While a case can be made for either sport, the statistics seem to suggest that soccer is a little safer than football. My personal opinion is that soccer is safer for children because football does seem to produce slightly more concussion-related injuries. But, let's throw out a couple different statistics out there and I'll let you decide which sport you feel more comfortable with:

- The journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics just published a fascinating examination of emergency room visits for concussions from 2001 to 2005 in 100 US hospitals among kids aged 8 to 19. For kids between 8-13, 10% of all sports-related concussions were from football while soccer was at about 4%.

- In a recent study, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission examined athletic injuries on a sport-by-sport basis. It found that organized football 5-to-15 year-olds had 12 % fewer injuries per capita than organized soccer for the same age group.

- BUT according to a Loyola University Study based on 2005 data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Football was ranked the 3rd most dangerous sport to children with Soccer nipping at its heels at #4.

- A recent survey found that among athletes ages 5 to 14 years, 28 percent of football players & 22 percent of soccer players have been injured while playing their respective sports.

Now, I don't mean to paint a picture where Youth Football is some kind of scary youth-injury monster. Fortunately, football equipment for kids have gotten increasingly better. The same companies who manufacture equipment for the colleges and pro teams make equipment for kids. Beyond the basic pads,Pop Warner footbal requires that players wear vests to protect their ribs and long Lycra girdles over all the padding to keep the pads from slipping. Moreover, the force generated in Pop Warner football is much less than at any other level (Force = mass x acceleration). Children weigh much less and do not produce as much speed as high school, college, and pro level players. This leads to less forceful collisons than the bone-crushing collisons most of us see on tv.

In any case, I think it's important to do your own research on the precautionary measures needed for each sport and that your child always wears the proper saftey equipment. I hope I didn't scare you away from either sport and I wish your child the best of luck in which ever sport he enrolls in. Maybe even both!

i would suggest soccer since football has tackling in it, which can cause a lot more injuries.

definitely soccer unless your child has asthma. football a tackle means your thrown to the ground by someone bigger than u but a soccer tackle means that the ball was just kicked away from u.

i think soccer can be a lot less injury risky you may want to try out both and find out through experience

Soccer is pretty dangerous because you don't have hardly any pads when in football your covered I would say let your kid play football

They are both very fun and dangerous sports. I would suggest taking your kid down to the local park and trying both of the sports. Let him decide which one he likes more. I have personally done both sports and have had zero injuries and football. In soccer I have had multiple injuries. I have gone home crying because i had so many bruises. Soccer has left the most physical damage to me.