Football is without doubt Britain’s most popular sport, with each of the home nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) having their own leagues.

England has the biggest leagues. The Premiership has a total of 20 clubs and operates independently after breaking away from the Football league in 1992. Today the Football League covers three leagues, known as the Championship, League One and League Two, containing a total of 72 clubs. Below that comes what is known as non-league football.

The rules of modern football were first set down (codified) in London 1863 by Schools and Universities who wanted to make sure that they all played by the same rules. Before that time everyone played slightly differently so the first half of football was played by one set of rules and the second half by the other side’s rules.

After this London also developed the sort of modern passing game that many people now recognize as football today. England can also claim to have the oldest national association, The Football Association founded in 1863, as well as the oldest competition thanks to the FA Cup, which began in 1871, and the oldest football league in the world, The Football League, founded in 1888.

Scotland became the next country to form its own football association, the Scottish F.A., back in 1873, and has its own league system, beginning with the Scottish Premier League and followed by the Scottish Football League First Division and Scottish Football League Second Division.

 
Wales also has its own football association, the Football Association of Wales, which formed in 1876, although six Welsh teams have always played in the English leagues and they continue to do so today.The top Welsh league is the Welsh Premier

Northern Ireland has the IFA Premiership and the IFA Championship, but is divided by four different Football Associations.

These four national Football Associations are also responsible for the national teams, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales which all compete with each-other separately on the national stage. There are many people who feel that it is a shame that the four countries do not compete as one nation, as they do in the Olympics where they came fourth in Beijing 2008 in the overall medal winners’ league. Should Great Britain ever play football as one team there is a good chance that they might actually win something, but football being the parochial game that it is the chances of this ever happening seem very remote.

The only British team ever to win a major national tournament is England, who managed to beat West Germany in 1966 and lift the world cup. Since then they have been waiting anxiously for that second moment of glory to no avail.

English clubs do actually rather better and have won European Cups on many occasions, while Scotland has also seen its clubs win European Cups in the past, although the vast sums of money in the modern game has made the chances of this happening again seem highly unlikely. There is no denying the strength of the English Premiership, thanks to the massive sums of money it generates around the world it is becoming stronger each year and now attracts some of the world’s most famous footballers, making it unlikely that teams from anywhere other than Spain or Italy will ever be competitive in Europe again.