English Soccer

The history of ball games in England goes back to 1280. There are documents found in England mentioning the word football as early as 1409. In the early 13th and 14th century the street soccer was so popular in England that many traders went to King Edward II to make the game illegal. Therefore, the first ever ban over the game was imposed in 1314, followed by many bans in the later eras of Henry IV, Edward III, Richard II and James III. However, these bans always remain ineffective and nothing could stop people from coming on to streets to play their favorite game, which has now become a passion.

The English soccer team might be compared with the Spanish team in their performance on the field. Like Spain, the England soccer team always had outstanding players on their side, and considered as one of the toughest of all the teams. But unfortunately the team failed to put their talent on the field. After the rules of the game were first written in England in 1863 and the football association was found, the immediate need was to form a national soccer side. The players were selected from various teams playing around the country. English national team is considered as one of the oldest one along with that of the Scotland. Therefore, the first ever game played by the English soccer national team was against Scotland.

English soccer team has only won one World Cup to date. They won it way back in 1966, when they themselves were the hosting the cup. Other than that there is no boast full event for the English soccer to feel proud on. They could only reach the semi- final of the mega even once, other than the one in which they were victorious. The history of UEFA Championship is not any different, where they could manage to reach the top four only twice. The other six world champions (Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France, Uruguay, Germany) own much better statistics then the one England have. To add insult to injury England failed to qualify for the upcoming UEFA Championship recently, losing to Croatia by a margin of 3-2. The greatest rivals of the English both in and out of the field is Scotland. However, this on the field rivalry has turned cold since the regular clashes between the two teams came to an end. Now- a- days the greatest rival for England on the soccer field are Argentina and Germany.

The official name of the league in England is the English Premier League. It is a professional league competition among the top football clubs of England. The league has a working system of promotion and relegation. The FA cup is organized under the league every year. This competition is arranged since 1992. There are a total twenty clubs which go under the title of Premier League every year.

The English second division soccer or the Football League One, as it is known nowadays, is overall the third highest division in English soccer league system. It was introduced for the first time in the 2004-05 soccer sessions. Before the introduction of the English Premier League it was called the Football League Second Division. English soccer league has a complicated system of their own, following the promotion and relegation rules. As the bottom four teams from each league is demoted to the lower level and top four are promoted to the next leve.