Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

is organised on a separate basis in each of the four constituent countries that make up the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

(UK), with each having a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective country. There is no

United Kingdom national football team The United Kingdom national football team is a football team that represents the United Kingdom. Despite football being the most popular sport in the country, the team has not played since 1965 as separate teams represent each home nation ( Eng ...

. Football has been the most popular sport in the UK since the 1860s.

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

are other popular sports. This article provides some comparisons concerning football in the

home nations Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...

. For details about football across the United Kingdom and its territories, refer to the table below:

Football associations

Each of the countries of the United Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the

, has a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective nation:

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

, (FA) is responsible for England and the Crown Dependencies and was founded in 1863, The Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1873 followed by the

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; cy, Cymdeithas Bêl-droed Cymru) is the governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Welsh national football team, its corresponding women's team, as well as the Welsh ...

(FAW) in 1876 and

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

(IFA) in 1880. They are the world's four oldest national football associations and play an important part in football worldwide as they take up four of the eight seats on the

International Football Association Board The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is the body that determines the Laws of the Game of association football. IFAB was founded in 1886 to agree standardised Laws for international competition, and has since acted as the "guardia ...

(IFAB), which determines the Laws of the Game, the other four seats being occupied by FIFA.

Men's International football

The United Kingdom plays its international football as separate

Home Nations Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...

teams of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The only exception to this is during the Summer Olympics where the United Kingdom is represented by

Great Britain Olympic football team The Great Britain men's Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competes as Great Britain, currently branded Team GB). The team is organised by the English Footb ...

, which despite the name includes

. Some people, such as politician Tony Banks, have argued for the UK having just one team to represent it for all competitions but all four football associations are very much against such an idea. There are sometimes issues about which team players are eligible for (as all the players representing those teams have 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). This has been the case with some players such as Aiden McGeady and Jack Collison who have chosen to play for the country of their parental heritage rather than the country of their birth. Players from crown dependencies (i.e. the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

), which are technically not in the UK, are eligible for all four teams (e.g.

Matt Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to non ...

and

Graeme Le Saux Graeme Pierre Le Saux ( ; born 17 October 1968) is an English former professional footballer and television pundit. As a versatile left sided player he played most of his career at left back with two spells at Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Southamp ...

, both of whom opted for England), as were British citizens born outside the UK or its possessions – Eric Young (born in Singapore) and Pat van den Hauwe (born in Belgium) had previously opted for

under the same rule and

Maik Taylor Maik Stefan Taylor (born 4 September 1971) is a former Northern Ireland international football goalkeeper and, since July 2022, goalkeeping coach at Birmingham City. At club level, Taylor played non-League football for Petersfield Town, Basingst ...

(born in Germany to a British father) used it to represent Northern Ireland – but residency criteria now also apply.

United Kingdom Olympic history

In the early years, the Olympic football competition was contested between amateur sides, and the

British Olympic Committee The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

agreed to let the England amateur team represent the entire UK. More recently the Olympic competition has been played by under-23s teams and Great Britain has not normally been represented. This is because qualification is based on the UEFA Under-21 championship, which means it is impossible for Great Britain to qualify as the national teams participate separately in that competition. There have been instances where an individual nation would have qualified, but a lower ranked nation has taken its place instead. An exception to this was the 2012 Summer Olympics, which were hosted to London. This meant that Great Britain qualified, by right of being host nation, for the football tournaments. While the

English Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

favoured the idea of a unified team for 2012, the other three federations opposed the concept. The Scottish Football Association was particularly strident in this view, fearing that a single UK team would jeopardise the independent status all four Home Nations enjoy. FIFA set a deadline of 1 June 2009 for the Home Nations to come to an agreement, which resulted in the four associations sending a letter to FIFA stating that while the Scottish,

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

, and

associations still opposed the concept of a unified Great Britain team and would not participate in such a team, they would not prevent England from fielding a team under that banner. FIFA president Sepp Blatter officially approved the deal within days. However, even though the

had said they would not participate in such a team, Welsh players such as Gareth Bale expressed an interest in playing for a unified team. The Football Association chose to disregard the agreement and selected five Welsh players for the men's team. The future of Great Britain Olympic teams is uncertain as there is no mechanism for them to qualify for forthcoming tournaments. However, the presence of a unified women's team at

Tokyo 2020 The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

gave hope for the future of the men's team.

International matches between the home nations

Angleterre - pays de Galles à Lens (Euro 2016)

The 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 Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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, guaranteeing that each team would play the other three at least once a season. The Championship was discontinued in 1984, partly due to problems of crowd trouble, and partly due to the desire of England (and to a lesser extent Scotland) to contest international fixtures against larger and more powerful nations. While the British Home Championship was being played, the UK teams were also drawn together on a number of occasions during qualification competitions for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

and

UEFA European Championships The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

. Early tournaments simply used the British Championship as a qualifying group, but during qualification for the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, England and Wales were drawn in the same group. Subsequent to this, three more qualification tournaments saw UK teams drawn together while the British Championship was being played. Since the end of the British Home Championship, the teams have played each other mainly when drawn together in international competitions such as the European Championship or the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, with occasional friendly fixtures. In 2011,

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

signed sponsorship deals with the FA, SFA, FAW and

IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Ac ...

, and stated their desire to see the four home nations play each other in a version of the British Home Championship again. Since the end of the British Home Championship, there have been many calls for it to be restored to the schedule. One argument is that it would replace so-called "meaningless friendlies" with a proper tournament that would raise the interest of both the players and fans. However there has been a lack of enthusiasm for such a proposal, particularly from England; as time has passed,

has grown in commercial power beyond that of the other three home associations, so that it could be claimed that friendlies against major footballing nations from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

are worth more than playing the home nations. In December 2006,

Lawrie Sanchez Lawrence Philip Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a Northern Irish football manager and former international footballer. The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon a ...

suggested that a tournament featuring the three home

Celtic nations The Celtic nations are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived. The term ''nation'' is used in its original sense to mean a people who shar ...

plus the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

could be organised. He stated that the IFA hierarchy were supportive of a new Home Championship, while the SFA expressed guarded interest. This was further elaborated in February 2007 when

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...

, the newly appointed manager of Scotland, expressed interest in playing against the home nations and the Republic of Ireland. Accepting that England would probably not be interested in a new Home Championship, he said, "If the English FA are thinking about opposition for the new Wembley, I hope we're in their thoughts." Both England and Wales were less enthusiastic, stating that with the number of friendlies played each year it would "be difficult to see how the Home Nations would fit in". On 18 September 2008, it was announced that a tournament featuring the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – the Nations Cup – would be played in 2011. The attendances for the matches, particularly those not involving the Republic or Scotland, were low and the tournament has not been repeated.

Coefficients of British national teams

FIFA

''As of October 2020''

UEFA

''As of 2017''

CONCACAF

''As of 2018''

National football teams of the Crown dependencies and overseas territories

Although technically not part of the UK, football in the crown dependencies is governed by

and represented by the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

. At the same time the crown dependencies also have their own non- FIFA affiliated teams: * Guernsey national football team ** Alderney national football team ** Sark national football team * Isle of Man national football team * Jersey national football team Overseas territories are not technically part of the UK either, and they have their own teams. Some of the overseas territories have full or associate membership in the corresponding regional federations: * Ascension Island national football team *

Anguilla national football team The Anguilla national football team is the national team of Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, and is controlled by the Anguilla Football Association. It is affiliated to the Caribbean Football Union of CONCACAF. Along wit ...

* Bermuda national football team *

British Virgin Islands national football team The British Virgin Islands national football team is the national team of the British Virgin Islands and is controlled by the British Virgin Islands Football Association. It is a member of both CONCACAF and FIFA. History Early football games i ...

Cayman Islands national football team The Cayman Islands national football team is the national team of the Cayman Islands, and is controlled by the Cayman Islands Football Association. It is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. Cayman Islands' home ground is Truman Bodden Stadium in Ge ...

Falkland Islands national football team The Falkland Islands official football team is a representative football team of the Falkland Islands, organised by the Falkland Islands Football League. The Falkland Islands Football League does not belong to the CONMEBOL, as its member count ...

Gibraltar national football team The Gibraltar national football team represents Gibraltar in international football competitions, and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. Gibraltar applied for full UEFA membership and was accepted by the UEFA Congress in May ...

Montserrat national football team The Montserrat national football team represents the small Caribbean island of Montserrat in the CONCACAF football region. Football is the second most popular sport in Montserrat, after cricket. The team plays at the Blakes Estate Stadium, nea ...

* Pitcairn Islands national football team * Saint Helena national football team *

Turks and Caicos Islands national football team The Turks and Caicos Islands National Football Team is the national team of the Turks and Caicos Islands and is controlled by the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association. History Having formed a football association in 1996 and joined FIF ...

Women's International football

Similar to in men's football, international women's football is played in separate

teams of

and

. Again, the only exception to this is during the Summer Olympics where the United Kingdom is represented by

Great Britain women's Olympic football team The Great Britain women's Olympic football team (also known as Team GB; or occasionally Great Britain and Northern Ireland) represents the United Kingdom in the women's football tournament at the Olympic Games. Normally, no team represents the ...

, which again includes

United Kingdom Olympic history

Women's football began in the Summer Olympics at Atlanta 1996. Unlike

men's football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to ...

, women's football at the Olympics is played at full senior level. The Great Britain Women have historically not competed at football in the Summer Olympics for the same reason as the men's team. Again, an exception to this was the 2012 Summer Olympics, which Great Britain were hosts. This meant that Great Britain qualified, by right of being host nation, for the football tournaments. The

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...

was approved to play in the tournament via the same process as the men's with

being granted permission to play under the name "Great Britain". Despite this, two Scottish players for the women's team, which saw Great Britain reach the quarter finals. The success at

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

gave hope for a unified team to complete at

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

but no agreement between the four football associations could be reached. However it was agreed that a women's team could compete in the

edition of the Olympics.

Coefficients of British national teams

FIFA

''As of August 2022''

UEFA

''As of 2017''

Men's club football

League systems

There are separate club football league systems for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland though some clubs play outside their country's respective system for mainly logistical reasons. Wales did not get a national league until 1992 (though regional leagues existed prior to that), which explains why the top four Welsh clubs play in what is now regarded as the English system. The English football league system includes hundreds of interlinked leagues, consisting of thousands of divisions. The

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

is at the top, followed by the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

and then the

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

, where the structure starts to become regional and includes the Northern Premier League, the Southern League, the Isthmian League and many more besides. The Welsh clubs of Cardiff City, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport County, Swansea City and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

play in the English system. Chester City, who played in The Football League until they dissolved in 2010, had a stadium that straddles the Welsh border, with the Club offices in England but the pitch actually in Wales. The

Northern Ireland football league system The Northern Ireland football league system is categorised into three levels: senior, intermediate and junior. Clubs attain intermediate status by fulfilling certain criteria (e.g. owning or leasing its own enclosed ground). Senior status requires ...

includes the

IFA Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

. One Northern Irish club, Derry City, plays its football outside of the UK in the

Republic of Ireland football league system The Republic of Ireland football league system currently consists of 12 levels. Traditionally association football leagues in the Republic of Ireland have been classified as either senior, intermediate or junior. These leagues are effectively nation ...

. The

Scottish football league system The Scottish football league system is a series of generally connected leagues for Scottish football clubs. The Scottish system is more complicated than many other national league systems, consisting of several completely separate systems or 'gr ...

similarly operates on a pyramid basis. 42 clubs compete in the Scottish Professional Football League, which is split into four divisions. Below that there are regional leagues, the Highland Football League, and the

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

above the East of Scotland Football League,

South of Scotland Football League The South of Scotland Football League (SoSFL) is a senior football league based in south-west Scotland. The league sits at level 6 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 1946, it i ...

and the

West of Scotland Football League The West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) is a senior football league based in the west of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–10 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 202 ...

. Two English clubs,

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

and Tweedmouth Rangers, play in the Scottish system. Outside of the pyramid is one senior league, the

North Caledonian Football League The North Caledonian Football Association is a football association operating throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and is a recognised body of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and as such has its senior football competitions of ...

, Junior football and

amateur football Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time they spend competing ...

. The

Welsh football league system The Welsh football league system (or pyramid) is a series of football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them. While most Welsh clubs play in the Welsh pyramid and most clubs in that pyramid are Welsh, five Welsh clubs play ...

includes the

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 200 ...

(historically the Welsh Premier League) at the top level, the

Cymru North The Cymru North is a regional football league in Wales, covering the northern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru South, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The f ...

and

Cymru South The Cymru South is a regional football league in Wales, covering the southern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru North, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system. The fi ...

at tier two, and a number of more regional leagues below these. Premiership club

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, also known as The New Saints ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed y Seintiau Newydd) or TNS, are a professional football club that currently play in the Cymru Premier. They are the most successfu ...

began playing their home matches on the English side of the border in Oswestry in 2007. Historically, the Saints represented the small Welsh village of

Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain is a large village (in the community of Llansantffraid) in Powys, Mid Wales, close to the border with Shropshire in England, about south west of Oswestry and north of Welshpool. It is on the A495 road and is at the co ...

, but merged with Oswestry Town, which had historically played in the Welsh football system, in 2003.

Cup competitions

There is a multitude of knockout club cup competitions. Again, these are organised on an English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish basis. Many carry qualification for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

for the winners. Each football association runs its own national cup, the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in England, the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mos ...

in Wales and the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

in Northern Ireland. Traditionally, these cups have been the most liberal about whom 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 have more stringent requirements but carry less prestige, including the Football League Cup in England, the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

in Scotland, Welsh Premier League Cup in Wales and

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...

in Northern Ireland. Some past cups have even crossed UK boundaries, such as the

Anglo-Scottish Cup The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format t ...

. Another cup competition that crosses the UK's border is the current Champions Cup, which features the champions of the Northern Ireland league and the Republic's.

Clubs playing in other countries

The nature of the governance of the game in the United Kingdom, with four separate associations, has led to the anomaly of clubs based in one of the four nations playing in competitions run by another. At present, this encompasses the following clubs playing senior football:
: → -

, Tweedmouth Rangers : → -

: → - Cardiff City,

Merthyr Town Merthyr Town Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Tref Merthyr) is a Welsh semi-professional association football, football club based in Merthyr Tydfil, currently playing in the , in the seventh tier of the English football league system. The ...

, Newport County, Swansea City,

: → - Derry City Berwick Rangers, The New Saints and Derry City are members of the association that runs the competitions in which they participate. As a consequence, Berwick is classed as a Scottish club, TNS as Welsh and Derry as Irish. This distinction is important especially where European competition is concerned, and both TNS and Derry City have represented Wales and Ireland several times in Europe. However, the Welsh clubs playing in England were more difficult to define, as, although they played almost exclusively in English competitions (with the exception of the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mos ...

), they were members of the Football Association of Wales, leading to the question of their status. In 2008, Cardiff City reached the final of the FA Cup, which meant they would have been eligible for one of England's places in Europe had they won. The question was only resolved in 2011, when it was decided that Welsh clubs playing in the

and Football League would be subject to governance by

rather than the FAW. Clubs playing in English competitions below the Football League remain under the purview of the FAW. As of the 2020–21 season, Cardiff City, Swansea City and Newport County play in the Football League, while Wrexham remain outside in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

Coefficients of British leagues

UEFA

''As of 2020''

Club meetings in Europe

There have been several occasions when clubs from the four home nations have played each other in European competition.

Club success in Europe

European Cup/UEFA Champions League

British teams have won the European Cup 15 times in total, joint with Italy and behind Spain. The UK is also the sovereign state with the most clubs to have won it; (

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

(6), Manchester United (3),

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

(2),

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

(2) and Aston Villa (1), (14) from England, plus

Glasgow Celtic The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

(1) from Scotland). British clubs have also been runners-up on Elven occasions (

(3), Manchester United (2),

(1)

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

(1), Arsenal (1),

(1),

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

(1) and Manchester City (1) Celtic became the first British club to win the Cup in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, beating Italian side

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a form ...

who had won 2 of the previous 3 finals 2–1 in Lisbon. The first English team to win the competition was Manchester United, who defeated two-time winners Benfica of Portugal 4–1 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

a year later, in

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

. English teams enjoyed the most successful period when they won the European Cup six years in a row from 1977 to 1982. As a result of the

Heysel Stadium disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...

of 1985, English clubs (though not those of other British associations) were banned from European competition. The ban was lifted in 1990 for all teams except Liverpool (which had taken part in the Heysel event). Liverpool returned to European competition the following year. England is home to the

which has become one of the best leagues in the world, attracting viewers from various countries around the globe. The Champions League final in 2010 was the first final in six years that did not feature an English team. In 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and 2009, three out of the four teams in the semi-finals were English. In May 2008 Manchester United and Chelsea played in the first ever all-English final, which Manchester United won on penalties.

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League

British clubs have also been successful in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with a total of 10 wins in the two competitions (all English), together with 12 runners-up placings (including three Scottish).

European Cup Winners Cup

The now defunct

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourna ...

has been won 10 times by British clubs (2 Scottish), with British clubs being runners-up seven times (2 Scottish).

Women's club football

League systems

Women's club football is also played in separate league systems for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The English women's football league system also includes many interlinked leagues, consisting of thousands of divisions. The

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features ...

is at the top, with the FA Women's Championship second, and then the

FA Women's National League The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...

encompassing the third and fourth tier. Below this are various regional leagues which feed into the upper tiers. The Northern Irish women's football league system is headed by the IFA Women's Premiership. The Scottish women's football league system similarly operates on a pyramid basis with the SWPL 1 and SWPL 2 heading the pyramid. The Welsh women's football league system includes the

Welsh Premier Women's Football League The Adran Premier, currently known as genero Adran Premier (for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Wales. It is the women's equivalent of the men's Cymru Premier, and it is organized by the Foo ...

which was founded in 2009, in addition to various regional leagues.

Cup competitions

Similar to in men's football, each FA runs their own women's cup with the

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship rea ...

Scottish Women's Cup The Scottish Women's Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71, the competition is owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an affiliated body of the Scottish Football As ...

FAW Women's Cup The FA of Wales Women's Challenge Cup, better known as the Welsh Women's Cup is the national women's football cup competition for Wales. It is run by the Football Association of Wales. As Wales had no national league for women until the estab ...

, and

IFA Women's Challenge Cup ''For the equivalent tournament in the Republic of Ireland, see FAI Women's Cup.'' The IFA Women's Challenge Cup or Irish Women's Cup is the annual cup competition of women's football teams in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuai ...

existing as national cups in the respective countries. The

FA Women's League Cup The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pri ...

also exists in England, and the Scottish Women's Premier League Cup,

Scottish Women's Football League First Division Cup The Scottish Women's Football League Cup, previously known as the Scottish Women's League Cup and Scottish Women's Football League First Division Cup, is a Scottish women's football competition founded in 1972. It is open only to teams in the Sc ...

Scottish Women's Football League Second Division Cup The Scottish Women's Football League Cup, previously known as the Scottish Women's League Cup and Scottish Women's Football League First Division Cup, is a Scottish women's football competition founded in 1972. It is open only to teams in the Sc ...

existing on Scotland.

Coefficients of British leagues

UEFA

''As of 2020''

Stadiums

Each of the home nations has a "

national stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

" in which they play the majority of their home games: * –

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(90,000) * – Hampden Park,

() * –

Cardiff City Stadium The Cardiff City Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Dinas Caerdydd) is a stadium in the Leckwith area of Cardiff, Wales. It is the home of Cardiff City Football Club and the Wales national football team. Following expansion of the Ninian Stand in July 2 ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

(33,280) * –

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual renta ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

(15,000) The Millennium Stadium, which has also been used for Wales home matches, is used primarily by the Welsh national rugby union team for its home internationals, while Windsor Park is a club ground owned by Linfield that the

leases for use by the Northern Ireland national team. In the event that the stadium is unavailable, the national team will usually play at a club ground. These are the top twelve football stadiums in the UK by capacity (all with capacity above 50,000).

Media

Television

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

are the main broadcasters of domestic league games in the United Kingdom with the network regularly showing

, EFL Championship,

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

, and

matches on a weekly basis. The network will occasionally broadcast

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

and

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

matches as well as selected fixtures from the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

has broadcasting rights over the

. Matches of continental club competitions, the Champions League,

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

, and Women's Champions League are shown on

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...

. The network also airs domestic games from foreign league and regularly shows

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

, Ligue 1, and

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

matches. The network use to hold rights to air

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

matches, but these are now shown by Sky Sports. Occasional J1 League, K League, and A-League matches are also shown. The network also broadcasts the occasional

match and assists in broadcasting the FA Cup. BT Sport also shows the Premier League's early Saturday match.

FreeSports Viaplay Xtra is a British free-to-air sports television channel operated and owned by Viaplay Group. History Viaplay Xtra launched as FreeSports on 31 August 2017, with the aim to provide free-to-air sports coverage and become a top three ded ...

broadcasts some live matches of several leagues, including La Liga,

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 ...

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association ...

, Major League Soccer, Brasileirão and others, free-to-air. England national team matches are shown on BBC and ITV Sports with both networks splitting coverage during the

and

in addition to covering all other matches of the tournament, whist

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

show all of England's

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

and European qualifers matches. Sky Sports, by whom they were previously shown, broadcast Nations League and tournament qualification games for

, and

in addition to other selected international matches. All matches of the Wales national team are also aired in Welsh on the BBC channel S4C. The BBC air a weekly preview show ''

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974 covering football, normally broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. From the 2009–10 season to the 2020–21 season Football Focus ...

'' on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on Saturday lunchtime for all football related topics, and in late afternoon ''

Final Score ''Final Score'' is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away dur ...

'' is shown on the channel which provides a quick round up of all 3pm Saturday games in England's top five, Scotland's top four, and Wales's top divisions of each respective league, games which by law can not be televised in the UK. Broadcast during late Saturday and Sunday everning on BBC One, ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary ...

'' and ''

Match of the Day 2 ''Match of the Day 2'' is a Premier League football highlights programme. It is a companion show to Match of the Day, usually broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings, thus facilitating coverage of the respective week's PL matches that were playe ...

'' shows highlights and analysis from Saturday's and Sunday's Premier League matches respectively. ''The Women's Football Show'' follows ''Match of the Day'' and provides highlights and analysis of the weekend's Women's Super League matches. Highlights and analysis from the Football League (EFL) are broadcast on Quest.

Tournaments hosted

National football centres

Currently, none of the British nations except for England operates a national academy. St George's Park National Football Centre,

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...

was officially opened on 9 October 2012.

National football museums

*England: ''The

National Football Museum The National Football Museum is England's national museum of football. It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia. The museum was originally b ...

'' Based at

Urbis Urbis was an exhibition and museum in Manchester, England, designed by Ian Simpson (architect), Ian Simpson. The building opened in June 2002 as part of the redevelopment of Exchange Square (Manchester), Exchange Square known as the Millennium Qu ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Holds collections of International, European and National significance. Charts the history of football and the game in England. *Scotland: ''The

Scottish Football Museum The Scottish Football Museum is Scotland’s national museum of association football, located in Hampden Park in Glasgow. The Museum The museum houses over 2000 objects of football memorabilia, including the world's oldest cap and match ticket fr ...

'' Housed at Hampden Park in

. Holds collections of International and National significance. Charts the history of Scottish Football.

Notes

References

External links

{{Football in Europe

Football associations

Men's International football

United Kingdom Olympic history

International matches between the home nations

Coefficients of British national teams

FIFA

UEFA

CONCACAF

National football teams of the Crown dependencies and overseas territories

Women's International football

United Kingdom Olympic history

Coefficients of British national teams

FIFA

UEFA

Men's club football

League systems

Cup competitions

Clubs playing in other countries

Coefficients of British leagues

UEFA

Club meetings in Europe

Club success in Europe

European Cup/UEFA Champions League

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League

European Cup Winners Cup

Women's club football

League systems

Cup competitions

Coefficients of British leagues

UEFA

Stadiums

Media

Television

Tournaments hosted

National football centres

National football museums

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links