English Football

Football in England
The England national team playing at Wembley (2007).
Country	England
Governing body	FA
National team	England
First played	1863
National competitions
FA Cup EFL Cup FA Trophy
Club competitions
Premier League Community Shield Football League Championship Football League One Football League Two National League National League North National League South
International competitions
Champions League Europa League Super Cup FIFA Club World Cup FIFA World Cup(National Team) European Championship(National Team)

Association football is the national 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 as well as the world's first club (Sheffield F.C.), the world's oldest professional association football club (Notts County F.C), the oldest national governing body (the Football Association), the first 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 six of the ten richest football clubs in the world.

The England national football team is one of only 8 teams to win the World Cup, in 1966. A total of five English club teams have won the UEFA Champions League (European Cup).

Football was played in England as far back as medieval times. The first written evidence of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his visit to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to mention that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to view the contests of their juniors, and in their fashion sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a stirring of natural heat by viewing so much activity and by participation in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280.