Association football, also known as just football, is an organized team game played between a rectangular ball and two teams of eleven players each. It is played across about 200 countries and dependencies, which make it the fourth most popular sport in the world. The game of football can be either played by individuals on their own; professionally through a specific association, like the Football Association of America or the Professional Footballers Association; or played by teams like the Manchester City Football Club, Barcelona Football Club, Celtic Football Club, Nottingham Forest Football Club, or Watford FC among many others.
There are also national football championships for teams playing different codes of football. These different codes include Association Football Premier, Championship Football or Championship Division One, Super Division Football, and League One. The fourth-most popular kind of football is International Football. The most popular modes of football play are the English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga, Italian league, and French Ligue One among others. In addition, there are international football tournaments such as the World Cup and the European Championship. Many nations participate in the Olympic Games too.
The Association Football Premier League was created in the United Kingdom in April 1997. Four clubs from the England league compete for the Premiership title. This is a completely separate competition from the Welsh FA Cup, Scottish FA Cup, and the FA Amateur Cup. The Welsh FA Cup is the second-oldest football competition in the world and the third-oldest professional domestic league in the UK.
Another division of football that enjoys huge popularity in the UK is the National Rugby Football Association or NFA. It is a non-profit association football association whose official website has the names of all teams in the league as well as a list of tournaments and events. Unlike the EFL and other divisions, it is not associated with a specific football governing body. The main purpose of the NFA is to maintain a standard level of play in the country. A variety of different football competitions are held regularly in association football.
The English, Scottish and Welsh governments also run their own national football leagues within their territories. These have different codes for men’s, women’s and children’s football. There are also qualifying tournaments in which teams from other countries try to reach the champions of the different codes.
Soccer is considered to be one of the most-watched sports in the world and in the UK, England and Wales are the top-two teams in the Sky TV rankings. It should be noted that there are many different football codes in the UK, including Association Football, Professional Footballers Association, and Scottish Premier League among others. Regardless of the type of football that is played in a particular territory or league, the standards are generally quite high and the fans enjoy the games well. In summary, rugby union football has a very long history in the UK and other countries.