Portal:English football

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The English Football Portal

The England national football team playing at Wembley.

Football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country. England hosts the world's first club, Sheffield F.C.; the world's oldest professional association football club, Notts County; the oldest national governing body, the Football Association; the joint-oldest national team; the oldest national knockout competition, the FA Cup; and the oldest national league, the English Football League. Today England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, with five of the ten richest football clubs in the world as of 2022.

The England national football team is one of only eight teams to win the FIFA World Cup, having done so once, in 1966. A total of six English club teams have won the UEFA Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article

Nicky Southall in despair after relegation in 2005

Gillingham F.C. is an English football club based in Gillingham, Kent. The history of Gillingham F.C. covers the years from the club's formation to the present day. The club was formed in 1893, and played in the Southern League until 1920, when that league's top division was absorbed into the Football League as its new Division Three. The club was voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned 12 years later, when that league was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs.

Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 the club narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. In 2000, the "Gills" reached the second tier of the English league for the first time in the club's history and went on to spend five seasons at this level, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03. The only honour the club has won at a professional level was the Football League Fourth Division championship in 1963–64.

More selected articles

Read more

Did you know...

...that Stoke City F.C. (1870s squad pictured) is the second-oldest English football league club, as it was founded in 1863?

...that footballer Alan Taylor scored two goals in the quarter final, two goals in the semi final and two goals in the final of the 1975 FA Cup as his club West Ham United won the competition?

...that footballer George Wynn was Manchester City's leading goalscorer in three consecutive seasons?

...that Alan Mullery became the first England association football player to be sent off in a full international match during the 1968 European Championship semi-final against Yugoslavia?

...that the Premier League's proposal to play some matches outside England has been condemned by the Football Supporters' Federation as "outrageous desecration of the national game"?

More did you know facts

More at WikiProject Football

Selected competition

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The name "FA Cup" refers to the English men's tournament. The equivalent competition for women's teams is the FA Women's Cup.

The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world, commencing in the 1871-72 season. Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other there is the possibility for "minnows" from the lower divisions to become "giant-killers" by eliminating top clubs from the tournament, although lower division teams rarely reach the final. A record 762 teams were accepted into the FA Cup in 2011-12, which is to date, the most amount of entrants. In comparison, the League Cup can involve only the 72 members of The Football League (which organises the competition) and the 20 teams in the Premiership for a total of 92 eligible teams. The team who have won the most FA Cups throughout the competition's history is Arsenal, having won it on 14 occasions and The Gunners also appeared in the final the most, reaching the showpiece event 21 times. Manchester United are second on the list on Cup wins on 12 and, like Arsenal, appeared in 21 finals, but they hold the most defeats there with 9. Everton and Chelsea have both lost one less, but the latter became the first team to lose three successive final appearances (2020, 2021, and 2022).

More selected competitions

Read more

WikiProjects

Direct relation

Football • England • English football task force

WikiProject Football Task Forces and sub-projects

Selected image

Credit: Flickr user stella_gonzales2003

Manchester City's Michael Johnson takes a corner kick during a match in the Premier League. The corner kick was devised in 1867 under the Sheffield Rules, and is awarded to the attacking team when the ball leaves the field of play by crossing the goal line, either on the ground or in the air, having been last touched by a defending player.

More selected pictures

Read more