It's my understanding that it's called "football" because when it first began it was to differentiate it from sports that took place on horseback (like polo) not because the ball was kicked. The players ran, so it was called football. It then separated into a multitude of different rules which resulted in modern day Soccer (football in Europe), Rugby, and American Football.
So even if they take the kicking element out of the game it's still called "football" for the original reason.