Portal:English football

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The English Football Portal

The England national football team playing at Wembley.

Football is the most popular sport in England. England is home to the world's first football league, the oldest national governing body, and the oldest national knockout competition. The first modern rules for the game were established in England in 1863. England is one of the oldest national football teams, having played in the first international match in 1872. England won the FIFA World Cup in 1966, and has qualified for the World Cup 16 times. England has more football clubs than any other country, including the world's first club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's oldest professional club, Notts County. England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest leagues in the world. The British Empire's cultural power spread the rules of football to areas of British influence. England the home of football, 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. It also has 31% of the population interested in Football. 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...)

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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.

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Did you know...

...that Stoke City F.C. (1870s squad pictured) is the second-oldest English football league club, as it was founded in 1863?

...that the first professional football team, The Zulus, was established in Sheffield, England in 1879?

...that footballer David Weir scored Manchester City's first ever FA Cup goal?

...that Wilf Wild was the first Manchester City manager to win the League Championship?

...that Chris Woods cost Queens Park Rangers 250,000 pounds from Nottingham Forest in 1979 even though he had never played a League game before his transfer?

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The FA National League System Cup is a football competition run by The Football Association. It was created in the 2003-04 season to provide an English representative in the UEFA Regions' Cup.

In previous Regions' Cups, the FA had nominated a team to take part; in the 2002-03 season it was a Kent County League XI. UEFA decreed that in the future all Regions' Cup entrants must have won a national competition, and so the NLS Cup was formed.

The cup is contested by representative sides from leagues at level 7 of the National League System with a few other leagues permitted by the FA. That is roughly at the county level or eleventh overall tier of the English football league system. The first final was held on May 8, 2004, and was won by the Mid Cheshire League, who beat the Cambridgeshire County League 2-0.

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Credit: Wikipedia user Nigelpm

Gillingham supporters at the second division play-off final between their side and Manchester City. Gillingham had been promoted from the third division only the previous season, and despite leading by two goals, lost out on a penalty shoot-out.

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