History of English football

The second tier youth league is the Football League Youth Alliance, also founded in 1997, in which those Football League clubs that have Centres of Excellence status field their youth teams. The league, which currently has 58 clubs, is divided into four regional conference leagues. The Youth Alliance also operate the annual Youth Alliance Cup.

The FA Youth Cup is a nationwide cup competition for Under-18 teams organised by the FA. Over 4000 clubs enter the FA Youth Cup each season.

[edit]Cup competitions

There are several cup competitions for clubs at different levels of the football pyramid. The two major cup competitions are the FA Cup and the Football League Cup, with the winners of those competitions qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

• The FA Cup, first held in 1872, is the oldest and most respected national cup competition in the world. It is open to around 600 clubs in levels 1–11 of the football pyramid.
• The FA Community Shield is a single match played each August between the FA Cup winners and the Premier League champions.
• The Football League Cup (currently known as the Capital One Cup) is England's second major cup competition, and is contested by the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs.
• The Football League Trophy is a competition for clubs in Football League One and Football League Two.
• The FA Trophy is for clubs playing in levels 5–8 of the football pyramid (steps 1–4 of the National League System), i.e. the twelve divisions of the Football Conference, the Southern Football League, the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League.^[14]
• The FA Vase is for clubs in levels 9–10 of the football pyramid (steps 5–6 of the National League System)^[14]
• The Conference League Cup is for clubs in level 5–6 i.e. the three divisions of the Football Conference. It was formed in 1979.
• The FA Inter-League Cup (NLS Cup) was formed in the 2003–04 to provide an English representative in the UEFA Regions' Cup. It is contested by representative sides from leagues at level 11 of the English football pyramid (level 7 of the National League System), which is roughly the county level, together with a few other leagues permitted by the FA. The first winner of the NLS Cup was the Mid Cheshire League, who beat the Cambridgeshire County League 2–0 in May 2004.
• A number of lower leagues organise their own cup competitions, such as the North West Counties Football League who run a League Cup and a Division One Trophy.
• Many County Football Associations organise their own cup competitions involving Premier League and Football League clubs as well as non-league clubs in some counties. Most league clubs tend to use reserve or youth teams whereas non-league clubs will use their first team. County cups include the Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup, which is the third oldest surviving cup competition in the world, the Lancashire Senior Cup which is competed for by Premier League and Football League clubs from the historic county of Lancashire, including Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic along with Blackpool, Burnley, Preston North End, Bury and Morecambe. The Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy is for senior non-league clubs in the same county. Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers enter the Liverpool Senior Cup using their reserve or youth teams, along with local Merseyside non-league clubs, such as Burscough andMarine. Other competitions include the London Senior Cup and the Middlesex Senior Cup.
• The FA Sunday Cup began in 1964 and is a national knockout competition for all Sunday league teams. The 2008 final was played at Anfield.^[15]
• The AFA Senior Cup is an amateur football competition organised by the Amateur Football Alliance and contested by the first teams of clubs affiliated to the Alliance.
• Although not an FA-affiliated contest, the Masters Football contest is a contest between former players and is refereed by former Premier League Referees

There have also been a number of other cup competitions which are no longer run:

• FA Amateur Cup (1893–1974)
• Sheriff of London Charity Shield (1898–1907, 1931–1934 and 1965–1966)
• Anglo-Italian Cup (1970–1973, 1976–1986 and 1992–1996)
• Watney Cup (1970–1973)
• Texaco Cup (1971–1975)
• Anglo-Scottish Cup (1975–1981)
• Super Cup (1985)
• Full Members Cup (1985–1992)

[edit]Qualification for European competitions

See also: English clubs in European football

Clubs who do well in either the Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup can qualify to compete in various UEFA-organised Europe-wide competitions in the following season. The number of English clubs playing in Europe in any one season can range from seven to nine, depending on the qualification scenarios. Currently, England is awarded the following places in European competitions:

In addition, once in a European competition, it becomes possible to qualify for others:

• All the winners of the Champions League Play-Off Round go forward to the Champions League
• All the losers of the Champions League Play-Off Round go forward to the UEFA Europa League
• All the winners of the UEFA Europa League Play-Off Round go forward to the UEFA Europa League
• Any clubs playing in the Champions League that finish third in the group stage go into the UEFA Europa League Round of 32

[edit]National teams

Main article: England national football team

The England national football team represents England in international football. It is one of the two oldest national football teams in the world, the other one being Scotland. England is one of only eight national teams to have won the World Cup and did this in 1966. They are one of the more prominent teams on the global stage, rarely dropping outside of the top ten rankings of both FIFA and Elo. They were the most successful of the Home Nations in the British Home Championship with 54 wins (including 20 shared wins) before the competition was suspended in 1984.

There are also a number of other national teams from the Under-16 team to the Under-21 team, the latter of which is considered to be a feeder team for the national team. In addition there is anEngland B team which occasionally plays games as support for the national team. The England C team (formerly the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Professional team) represents England at non-league level. They compete annually in the Four Nations Tournament as well as in friendly matches throughout the year.

[edit]Women's football

Main article: Women's football in England

The first recorded women's football match in England was more than 100 years ago. Women's football was very popular for many years but it was stopped by a ban made by the Football Association from 1921-1962.^[17] It is only in recent years that women's football has begun to recover and receive some serious attention with televised matches (such as the FA Women's Cup final and matches of the national team), international games being held at larger stadia and, to a lesser extent, the comedy film Bend It Like Beckham.

As with the men's game, the league is organised into a pyramid system. It has nine levels, with the semi-professional FA WSL, launched in 2011, at the top. Unlike the men's pyramid and the lower levels of the women's pyramid, there will be no promotion from or relegation to the former top level, the FA Women's Premier League National Division, until at least the end of the 2012 WSL season. Doncaster Rovers Belles LFC (previously Doncaster Belles LFC) were founded in 1969 and are one of the most successful clubs in England. They are one of only two clubs outside London to have won the FA Women's Premier League National, the other team being Everton LFC. The Belles have also won the FA Women's Cup six times and been runners-up seven times.Fulham LFC were for a number of years the top club in England and were the first club in Europe to turn professional in 2000 before reverting to semi-professional in 2003. Doncaster Rovers Belles and Everton have since become charter members of the WSL.

Arsenal LFC, who turned fully professional not long after Fulham, have dominated the game in England in the 2000s with Everton LFC also successful. Arsenal have won the FA Women's Cup nine times, and also won the FA Women's Premier League National Division ten times and the FA Women's Premier League Cup nine times before the launch of the WSL. They also won theUEFA Women's Cup in the 2006-07 season. In the 2011 season, the first for both the WSL and its cup competition, the FA WSL Continental Cup, Arsenal claimed the league-cup double. Before the launch of the WSL, Everton won the league title once and were runners-up twice. They have also won the FA Women's Cup once and the FA Women's Premier League Cup once.

Burton Brewers 57-0 loss against Willenhall Town on 4 March 2001 in the West Midland Regional Women's Football League, Division One North may be a British record for the biggest defeat in a football match.^[18]

[edit]Stadium of English football

For more details on this topic, see List of English football stadia by capacity.

Wembley Stadium is the national stadium in England. It is also the largest stadium in the country with a capacity of 90,000. It is owned by the FA and stages England home matches, the FA Cup final and semi-finals, League Cup final, Football League Trophy, FA Trophy, FA Vase as well as the Promotion play-off finals of the Football League and the Conference National. Old Trafford with a capacity of 76,212 is the largest club stadium, with the Emirates Stadium holding 60,355 and St James' Park holding 52,387. All Premier League clubs play in all-seater stadia. Most professional clubs have either moved to new purpose-built stadia or redeveloped their stadium. Even at non-league level there have been big improvements with the likes of New Bucks Head the home of Telford United with a capacity of 6,300, being one of the best in non-league and Princes Park with a capacity of 4,100, the home of Dartford, one of the most ecologically sound ever built.^[19] Some clubs moved out of their old stadiums into newly developed council built and owned stadia, where they are tenants. Clubs include Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium, which is owned by Doncaster Council, Hull City at the KC Stadium, which is owned by Hull City Council and Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena which is owned jointly by City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs Charity. The 92 Club is a society, in order to be a member of which, a person must attend a football match at the stadium of every current Premier League and Football League club in England and Wales.

[edit]Seasons in English football

The following articles detail the major results and events in each season since 1871–72, when the first organised competition, the FA Cup, was created. Seasons in italics are wartime seasons, when official national competition was suspended, although regional football continued.