Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge

Association football is the most popular sport in London, England in terms of both participants and spectators.^[1] London has several of England's leading football clubs, and all in all the city boasts 13 professional teams.^[2]

Most London clubs are named after the district in which they play (or used to play).

[edit] History

The playing of team ball games - almost certainly including football - are first recorded in London by William FitzStephen in about 1174-1183. He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday:

After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree adolescents.^[3]

The playing of football in London has been well documented since it was first outlawed in 1314. Regular references to the game occurred throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including the first reference to word "football" in English when it was outlawed by King Henry IV of England in 1409. Early games were probably disorganised and violent. In the sixteenth century the headmaster of St Paul's School Richard Mulcaster is credited with taking mob football and transforming it into organised and refereed team football. In 1581 he described in English his game of football which included small teams, referees, positions and even a coach.

Royal Engineers A.F.C., 1872

The modern game of football was first codified in 1863 in London and subsequently spread worldwide. Key to the establishment of the modern game was Londoner Ebenezer Cobb Morley who was a founding member of the Football Association, the oldest football organisation in the world. Morley wrote to Bell's Life newspaper proposing a governing body for football which led directly to the first meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern in central London of the FA. He wrote the first set of rules of true modern football at his house in Barnes. The modern passing game was invented in London in the early 1870s by the Royal Engineers A.F.C.^[4][5].

Prior to the first meeting of the Football Association in the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London on 26 October 1863, there were no universally accepted rules for the playing of the game of football. The founder members present at the first meeting were Barnes, Civil Service, Crusaders, Forest of Leytonstone (later to become Wanderers) , N.N. (No Names) Club (Kilburn), the original Crystal Palace, Blackheath, Kensington School, Percival House (Blackheath), Surbiton and Blackheath Proprietary School; Charterhouse sent their captain, B.F. Hartshorne, but declined the offer to join. All of the 12 founding clubs were from London though many are since defunct or play rugby union.

There was a rise in the popularity of football in London dates from the end of the 19th Century, when a fall in church attendance^[specify] left many people searching for a way to spend their weekend leisure time.^[6] In 1882 the London Football Association was set up. Over the next 25 years clubs sprang up all over the capital, and the majority of these teams are still thriving in the 21st century. Of those clubs currently playing in the Football League, Fulham are generally considered to be London's oldest club still in existence, having been founded in 1879.^[7] However, Isthmian League side Cray Wanderers are the oldest club in the Greater London area, having been founded in 1860 in St Mary Cray^[8] | (then part of Kent but now in the London Borough of Bromley).

Woolwich Arsenal v. Newcastle United, 1906

Initially football in London was dominated by amateur teams, drawing their membership from former public schoolboys but gradually working-class sides came to the forefront. Woolwich Arsenal were London's first professional team, becoming so in 1891,^[9] a move which saw them boycotted by the amateur London Football Association. Other London clubs soon followed Arsenal's footsteps in turning professional, including Millwall (1893), Tottenham Hotspur (1895), Fulham (1898) and West Ham United (1898).

In the meantime, Woolwich Arsenal went on to be the first London club to join the Football League, in 1893. The following year, the Southern League was founded and many of its members would go on to win promotion to the Football League. In 1901 Tottenham Hotspur became the first club from London to win the FA Cup in the professional era, although it would not be until 1931 that a London side would win the League title, the team in question being Arsenal (having moved to Highbury in 1913 and dropped the "Woolwich" from their name).

Historically the London clubs have not accumulated as many trophies as those from North West England, such as Liverpool and Manchester United; however, today Arsenal and Chelsea are regarded as two of the Premier League's "big four" alongside them. In 2003-04 they became the first pair of London clubs to finish first and second in the top flight, with Arsenal winning. In 2004-05 they did so again, this time with Chelsea winning.

Before Chelsea's recent rise in fortunes the two highest profile London clubs were Arsenal and their long-standing North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, both of whom were considered to be members of English football's "big five" for most of the post-war period. All three clubs occupy the top ten in the all-time top-flight table for England - Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea being third, eighth and ninth respectively.^[10]

[edit] Clubs

The table below lists all London clubs in the top eight tiers of the English football league system: from the top division (the Premier League), down to Step 4 of the National League System. League status is correct for the 2009-10 season. Stadiums and capacity are of December 16, 2009.

[edit] Defunct clubs

There are also numerous minor London clubs playing outside the top eight levels of English football. Hackney Marshes in east London, home to many amateur sides, is reportedly the single largest collection of football pitches in the world, with 100 pitches.^[1]

[edit] Stadiums

[edit] Wembley Stadium

The new Wembley Stadium, in January 2006 whilst under construction

Wembley Stadium, in north-west London, is the national football stadium, and is traditionally the home of the FA Cup Final as well as England's home internationals. The old stadium was closed in 2000 in order to be demolished and completely rebuilt, and reopened in 2007; during the closure Cardiff's Millennium Stadium was the venue for cup finals, while England played at various venues around the country. Wembley was one of the venues for the 1966 FIFA World Cup and the 1996 European Football Championship, and hosted the final of both tournaments. It also was the venue for the European Cup final in 1968, 1978 and 1992.

[edit] Other stadiums

Most clubs in London have their own stadium, although some clubs share between them, and some clubs may temporarily take up a tenancy at another's ground due to their own ground being redeveloped. The largest operational football stadium in London apart from Wembley is Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, with a capacity of 60,355. Other large stadiums include Chelsea's Stamford Bridge (42,055), Tottenham's White Hart Lane (36,240) and West Ham United's Boleyn Ground (35,647). There are 10 clubs in London with stadiums larger than 10,000.

[edit] Administration

London is the location of the headquarters of the Football Association, in Soho Square (formerly Lancaster Gate), while the Premier League's offices are located in Gloucester Place near Marble Arch. The Football League maintains its headquarters in Preston, although its commercial offices are based in Gloucester Place as well.

[edit] See also

• London derbies
• Football in England
• Sport in London

Find Football Pitches in London

[edit] References

^[11]