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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. 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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The 2008 UEFA Champions League final was a football match played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia on 21 May 2008, to decide the winner of the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League. It was contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, making it an all-English final for the first time in European Cup history. It finished 1-1 after extra time, but Manchester United won 6–5 on penalties, winning it for the third time. This success also marked the 100th anniversary of Manchester United's first league triumph in 1908, the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, and the 40th anniversary of United's first European Cup triumph in 1968.

Chelsea have never gone to this stage of the competition until 2008, but United have appeared in two European Cup finals before in 1968 and 1999, both ending in victory, with the latter capping off a treble. The two started off in the group stages and both finished top spot, but Chelsea decided to change their manager, with Jose Mourinho being dismissed and Avram Grant was named as his replacement. United had gotten past the defending French champions Lyon, Italian club Roma, and a two-time European Cup winner at the time, Barcelona. Chelsea, on the other hand, have had a more bumpier ride, having only drawn 0-0 at Greek club Olympiakos in the last 16 and trailed 2-1 to Turkish champions Fenerbahçe in the quarter-final first legs. However, they won both second legs at home and set up a semi-final against Liverpool, the team that beat them at this stage twice in three years. Ultimately, Chelsea made it third time lucky against the then five-time winners, defeating them 4-3 on aggregate to make their first ever European Cup final.

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Did you know...

...that English lower-league football team Bristol Rovers (1904 side pictured) once beat the Netherlands national football team 3-2?

...that Paul Reaney was briefly a car mechanic before signing with Leeds United?

...that although England centre forward Geoff Hurst had scored a hat-trick and was therefore entitled to keep the match ball, it was German striker Helmut Haller who took it home after the 1966 World Cup final?

...that the Gay Football Supporters Network recently voted Steven Gerrard top of their annual "Lust List" for the second year running?

...that Leyton F.C. had to win a High Court action in order to call itself the oldest football club in London?

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Playoff final in 2006 at the Millennium Stadium

The Football League is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales, and is the oldest such competition in world football. Its 72 clubs are evenly divided into three divisions, The Championship, League One, and League Two. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the Football Conference, thus integrating the League into the English football league system. Although primarily a competition for English clubs, three clubs from Wales also take part.

The Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition and this body also organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

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Football • England • English football task force

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Women's FA Cup 2006, Birmingham City v Arsenal

Credit: Flickr user Jaskirt Dhaliwal

Birmingham City's Kate Ward attempts to get past Arsenal defender Alex Scott for a shot on goal in a match from the 2006 FA Women's Premier League Cup. Arsenal are the most successful women's football team in England and completed the quadruple in the 2006-07 season by winning the FA Women's Premier League, FA Women's Cup, League Cup and the UEFA Women's Cup.