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The English Football Portal

The England national football team playing at Wembley.

Football is the most popular sport in England. England is home to the world's first football league, the oldest national governing body, and the oldest national knockout competition. The first modern rules for the game were established in England in 1863. England is one of the oldest national football teams, having played in the first international match in 1872. England won the FIFA World Cup in 1966, and has qualified for the World Cup 16 times. England has more football clubs than any other country, including the world's first club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's oldest professional club, Notts County. England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest leagues in the world. The British Empire's cultural power spread the rules of football to areas of British influence. England the home of football, 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. It also has 31% of the population interested in Football. 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...)

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Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (born 22 October 1949) was the manager of Arsenal from 1996 to 2018, where he was the longest-serving and most successful in the club's history. His contribution to English football through changes to scouting, players' training and diet regimens revitalised the Gunners and aided the globalisation of the sport in the 21st century.

When he was first appointed on 22 September 1996, much of the English press and his own players weren't that excited, but on his first full season, 1997-98, he became the first foreign manager to win the league title in England, giving Arsenal their first title for seven years. They would also complete the double, defeating Newcastle Utd 2-0 in the 1998 FA Cup Final.

After that first successful full season, Wenger and Arsenal would go on to win another double in 2002, and win their third league championship under his management in 2004, but this was also the first season since the inaugural season of the Football League where a team went through the entire season unbeaten, nicknaming the 2004 team as The Invincibles. Arsenal would also later eclipsed Nottingham Forest's record of 42 league matches unbeaten and went seven more matches before finally losing, albeit in controversial circumstances, in 24 October 2004.

In 2006, Wenger guided Arsenal to their first ever European Cup Final, though they lost to Barcelona 3-1, despite scoring first. This season also marked the final season at Highbury, as they moved to Ashburton Grove, officially named the Emirates Stadium in the summer. For the rest of his tenure, Wenger prioritized the club's finances in order to meet costs, but this resulted in a nine-year spell without winning a trophy, before Wenger guided the Gunners to three FA Cups in four seasons (2014-2017), making him the most winningest manager in the FA Cup.

In the league however, by 2017-18, Arsenal were going sideways, likely to miss out on the top 4 yet again, he announced he would step down as Arsenal manager after the season concluded. His final home game was a 5–0 win against Burnley on 6 May, where he received a standing ovation before the game and was gifted the gold mini-replica Premier League trophy he won during the 2003–04 Invincibles season as a departing gift from Arsenal, and he officially concluded his tenure with a 1–0 away win against Huddersfield.

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Did you know...

...that football referees in England (Howard Webb pictured) officiate at eleven different levels according to ability, activity and age?

...that West Ham Stadium in London holds the record for the lowest ever attendance of a football match in The Football League, despite its capacity of 120,000?

...that Alex Leake was offered a £10 bribe by Manchester City player Billy Meredith to throw the final match of the 1904–1905 season?

...that Tommy Johnson holds the record for the most goals scored by a Manchester City player in a single season?

...that Scottish footballer Kevin Bremner scored for five different teams in the Football League during the 1982–83 season?

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The Conference League Cup is the generic name of an English football competition, open to clubs playing in levels 5 or 6 of the English football league system, (steps 1 and 2 of the National League System), which covers the three Football Conference divisions.

The Conference League Cup was formed for the inaugural season of the Football Conference, in 1979–80 and existed for twenty-two seasons before being axed at the end of the 2000–01 season. It was briefly re-formed for the 2004–05 season, but it was again agreed not to renew the competition for the next season. With the transfer of sponsorship of the Conference to Blue Square for the start of the 2007–08 season two seasons later, the re-introduction of the competition was announced, scheduled to commence that very year.

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Charlton Athletic were founded in 1905, the same year as Chelsea, and first played in the Siemens Meadow, so named because of the overshadowing Siemens telecoms mast. They played here until 1907 and moved on to three other stadia before World War I.

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