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Football (soccer) is the United Kingdom's most popular sport. It was developed in the UK and still retains a important place in the lives of many British people.
Organisation of the game in the UKLike many sports in the UK, football is rarely managed on a UK-wide basis, but instead on a separate basis for each of the Home Nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Each has its own national team and its own league system. However, there are times when a UK-wide approach to the sport is taken (see below). Football associationsWith football being organised separately for the four Home Nations, there are also four national football associations: The Football Association (England), the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the Irish Football Association (which covers Northern Ireland and should not be confused with the Football Association of Ireland, which covers the Republic of Ireland). The associations are responsible for the overall management of football within their respective nation. The Football Association (FA) was founded first in 1863. Its original geographical remit was not clear and there was no specification of whether it covered just England, the entire UK or even the entire world. That question was answered for it as other national football associations were formed (starting with the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1873) followed by an international association, FIFA, which the FA eventually joined. The four British associations play an important part in football worldwide, as they take up four of the seats on the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which determines the laws of football (the other four seats are occupied by FIFA). National teamsThe UK does not have one national team but separate ones for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The teams play completely independently of each other. There are sometimes issues about which team players are eligible for (as all the players will have simply British passports), but a player is generally eligible for whichever nation he, his parents or grandparents were born in (in the case of these being different nations, then he can choose). Players from crown dependencies (like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) are eligible for all four teams. There have, however, been times when the entire UK has competed as one team. The most noticeable example is the Summer Olympic Games (where the UK competes as one country under the name Great Britain). In the early years, the Olympic football competition was contested between amateur sides and the UK agreed to let the amateur England team represent the entire UK. Thus the team was not really representative of the entire UK, but nonetheless played under that banner. More recently the Olympic competition has been played by under-23s teams and the UK has not sent any representative. This is mostly due to FIFA pressure (their argument being that the UK should either compete as four separate teams or one combined one and not both). There have been many arguments put forward for the UK having just one team to represent it, which would allow a greater choice of players and would put the UK on a level pegging with the rest of the world. As yet, no such idea has got off the drawing board and all four football associations are very much against it. Matches between the UK teamsThe UK teams have played each other more times than any other footballing nations in the world. The world's first international football match was played between Scotland and England in Glasgow in 1872 (a 0-0 draw). From then on, all four teams started playing regular friendlies against each other. In 1883 a formal competition between the UK's teams, the British Home Championship, was introduced, guaranting that each team would play the other three at least once a season. The Championship was discontinued in 1984 and since then, the teams have only played each other rarely. A list is given below. Matches between the UK teams since 1984Since 1984, when the British Home Championship ended, there have been a total of nineteen games played between the four Home Nations. In the qualifying campaign for the World Cup, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have still to play each other several times; these fixtures are also included in the list below:
League systemsThere are separate club football league systems for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, there is a lot of overlapping between the systems, with clubs often playing outside of their respective systems. This is partially due to logisitical geography, but mainly because the first league, The Football League, was originally intended to be UK-wide. However, Scotland and Ireland (all of which was part of the UK then) developed their own systems soon after. Wales did not get a national league until 1992 (though regional leagues existed prior to that), which explains why so many Welsh clubs play in what is now regarded as the English system. They are proposals for a UK-wide British Football League, but this currently seems a relatively distant possibility.
The Scottish football league system is much smaller, with just two national leagues: the Scottish Premier League (SPL) and Scottish Football League. There are, however, other regional leagues that are not connected to the national system, most notable the Highland Football League. One English club, Berwick Rangers, plays in the Scottish system. The Welsh football league system includes the League of Wales and a number of regional leagues. The Northern Irish football league system includes the Irish Football League. One Northern Irish club, Derry City, plays their football outside of the UK in the Republic of Ireland football league system. High finishers in the top league of each system may qualify for a Europe-wide UEFA competition, such as the Champions League, UEFA Cup or UEFA Intertoto Cup. Cup competitionsThere are a multitude of knockout club cup competitions. Again, these are organised on a English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish basis. Many carry qualification for the UEFA Cup for the winners. Each football association runs its own national cup. So there is the FA Cup (England), the Scottish FA Cup, the Welsh Cup and the Irish Cup. Traditionally, these cups have been the most liberal about who they accept, with many teams from outside that nation (and/or league system) entering. More recently rules have been tightened, with the competitions only open to teams who play in that nation's football league system. There are also a number of other cups that carry less prestige, including the League Cup (England), Scottish League Cup and FAW Premier Cup (Wales). Some past cups have even crossed UK boundaries, such as the Anglo-Scottish Cup. See also
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