derogatory in order to feel better about themselves.

Longer answers: In truth, soccer is a demanding, physical, emotional, and intense sport played by people all over the world at every level from youth and amateur leagues all the way up to world-class national and international competitions.

The nickname may originate from the fact that soccer codifies sportsmanlike conduct, which means that players who habitually cheat, are overly aggressive or brutal, or disrespect the officials or the spirit of the game are typically asked (required) to leave. Other, more brutal sports (American football and Ice Hockey in particular) has a higher tolerance for aggression, but are also permitted to wear much more protective clothing (even Baseball players wear helmets on offense, and the catcher wears a great deal of padding when on defense).

In soccer, it is considered to be against the spirit of the game to "play the player, not the ball". You can't score goals by injuring people or knocking them down. You score goals by outsmarting and outplaying your opponent and putting the ball into the goal.

Lastly, soccer is more aggressive and allows much more player-to-player contact than some other sports, such as Basketball and tennis, yet they don't get the same bad rep.

It may also be that the nickname came as a form of disapproval from fans of American football, because soccer is known in most countries as "football", and those fans feel threatened (or just arrogant) that the name of "their" sport is being hijacked by the field fairies (ironic, since soccer is much older than American football). Interestingly, some of the strongest opponents of using the word "soccer" come from England, who actually invented the word "soccer" (as a reference to "Association Football", as it was originally known, to distinguish it from other "football" games such as American football and rugby).