Early soccer leagues in the US mostly adopted the name ‘football’ for their activities, but confusion between American football and association football resulted in the term ‘soccer’ being used to describe the latter in the 1910s and early 1920s. Two professional soccer leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League, which merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968. Interest in soccer within the United States continued to grow and, as part of the United States’ bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup, US Soccer pledged to create a professional outdoor league. Major League Soccer duly launched in 1996.