Football in England

England Jersey. wallbase.cc

Football is the national sport of England. With the modern passing game believed to have been innovated in London and with England home to the oldest football clubs in the world, the world’s oldest football trophy, the Youdan Cup, the first national competition, the FA Cup, and the first ever association football league as well as England having the first national team that hosted the world’s first ever international football match, a 1-1 draw with Scotland on 5 March 1870 in London, England is considered the home of the game of football.

The Football League, established in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor, was the first professional football league in the world. Since its founding, however, many other leagues have been founded in England.

The English football league has a pyramidal structure allowing promotion and relegation between different levels, which helps maintain the possibility that any club in England may dream of one day rising to the very top, no matter what status they currently hold.

English Fans. www.thenewsgrind.com

In a study made by FIFA in 2006 there are around 40,000 clubs registered with the Football Association (FA), which is 11,000 more than any other country, the closest being the Brazilian Football Confederation who have 29,000 registered clubs. Even without taking relative population into account, England has more football clubs than any other country in the world.

England’s top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, and is home to one of the world’s most famous football clubs. The Premier League also has the highest total attendances of all football leagues throughout the world based on the 2007-08 season with 13,676,390. The games from this league are a lot of fun to watch because the Premier League is more open than any other league. Unlike leagues where a couple of teams dominate all the other teams, all the teams in the Premier League are very competitive, which can lead to surprise results on match day.

England Soccer Match. wallbase.cc

England has a national football team that represents England in international football. It is one of the two oldest national football teams in the world, and is one of only eight national teams to have won the World Cup and did this in 1966. They are one of the more prominent teams on the global stage, rarely dropping outside the top ten rankings. The national stadium of England is the Wembley stadium, and is the largest stadium in the country with a capacity of 90,000.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_england
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_league_system

Image Source: “England Jersey” http://wallbase.cc/wallpaper/768610

“England soccer match” http://wallbase.cc/wallpaper/1985906

“England-fans1” http://www.thenewsgrind.com/sport/football-sport/england-players-call-for-inquest-into-running-of-fans/