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

Preston North End is a professional football club in the Lancashire town of Preston, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Originally a cricket club, Preston has been based at Deepdale since 1875, and it is known to be football's oldest ground in terms of continuous use by a league club. The club first took up football in 1878 as a winter fitness activity and decided to focus on it in May 1880, when the football club was officially founded.

Preston were one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, and have appeared in the top flight on 46 occasions, but they have not played at this level since 1961, the year after Tom Finney retired. Finney was revered around Preston, and they had a couple of near misses, whether it be finishing runners-up to Arsenal in 1953 or losing in the 1954 FA Cup final to West Brom. However, what they are mostly known for is that they were the first Double winners and not only did they won the inaugural league championship, they did it without losing a single game, giving them the nickname "The Invincibles", a feat that would be replicated by Arsenal 115 years later, and they won the FA Cup without conceding one goal. The Lilywhites won the title again in 1890 but their only major success since then has been their 1938 FA Cup final victory over Huddersfield Town. Other notable players include Tommy Docherty, Graham Alexander, Paul Gallagher, Alan Kelly Sr., and Bill Shankly, with the latter two commemorated at Deepdale by stands named after them. Finney also has a stand named after him, but also a statute outside the ground.

Traditionally, Preston's main rivalry is with Blackpool, given that the two clubs are 17 miles apart, but there have been other local rivals in the league over the years including Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic.

More selected articles

Read more

Did you know...

...that Mick Mills (pictured) was made captain of the England national football team which started the 1982 World Cup because Kevin Keegan was unable to play through injury?

...that in 1930, the footballer Gerrit Keizer played for both Arsenal and Ajax Amsterdam simultaneously, flying between England and the Netherlands to play in matches?

...that England football captain Eddie Hapgood was forced by diplomats to give a Nazi salute before a match with Germany in 1938?

...that Harry Newbould was the first-ever manager of Derby County F.C.?

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

More did you know facts

More at WikiProject Football

Selected competition

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.

More selected competitions

Read more

WikiProjects

Direct relation

Football • England • English football task force

WikiProject Football Task Forces and sub-projects

Selected image

Credit: Commons user Airwolf

Former manager of Russia Fabio Capello. He became manager on July 26, 2012 following the resignation of Dick Advocaat. Before Russia, he managed England, he resigned from England on February 8, 2012, following the FA removing the captaincy from John Terry. He was a former President of the League Managers Association.

More selected pictures

Read more