“Soccer” is NOT a synonym for “football” – practically every culture on the planet has produced a form of football.  The British Empire went ‘big’ on sport – and ruled large swathes of the globs. 
And was, of course, immensely culturally influential – in the broad, anthropological sense of ‘culture’ – intellectually it was a province of Germany.  Then everything German was demonised in late 1914, because the middle classes have to fight for Important Matters.  The Anglo aristocracy gave their wars important names – the ‘War of the Spanish Succession’ sounds chivalrous and exciting – but they knew it was a War for the Monopoly of the Atlantic Slave Trade. 
The Brit Establishment pushed sport because it felt it was the Roman (military-fascist) Empire re-born and was haunted by the notion that Rome ‘Fell’ (always with a capital ‘F’) because of ‘degeneracy’.  This was partly a matter of mixing the races but mainly of people – allegedly – enjoying life (especially sex).  Sport would take everybody’s mind of dirty stuff like that.  Presumably they didn’t envision a time when queers would openly lust after soccer players (my own object of lust is still Ryan Gibbs).