Which sport was named “football” first, soccer or American football?
Soccer. The Chinese military played a form of soccer during the Han Dynasty – around the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Greeks and ancient Romans played a soccer-type game which is like modern soccer but this early version of it had up to 27 players. Britain is the undisputed birthplace of modern soccer/association football. The Football Association of England was created in 1863. American football grew out of the English game of rugby which was first played at the Rugby School in Rugby in the early 1820s. Unlike soccer, the foot hardly even touches the ball in American football. (Soccer is the game most of the world calls football).