| 1 | Britain has a considerable number of teams in the various UsefulNotes/FootyLeagues. These are some of the more notable ones. Many of the bigger British clubs are currently owned by foreign investors. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Historically, which club Britons support has been a matter of home town pride, tribal affiliations where there is more than one club in a city, or familial connections. A Mancunian doesn't just arbitrarily decide one day to support United or City, he is born in a City-supporting household, in a City-supporting area of town. Changing allegiances was (and still is) very rare. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | These days, [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky Sports]]' blanket coverage of the UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague has led to a generation of younger fans who reject home town loyalty in favour of supporting a team that might actually win something, and whom they can watch on TV down the pub, admiring the silky skills of highly-paid players. Standing on an unroofed terrace on a rainy October afternoon cheering on a bunch of no-hopers playing mediocre football for the Papa John's Trophy just doesn't seem quite the same. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Of course, this has lead to the dreaded accusation of "[[IFightForTheStrongestSide glory hunting]]" amongst some fans. A glory hunter is someone who supports a successful club, although they have no or very little local or family connection to said club, and seem to be jumping on the bandwagon of success. It's an accusation that your support is not sincere, and therefore calling someone a glory hunter is the worst insult one fan can give another. On the other hand, it's only logical that a team winning competitions will likely gather respect and new support. From the mid-1990s to the early 2010s, Manchester United were universally reviled due to constant homegrown success on the pitch, and therefore all of their fans were deemed by everyone else as "glory hunters" and stereotypically depicted as non-Mancunians with little knowledge of football beyond newspaper back-page headlines. Now that local rivals Manchester City have shaken the balance of power, many 'new' City fans have had the accusation of glory hunting aimed at them - giving Red Devils fans a break. It's also now relatively common for fans of a lower-league side who have little chance of getting into the Premiership in the forseeable future to have a secondary support for a Premiership side. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Most clubs have celebrity fans - how they are regarded by regular fans depends on circumstances but generally speaking, the ones who get involved in the running of the club, are vocal in their support during lean times, turn up regularly at matches and/or can prove that they supported the club as a child are held in high regard. The best examples are [[Music/{{Oasis}} the Gallagher brothers]] (Manchester City), Music/FatboySlim (Brighton & Hove Albion), Music/RobbieWilliams (Port Vale), Music/EltonJohn (Watford) and Creator/DeliaSmith (Norwich City), with the latter three having also owned their respective teams. (Smith still owns hers.) |
| 10 | |
| 11 | A note, incidentally - British teams don't wear "uniforms", they wear a "strip" or a "kit". Each club has a "home kit" for most games, a kit for away games where the home kits clash and sometimes even a kit for when both clash. We are describing the former. These kits, especially for the bigger clubs, have a tendency to change on a season-by-season basis, bringing in more money for the clubs by way of replica shirt sales. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The two main programs for football coverage in the UK remain ''Series/{{Match of the Day}}'' on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC1]] (although that one only covers the English Premier League) and ''Series/SoccerSaturday'' on [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky Sports]]. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ---- |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[folder:The Home Nations]] |
| 20 | The four constituent parts of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom play as separate teams on the international stage. The fact that the first-ever international football match was between England and Scotland [[note]] a 0-0 draw, back in 1872[[/note]] has a lot to do with this. |
| 21 | * Until the 1980s, these four teams played an annual tournament known as the British Home Championship (sometimes referred to as the British International Championship - that being the name on the trophy - or the Home Internationals). National pride inspired some epic performances, especially against England, but also led to some ugly hooliganism. This, combined with falling attendances (except in the England-Scotland fixture), fixture congestion and [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles problems with playing in Northern Ireland]], led to it being discontinued. For the record, England won this competition the most times, but Northern Ireland got to keep the trophy as they won the last one. A brief replacement tournament, the Rous Cup (involving England, Scotland and a guest team from South America), lasted for three years. |
| 22 | * An attempt at a similar tournament -- albeit one involving the Republic of Ireland (see below) instead of England -- was made in 2011. Called the Nations Cup, it was only played once and was not repeated due to low attendances. |
| 23 | * The '''Republic of Ireland''' is often regarded as an honorary Home Nation, due to the close links between Britain and Ireland. The bit in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' where the (emphatically English) Weasleys (and others) energetically support Ireland [[note]]the Irish quidditch team appears to represent the whole island, as do the real-life rugby and cricket teams[[/note]] in the absence of a British team is quite true to life (except in football rather than quidditch, obviously) and was evidenced at the 1994 World Cup, when none of the actual Home Nations qualified (it may have helped that Ireland's manager at the time, Jack Charlton, was not just English but a member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning side). The reverse is not usually true ... as far as the English are concerned; sports shops in Ireland and Scotland usually report increases in sales of replica shirts of countries that are playing against England during World Cups and European Championships. Irish fans are also regarded as being among the nicest and politest in the world, if still rambunctious. During the UEFA Euro Cup in 2016, they made headlines after one fan accidentally dented a car's roof. The crowd immediately collected money to pay for repairs and then took matters into their own hands and beat the dent out on the spot. |
| 24 | * The question of whether there should be a unified '''Great Britain''' team is sometimes raised, usually by FIFA officials who want to score a few political points by querying the unique status of the Home Nations [=FAs=]. The fact remains, though, that because the Home Nations each formed their own football associations and started playing representative matches against each other (now regarded as the first international football matches) before football associations were created elsewhere in the world, there has never been a UK-wide football association that would support a UK-wide team, and there is very little support for this notion among the Home Nations [=FAs=], even on a temporary basis (see below). |
| 25 | ** Aside from the Olympics (see below) a Great Britain XI has twice been called into existence for friendlies - in 1947 to commemorate the Home Nations [=FAs=] rejoining FIFA, and in 1955 to celebrate the IFA's 75th anniversary. On both occasions, the opposition was a composite Rest of Europe XI and the colour of the British side's shirts depended on the venue - they wore navy for the 1947 match which was played at Hampden Park and green for the 1955 one which was played at Windsor Park. Wales have twice played a Rest of Great Britain XI - in 1951 to commemorate the FAW's 75th anniversary and in 1969 to commemorate [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIII Prince Charles]]'s investiture as Prince of Wales. |
| 26 | ** A British team has periodically entered the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Olympic]] football tournaments - the first time the Olympics had football was at the Paris 1900 Olympics, when amateur side Upton Park (no relation to West Ham United [[note]] although ironically they played at West Ham Park in East London[[/note]]) represented Great Britain, winning the gold medal. At the London 1908 Olympics an amateur team made up exclusively of English players won the gold medal, a feat they repeated in 1912. Disputes over amateur status - the FA wanted the Olympic football tournament to be for amateurs only, while FIFA wanted it to be open to all available players - resulted in the FA withdrawing from FIFA for a time (which is why none of the Home Nations entered the first three World Cups in the 1930s). The British Olympic football team remained English amateurs only until the FA stopped recognising the distinction between amateurs and professionals in 1974, after which they stopped entering a team for the Olympics (by which time they had failed to qualify for three successive Olympics). This is why Olympic football[[note]] which is nowadays open to professionals, albeit with a maximum of three players over the age of 23 per squad, meaning that the matches are not officially recognised as full internationals [[/note]] is taken much less seriously in Britain than it is in other countries, to the point where it's barely acknowledged by Creator/TheBBC's Olympics coverage. |
| 27 | ** More recently, this issue was raised again because London hosted the 2012 Olympics, meaning that Great Britain would (as hosts) be able to enter a football team. However, it was left to the FA to organise this after the SFA, FAW and IFA all withdrew from discussions over fears that a British Olympic football team would undermine the special status of the Home Nations under FIFA's constitution, leading to them being forced to field a unified team in all future international competitions (which would be vastly unpopular in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and quite possibly in England too). The fact that no-one believed FIFA President [[CorruptBureaucrat Sepp Blatter]]'s assurances that this would not be the case speaks volumes for the regard in which FIFA was held during his time in office. A compromise was eventually reached whereby a squad of English players would represent Great Britain, although in the event the squad consisted of 13 Englishmen and five Welshmen [[note]] it would've been six Welshmen, but Gareth Bale had to pull out due to an injury [[/note]]. They were knocked out in the quarter-finals. The FA has no plans to enter a team in subsequent men's Olympic football tournaments. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | !!UsefulNotes/{{England}} |
| 30 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/england_national_football_team_crestsvg.png]] |
| 31 | [[caption-width-right:175:Everyone seems to know the score, they've seen it all before, they just know, they're so sure, that England's gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away, but I know they can play…]] |
| 32 | ->'''Nicknames:''' The Three Lions\ |
| 33 | '''Uniform:''' White shirts, navy shorts[[note]](although they've tended to go for an all-white kit very often of late)[[/note]]\ |
| 34 | '''Current Head Coach:''' Gareth Southgate\ |
| 35 | '''Current Captain:''' Harry Kane\ |
| 36 | '''Home stadium:''' Wembley Stadium, North London[[note]]Capacity: 90,000[[/note]]\ |
| 37 | '''FIFA Code:''' ENG\ |
| 38 | '''Trophies Won:''' 1966 World Cup; 54 British Home Championships (including 20 shared); 1986, 1988, & 1989 Rous Cups |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Won UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup in 1966, famously wearing their change kit of red shirts and white shorts for the final. Despite the fifty-plus years that have passed since England's one and only major triumph, great things are still expected every time -- by [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers the tabloids]] at least, which can always be relied on to whip up a sense of unrealistic expectation prior to a World Cup or European Championship. Most fans opt for a more realistic approach, usually characterised by extreme pessimism followed by ''very'' cautiously optimism should the side progress to the quarter-finals. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Despite frequently producing any number of internationally admired world class players, including the so-called "Golden Generation" of the 2000s (Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Rooney, Terry, Ferdinand, etc), they [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut never really get anywhere]]. This is down to a puzzling inability for the team to play together (the Gerrard-Lampard dichotomy baffled several managers), exhaustion after the gruelling domestic season and a somewhat proverbial problem with penalty shoot-outs, being eliminated on penalties in the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cups and Euro '96, 2004 and 2012 [[note]] prior to 2018 -- see below -- England's only penalty shoot-out win had come about in the Euro 96 quarter-final, and they went on to lose the semi-final in the same manner [[/note]]. In 2014 they failed to even get out of the group stage. Sadly, no-one was particularly surprised. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | England frequently receive a pasting abroad for considering themselves a top international side despite not having won anything for decades. However, when you consider that only eight countries have ever won the World Cup, and that England remains one of a relatively small number of teams to make it to the later stages of international tournaments more often than not, this doesn't seem quite so fair. Nowadays, the attitude is somewhat diminished, with a very English morbidly humorous attitude attached - 'how badly are we going to do ''this'' time?' |
| 46 | |
| 47 | In terms of the World Cup, England are tied at 3rd (with Italy, behind Brazil and Germany) in terms of the most quarter-final appearances but in a mere joint-9th place (with seven other countries) for the semis. So they are a comparatively strong side, capable of giving a good showing against the best in the world on their day and still being considered a serious scalp for smaller teams, but rarely considered a serious contender or favourite to win. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | After 2014, old captain Steven Gerrard retiring from international football, ending the old guard -- the only real survivors were new captain Wayne Rooney and goalkeeper Joe Hart (who was widely considered to have not had much of an ability to prevent the rest of his team from folding like wet paper). An exciting generation of youngsters and former outsiders was pushed to fore for the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, including Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy, the latter bursting onto the scene as a Premier League champion in 2015/16 and runner up to Kane for top scorer by 1 goal. This was underlined by England executing a faultless qualifying campaign, being the only team not to drop a point and the first to qualify after the hosts, France. Despite that and generally favourable results in the run-up to the tournament, including against hosts and favourites France (they won 2-0, but only a few days after the Bataclan gun attacks, meaning that French hearts weren't quite in it) [[note]] And in any case, that particular match was more notable for [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments the heartwarming response]] by the Football Association and the English fans, with Wembley lit up in the colours of the French tricolore, the motto of the Republic emblazoned on the side, the usual massive St. George's Cross at the home end replaced with a tricolore and the entire stadium impeccably observing the [[DueToTheDead minute of silence]] before raucously joining in with the French national anthem. [[/note]] and World Champions Germany, in which England executed a stunning 3-2 comeback victory in Berlin. At the tournament, though, England… crashed and burned, staggering out of the group stage and going out in the second round to ''Iceland'' - a defeat widely considered to be England's [[EpicFail worst result]] since losing 1-0 to the USA back in 1950. Manager Roy Hodgson unsurprisingly resigned immediately after the match, and things managed to get ''even worse'' when his replacement, Sam Allardyce (a manager best known for being hired to resuscitate struggling teams) was sacked after just ''eighteen days'' later, following a tabloid sting in which he was caught talking about getting around FA rules on player contracts. All in all, England's post-tournament stint of being ranked 13th in the world seems to be a metaphor for their troubles. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | However, under young manager and former player [[SharpDressedMan Gareth Southgate]], there was a degree of cautious optimism. With Rooney retiring, Harry Kane and Dele Alli of Spurs spearheaded the attack, along with the likes of Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling in support, albeit with a solid but not especially creative midfield, creating an attitude of "we might not go down in flames ''quite'' as spectacularly next time". Regarded with distinctly more optimism were England's youth prospects, with both the U-17s and U-19s ''winning'' their respective World Cups in 2017, the former disposing of Spain in the final 5-2, after having gone 0-2 down. Meanwhile, the U-21s reached the semi-finals of their European Championship, before losing on penalties to Germany - some things, it seems, never change. |
| 52 | ** But they ''did'' change in at the 2018 World Cup, at least to a degree. England finished second in their group to Belgium, whilst elsewhere it was Germany's turn for a humiliating group-stage exit. Southgate's England went on to ''actually win a penalty shoot-out'' after a foul-ridden match against Colombia, following this up with a quarter-final win over Sweden to set up England's first semi-final appearance in over two decades. Alas, after going ahead they lost to Croatia thanks to an extra-time heartbreaker, and went on to lose to Belgium (again) in the third-place play-off. Still, this was England's best World Cup performance since 1990, raising hopes in England that the long national nightmare was nearing its end. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | This was followed up by a better-than-expected run in the inaugural UEFA Nations League. Drawn in a tough group with Spain and their recent semi-final vanquishers Croatia, England proceeded to top the group, recording a rare away win over Spain in the process (and holding Croatia to a draw in Zagreb before coming back from behind to beat them 2-1 at Wembley). At the finals in Portugal, they lost to the Netherlands in extra time but beat Switzerland in the third-place match -- the latter by way of a penalty shoot-out, no less. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | Despite pre-tournament scepticism about selection, and then early tournament scepticism about lack of goals, England made a strong showing at the delayed Euro 2020, comfortably getting out of their group without conceding a goal, before the second-round had them squaring up to Germany in a massively hyped grudge match (mainly on the English side, though the Germans showed more interest than usual) at Wembley. England promptly and patiently outplayed a more experienced and (arguably) technically more able German side, winning 2-0. The country, unsurprisingly, went nuts. Subsequent victories over Ukraine and Denmark saw England reach their first major final in 55 years ... which they lost to Italy, on penalties. |
| 57 | |
| 58 | While expectations for Euro 2024 are more tempered, English players are increasingly flourishing abroad. Harry Kane, for instance, is enjoying a later career revival at Bayern Munich by breaking every record in reach (current tally: 17 goals from 11 league games, already outscoring last season's top scorers) and gaining widespread admiration, being compared to legendary German striker Gerd Muller... with the caveat that Kane is the more complete player. Jude Bellingham, meanwhile, is similarly thriving at Real Madrid, scoring 10 in his first 11 league games... from midfield. Not bad, considering that they've only managed 28 so far this season. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | England have rivalries with several countries: |
| 61 | * UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}} - a bitter, one, this; not just because of [[UsefulNotes/TheFalklandIslands the whole Falklands thing]] but also due to two very contentious quarter-final matches at the 1966 and 1986 World Cups. To date, the last encounter was in 2005 at the suitably neutral venue of Geneva; England won 3-2. |
| 62 | * UsefulNotes/{{France}}, for historical reasons (although this was dramatically put aside for the match played in the wake of the Bataclan attack; see above). |
| 63 | * UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, although this is somewhat one-sided, with Germany [[UnknownRival not really caring about it]] (as far as they're concerned, their main rivalry is with the Netherlands) except when it's funny. Since beating West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, England have come to see Germany as something of a [[HopelessBossFight bogey team]] - getting knocked out by them at the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups [[note]] the second group stage in 1982 doesn't really count; it was 0-0, with the Germans winning the group by virtue of beating Spain[[/note]] and at Euro 96 [[note]] granted, England ''did'' beat Germany in Euro 2000, but that was a group match and neither side managed to progress to the knock-out phase of the tournament[[/note]]. England finally returned the favour in the delayed Euro 2020, sending Germany packing in the second round. |
| 64 | * The oldest is of course the rivalry with northern neighbours UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}, although some English fans can be dismissive of this due to the perceived gulf between the two sides (ironically, this is, historically, very much the same attitude taken by German fans to their supposed rivalry with England). Indeed, many England fans look on the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland teams as kid brothers and wish them well - which winds up Scotland fans no end. The fact that they rarely play each other -- the annual England-Scotland fixture hasn't happened since 1989 -- doesn't help, although they ''were'' drawn in the same group for Euro 2020, which actually took place in 2021. The result, a 0-0 draw, was regarded as unsatisfactory by English fans and wildly celebrated by the Scots (albeit tinged with mild regret because Scotland had looked more like winning), which speaks volumes for the expectations of both sides. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[FootballHooligans Hooliganism]] involving England 'fans' reached a high (or, depending on your point of view, low) point in the 1980s and 1990s. Things have actually improved since then, although trouble persists due to a small minority drinking too much and getting rowdy, local police going in strong because they ''expect'' trouble, and modern hooligan gangs following countries like Russia going after English fans at international tournaments due to the latter's historic prowess. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | The very poor behaviour of some 'fans' at the delayed Euro 2020 final -- those without tickets illegally gained entry to Wembley Stadium and in some cases caused injury to those who were there legitimately -- was widely seen, along with online racial abuse directed against the three England players who missed their penalties in the shoot-out, as an embarrassing reminder that, despite the progress made in recent years, certain problems have not been eradicated among the rowdier elements of the English fanbase. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | The fact that the England team still sings the ''British'' national anthem, "God Save the Queen", before matches is a bone of contention among other Home Nations fans (except the Northern Irish, whose team also sings this one) and some England fans who would prefer a more England-specific anthem like "Jerusalem". |
| 71 | |
| 72 | Over two decades after it was first released, "Three Lions" (opening lyrics above) remains a firm favourite with England fans. It was originally written by [[Series/FantasyFootballLeague David Baddiel and Frank Skinner]] for Euro 96, which England hosted. It is the only song in the history of the British singles charts that has got to number one on ''four'' separate occasions -- twice in 1996 and once each during the 1998 and 2018 World Cups [[note]] sure, the 1998 one was a slightly-rewritten version, but ''still''[[/note]]. Some opposing players and fans claim to regard the tone of the song -- particularly the "it's coming home" refrain -- as arrogant and disrespectful, the counter-claim being that such complaints [[BritishHumour miss the point]]. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | !!UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} |
| 75 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scotland_national_football_team_logo_2014svg.png]] |
| 76 | [[caption-width-right:175:"Yes sir, I can boogie, but I need a certain song, I can boogie, boogie woogie, all night long..."]] |
| 77 | ->'''Nicknames:''' The Tartan Army\ |
| 78 | '''Uniform:''' All-navy kit (although traditionally, white shorts and red socks were worn)\ |
| 79 | '''Current Head Coach:''' Steve Clark\ |
| 80 | '''Current Captain:''' Kenny Dalglish\ |
| 81 | '''Home stadium:''' Hampden Park, Glasgow[[note]]Capacity: 51,866[[/note]]\ |
| 82 | '''FIFA Code:''' SCO\ |
| 83 | '''Trophies Won:''' 1884, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1894, 1896, 1897, 1900, 1902, 1910, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1929, 1935, 1936, 1946, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1976, and 1977 British Home Championships (plus 17 shared); 1985 Rous Cup; 2006 Kirin Cup |
| 84 | ---- |
| 85 | |
| 86 | Used to be ever-present at World Cups in the past without ever managing to get past the first round, but failed to qualify for anything between 1998 to 2020. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | The trend continued in 2015, with a last minute goal by Poland's [[TheAce Robert Lewandowski]] denying Scotland the win they needed to remain in contention, ultimately making them the only Home Nation ''not'' to reach Euro 2016. They then looked on the edge of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, before narrowly failing to get the win they required to go through to the play-offs. Again. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | Finally, the run ended when they qualified for the delayed Euro 2020, after beating Israel and Serbia (both on penalties) in the Nations League play-offs. At that tournament, they were drawn in the same group as historic rivals England, and treated the result of that fixture -- a well-earned 0-0 draw at Wembley -- like a famous victory. However, defeats to the Czech Republic and Croatia in their other two group games meant that once again, the Scots were eliminated in the first round. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | Well known for their supporters, the Tartan Army -- many of whom deliberately play up to the stereotype of Scotsmen [[ManInAKilt wearing nothing under their kilts]]. They're actually among the better behaved and better liked supporters of a national team ... unless they're playing England, in which case things ''will'' get rowdy. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | !!UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} |
| 95 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wales_national_football_team_logosvg.png]] |
| 96 | [[caption-width-right:175:''"Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi, gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri; ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad, dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed."'' [[note]] In English: "O Land of my fathers, o land of my love, dear mother of minstrels who kindle and move, and hero on hero, who at honour's proud call, for freedom their lifeblood let fall."[[/note]]]] |
| 97 | ->'''Nicknames:''' ''Y Dreigiau''/The Dragons\ |
| 98 | '''Uniform:''' All-red kit\ |
| 99 | '''Current Head Coach:''' Rob Page\ |
| 100 | '''Current Captain:''' Aaron Ramsey\ |
| 101 | '''Home stadium:''' Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff[[note]]Capacity: 33,280[[/note]] [[labelnote:Additionally…]]The much larger Millennium Stadium (capacity 73,931; known for sponsorship purposes as Principality Stadium), also in Cardiff, is now used only when ticket demand is projected to exceed Cardiff City's capacity[[/note]]\ |
| 102 | '''FIFA Code:''' WAL\ |
| 103 | '''Trophies Won:''' 1906–07, 1919–20, 1923–24, 1927–28, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1936–37, 1938–39 (shared), 1951–52 (shared), 1955–56 (shared), 1959–60 (shared), & 1969–70 (shared) British Home Championships. |
| 104 | ---- |
| 105 | |
| 106 | AKA '''Cymru''', Wales' Welsh-language name; as of late 2022, the country is working to change its FIFA-recognised name to the Welsh version.[[note]]There's recent precedent for this; in June 2022, the UN approved Turkey's request to be known by its Turkish-language name of "Türkiye" in all languages, and FIFA and UEFA almost immediately followed suit.[[/note]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | Managed to make the World Cup quarter-final in 1958 and the quarter-final of Euro 76, but Wales is really rugby territory and until recently, the team had never enjoyed much success, failing to qualify for any international competition between 1976 and 2016 despite producing some world-class players like John Charles (1960s), Ian Rush (1980s), Ryan Giggs (1990s-2000s), and Gareth Bale (2008–2022). Bale came into his own at the same time Giggs was nearing the end of his career. Just before the end of the summer 2013 transfer window, Real Madrid purchased him for a fee of what some sources reported as £86 million ($132 million), which if accurate would be the largest transfer fee in history until Paul Pogba's £89 million transfer to Manchester United in 2016 (something that apparently continues to put previous holder of that accolade and now-former Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo into an almighty snit). He became a key part of Real's first team for several years, but fell out of favour with manager Zinedine Zidane in 2019–20, and was later loaned back to Spurs amid transfer rumours involving several big English sides. Bale ended up moving on to [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer Los Angeles FC]] after the 2021–22 English season, where he notably scored the goal that sent the MLS Cup (league championship) final to penalties before LAFC won the shootout. He fully retired a month after captaining Cymru in the 2022 World Cup. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | In recent years, Wales have been developing a solid core of proven Premier League players, sprinkled with a couple of world class players in the now-retired Bale and current Arsenal star Aaron Ramsey, along with a team spirit to match any team on the planet, leading some hopes that an epic revival might be on the cards. After an astonishing qualifying campaign for the 2016 Euros former players such as Thierry Henry are pointing out that if they believe that they can do it, they might just be capable of going on and winning the tournament. They thrashed old bogey team Russia 3-0 and a much fancied Belgium 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of the competition, a feat not managed by ''any'' British team since 1996, before running out of steam against eventual winners Portugal (who mostly squeezed through thanks to healthy dose of luck). For a time, they were ranked in a well-deserved 10th place, two places above England, but a poor 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign ended that run; as of September 2020, they're 23rd to England's 4th. |
| 111 | |
| 112 | The current crop of players was largely nurtured and brought through by legendary former player and Manager Gary Speed, who tragically took his own life in November 2011 [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome after, with only four months of prior managerial experience, taking them over seventy places up the FIFA rankings in less than a year in the position.]] While Speed's successor Chris Coleman was acknowledged to have done a superb job , it is undoubted that this current Wales team is very much a product of Speed's tenure and that he is sorely missed. |
| 113 | |
| 114 | After failing to reach the 2018 World Cup, Coleman confirmed that he planned to leave the job, despite the pleas of a number of players. He deserves credit for not only the astonishing 2016 campaign, but bringing through young talent, including 17-year-old wunderkind and ex-Liverpool player Ben 'The Prince of Wales' Woodburn (an accolade he got for a stunning goal in qualifying). Giggs was hired as Coleman's replacement (though officially titled "Head Coach"), making a solid start by shepherding Cymru into Euro 2020. However, by the time the finals were [[ReleaseDateChange/COVID19PandemicRelatedExamples finally played in 2021]], Giggs was no longer in charge, having taken leave after being charged with assault. Giggs' top assistant Rob Page was named caretaker manager, and they finished second in their group to Italy, but ran into a buzzsaw in the round of 16, being annihilated 4–0 by a Danish side making an inspirational run for their fallen star Christian Eriksen[[labelnote:*]]who collapsed on the pitch during their first match and flatlined, but thankfully was successfully revived on-pitch[[/labelnote]]. They went on to break their 64-year wait for a return to the World Cup by beating Ukraine in a play-off in Cardiff, with Page having been named permanent head coach after Giggs fully stepped down. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | At the 2022 World Cup, Wales came last in their group, drawing with the USA but getting beaten by Iran and England. Their only goal came courtesy of a penalty in the USA game. |
| 117 | |
| 118 | !!UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland |
| 119 | [[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/irish_football_association_logosvg.png]] |
| 120 | [[caption-width-right:185:"Will Grigg's on fire, your defence is terrified..."]] |
| 121 | ->'''Nicknames:''' Green and White Army, Norn Iron\ |
| 122 | '''Uniform:''' Green shirts, white shorts\ |
| 123 | '''Current Head Coach:''' Micheal O'Neill\ |
| 124 | '''Current Captain:''' Johnny Evans\ |
| 125 | '''Home stadium:''' Windsor Park, Belfast[[note]]Capacity: 18,500[[/note]]\ |
| 126 | '''FIFA Code:''' NIR\ |
| 127 | '''Trophies Won:''' 1914[[note]]as Ireland[[/note]], 1980, and 1984 British Home Championships |
| 128 | ---- |
| 129 | |
| 130 | Well known for occasionally punching well above their weight, most famously at the 1982 World Cup when they beat hosts Spain and became one of the smallest countries ever to reach the second round. More recently, they've managed to beat Spain again (at a time when they were the reigning World ''and'' European champions), England (in a famous World Cup qualifying match in 2005) and Russia. George Best, of Manchester United in the 1960s and 1970s, is probably their, ahem, best (and best-known) player ever. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | They qualified for Euro 2016 at the top of their group, hammering top seeds Greece 3-1 to confirm their place in the finals for the first time in thirty years. At the tournament, they got out of their group before going down in brave defeat in the last 16 to fellow Brits, tournament surprise package Wales, who ultimately reached the semi-finals. |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:The Football Association (England)]] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | The Football Association is the governing body for football in England. More information on the league and the individual teams can be found on [[UsefulNotes/TheFootballAssociation the FA's own page]]. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | !Fictional English football teams |
| 141 | Due to football's place in English culture, there have been many ''fictional'' English football teams over the years. The best-known are... |
| 142 | * '''Barnstoneworth United'''. Perennially unsuccessful Yorkshire team, as featured in the ''Series/RippingYarns'' episode "Golden Gordon". It's also the name of the titular Gordon's son, as he's such an obsessive fan that it was the only name he could think of. |
| 143 | * '''Earls Park''', AKA "The Sparks". The featured team on the Creator/{{ITV}} drama ''Footballers' Wives'', which ran from 2002 to 2006. |
| 144 | * '''Fulchester United'''. As featured in the ''ComicBook/{{Viz}}'' comic strip ''Billy the Fish''. Billy -- half man, half fish -- is the team's goalkeeper. Very much a parody of Melchester Rovers (see below). |
| 145 | * '''Harchester United'''. The featured team of the Sky One soap opera ''Dream Team''. The club spent most of the programme's run in the EPL. |
| 146 | * '''Melchester Rovers'''. The team of Roy Race, star of the comic strip ''Roy of the Rovers'' which first appeared in the ''Tiger'' comic in 1954 before giving its name to a football-related comic which ran until the mid-1990s. Rovers -- led by Roy, who served as the club's star striker, captain and (in later years) player-manager -- invariably competed for the top honours domestically and in Europe, although in some years they were involved in relegation dog-fights instead. Off the pitch, Roy and his team-mates were frequently involved in high drama including sabotage attempts, kidnappings, shootings, natural disasters and -- ultimately -- a helicopter crash which ended Roy's playing career. There were also several celebrity cameos; although the Rovers played in a fictional universe made up of invented teams, real-life players like Emlyn Hughes and Bob Wilson occasionally turned out for them, and they were briefly managed by Sir Alf Ramsey. Football writers and fans still use the phrase "real/proper ''Roy of the Rovers'' stuff" to describe displays of great skill and surprising results achieved against the odds. |
| 147 | * '''Neasden'''. Perennial under-achievers in the "North Circular Relegation League" who used to appear in ''Magazine/PrivateEye''. Reports of their doings by "E.I. Addio" [[note]] (a play on the old football chant "Ee Aye Addio", sung to the tune of "The Farmer's in his Den")[[/note]] told of their latest misfortune, a spoof of a recent real-life football news item. Match reports involved them playing unlikely-sounding teams (usually named for something in the news, ie. "Taliban FC") which they invariably lost by a large margin, thanks mainly to an epic amount of own goals by veteran defender "Baldy" Pevsner and the fact that their goalkeeper, Wally Foot, only had one leg. Their manager, "ashen-faced" Ron Knee, has been described as "pre-emptive satire" due to the way in which real-life managers like Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce have been compared to him. |
| 148 | * '''AFC Richmond''', AKA "The Greyhounds". The ailing London-based Premier League side that Series/TedLasso takes over. Unlike Melchester Rovers (but like Harchester United), their universe consists of real-life teams -- in the first series, they play Everton (beating them away for the first time in 60 years) and Manchester City (the club they got [[AttentionWhore Jamie]] [[CursedWithAwesome Tartt]] on loan from), among others. Based on Crystal Palace (given their location, club colours and historic lack of success), although [[ExpyCoexistence Palace do exist]] within the show's universe. |
| 149 | * '''Walford Town'''. The local football team in ''Series/{{Eastenders}}'', mentioned on the rare occasions that involve characters having a conversation about football (although, given that the show is set in East London, West Ham can also be used in this context). Presumably fierce rivals of '''Weatherfield County''', which fulfils the same role in ''Series/CoronationStreet''. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:The Scottish Football Association]] |
| 153 | Football in Scotland - sometimes referred to as "fitba" - has a league structure similar to that of England. The Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in in 1873, making it the second oldest national football association in the world. The Scottish Football League dates back to 1890 and the Scottish Premier League (SPL) split from it in 1998 - although the two merged back in 2013 to form the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). There are 42 clubs in the SPFL, split between four divisions - the [[UsefulNotes/ScottishPremiership Premiership]], the Championship, League One and League Two (all of which are usually prefixed by "Scottish" to distinguish them from their English equivalents). Below this are the regional semi-pro leagues -- The Highland League for northern Scotland and the Lowland League for southern and central Scotland. The main knockout trophy is the Scottish Cup (the FA Cup equivalent). The Scottish League Cup is actually older than its English equivalent, dating back to the 1946-47 season; there's also the Scottish Challenge Cup which is contested by teams not in the Scottish Premiership, although since 2016 it's also been open to Premiership clubs' Under-21 sides and a few guest teams from the Cymru Premier, the NIFL Premiership and the (English) National League (a.ka. the Conference) -- none of which have (yet) produced a winner. On the telly, the Scottish equivalent of ''Match of the Day'' is ''Sportscene'' which shows highlights of all Scottish Premiership matches on Sunday evenings. For a more irreverent approach, there's ''Off the Ball'' on BBC Radio Scotland, a show which describes itself as "the most petty and ill-informed sports programme on radio". |
| 154 | |
| 155 | !!The Old Firm |
| 156 | It's no exaggeration to say that Scottish football (and the media coverage of it) is almost totally dominated by two teams from Glasgow, Rangers and Celtic, collectively known as the '''Old Firm''' - to the immense frustration of many Scottish fans who support other clubs. Since the formation of the Scottish Football League there have only been 18 instances where a side outside of these two have won the title, and the last of those was in 1985. The history between the clubs [[ArchEnemy goes far beyond the usual sporting rivalry]], encompassing religious and socio-economic issues in Ireland as well as Scotland that predate the existence of either side. The Old Firm rivalry is often associated with UsefulNotes/TheTroubles; to this day, Rangers are seen as the team of Protestant Unionists in Scotland and Northern Ireland, while Celtic are the club of the Catholic population of Scotland and of Irish Republicans. This got to the point where legendary war correspondent Kate Adie remarked in her autobiography that riots and protests in Northern Ireland tended to end in time for an Old Firm match. It has been (half-seriously) suggested that Scottish football could be improved by transferring the Old Firm clubs to the ''English'' Premier League - to which English fans (half-jokingly) responded by saying that if that were to happen, both sides would be nailed-on favourites for relegation. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | * Formed in 1872, '''Rangers''' are the older of the two. They play in blue shirts and white shorts, and play out of Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow's southside. The most successful side in Scottish football, Rangers have won a record 55 league championships (including nine straight championships from 1989 to 1997), 34 Scottish Cups and 27 League Cups. They also achieved European success in the form of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1972, and finished runner-up in the 2008 UEFA Cup and 2022 UEFA Europa League. The 'Gers once had an informal "no Catholics" signing policy, but this was abolished in the 1980s to kick-start the nation-wide anti-Sectarianism campaign with the extremely controversial (and that's putting it mildly) signing of former Celtic player Mo Johnston. |
| 159 | ** Rangers went into liquidation (bankruptcy) in 2012, which saw them relegated to Scottish League Two. The team went on to win both League Two and League One, putting them in the Scottish Championship for 2014–15, where they remained for two seasons until winning the 2015–16 title and punching their ticket back to the Scottish Premiership. In 2021, they won that for the first time in ten years, the cause of much celebrating in the blue half of Glasgow, with the celebrations becoming all the greater when they finished with an unbeaten league season - made sweeter by denying Celtic a record-breaking tenth championship in a row. That run earned their manager Steven Gerrard the gig at Aston Villa. Former 'Gers player Giovanni van Bronckhorst came in to replace Gerrard, and while they finished a close second to Celtic in 2021–22, they did claim the Scottish Cup and lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League final. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | * '''Celtic''' (pronounced ''seltik'', not ''keltik'') hail from the east end of Glasgow and were formed in 1887 as a means of raising money for the poor Irish communities in the city. Their home at Celtic Park is, after a reconstruction in the late [[TheNineties 1990s]], the largest in Scotland and the third-largest in the UK. The first Northern European side to win the European Cup in 1967 with the "Lisbon Lions", they reached the finals of the 1970 European Cup and the 2003 UEFA Cup. The record Scottish Cup winners (40 times winners, most recently in 2020) they also have 52 League titles (including nine consecutive victories between 1966 and 1974, a feat they repeated between 2011 and 2020 when Rangers were spending time in the lower divisions) and 20 League Cups (most recently in 2022). The club is also the only one in Scotland to complete two ''and'' three consecutive domestic "Trebles", including an undefeated domestic season in 2016-17. Celtic's green and white hooped shirts are known the world over, and the club boasts a sizeable support among expat Irish Catholic communities in North America and Australia. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | !!The best of the rest, and other noteworthy Scottish clubs |
| 164 | |
| 165 | * Perhaps the most successful non-Glaswegian side are '''Aberdeen''', who found fantastic success under the guidance of one Alex Ferguson in the 1980s. One half of the so-called "New Firm" of that decade, they are to date the last non-Old Firm side to win the League (in 1985), as well as being the only Scottish side to win ''two'' European trophies: the Cup Winners Cup in 1983 (beating Real Madrid in the final) and the European Super Cup that same year (this makes them the last Scottish side to win a European trophy). They have won a total of four League titles, seven Scottish Cups and five League Cups. Nicknamed "The Dons", they play in an all-red kit at Pittodrie Stadium. |
| 166 | |
| 167 | * '''Airdrieonians''' is a story worth discussing. The first Airdrieonians were founded in 1878 and were a fixture of the Scottish Leagues for decades. However in the late nineties/early 21st century the club faced financial trouble and was ultimately liquidated in 2002. Fans of the club rallied around a newly formed successor, Airdrie United, but United failed in their application to join the League (their place was given to Gretna). In desperation, Airdrie United owner Jim Ballantyne bought out the crumbling League side Clydebank FC, moved them to Airdrie and renamed them Airdrie United, thus bringing League football back to the town. Official records thus list Airdrie's foundation date as 1965, when Clydebank were formed. Most people nonetheless considered Airdrie United a continuation of Airdrieonians, while Clydebank supporters formed a SpiritualSuccessor in the Junior leagues for 2003/04 season. United changed their name to Airdrieonians in 2013 with the Scottish FA's blessing. The club is also notable for benefiting in league division placements ''three times'' in the 2008–2012 period due to misfortunes of other clubs. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | * The other half of the "New Firm" [[note]](a tag that, thanks to the Old Firm's continued dominance of Scottish football since the 1980s, hasn’t really stood the test of time)[[/note]] are '''Dundee United''', AKA "The Tangerines" (due to the colour of their shirts) or "The Arabs". Founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1909, they’ve only won the League once (in 1982-83) and have won both Cups twice each. They also reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1984 and the UEFA Cup final in 1987. They dropped to the Championship after finishing bottom of the Premiership table in 2015/16. They were promoted back to the Premiership in 2020, following a season left unfinished due to the COVID19Pandemic; however they were so far ahead of the second place side that it was unlikely they would have been overtaken had the season been played to a conclusion. Their ground, Tannadice Park, is literally just down the road from... |
| 170 | |
| 171 | * '''Dundee''', AKA "The Dee", are currently in the country's second level, the Scottish Championship. Less successful than their near-neighbours, they play in dark blue and play at Dens Park which is a mere 200 yards from Dundee United's Tannadice Park - making them the closest senior football grounds in the UK. Dundee's golden age was in the 1960s when they won their only League title (1961-62) and reached the European Cup semi-finals the next season. However, after their last significant trophy (1974 League Cup), they have had little success, and nearly went bankrupt twice in the new millennium. They were a late entry into the 2012–13 Premiership after Rangers' bankruptcy, and suffered an immediate drop. They bounced back to win the 2013–14 Championship, returning to the Prem, until the 2018/19 season. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | * Being located very close to the Border, '''Gretna''' used to play in the lower regions of the English league system. When Airdrieonians collapsed in 2002, Gretna applied to join the Scottish League and were successful. Under the ownership of grass-roots football philanthropist Brooks Mileson, Gretna raced up the Leagues, getting to compete in the UEFA Cup (by virtue of losing the Scottish Cup final in 2006 - the winners, Hearts, having already qualified for the Champions League) before being promoted to the SPL in 2007. Sadly, Mileson's death in 2008 removed his financial support and plunged the club into administration. Players and staff were made redundant, and just 400 people turned up to see them get relegated. The club was dissolved that summer. A SpiritualSuccessor was subsequently founded; they play in the (non-League) Lowland League. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | * '''Hamilton Academical''', known as "The Accies" and playing at New Douglas Park. Founded in 1874, they wear red and white hoops and have no major honours. Returned to the Prem by winning the promotion/relegation play-offs at the end of the 2013–14 season. |
| 176 | |
| 177 | * '''Heart of Midlothian''' (universally known as "Hearts", sometimes nicknamed "The Jam Tarts" or just "The Jambos" thanks to rhyming slang) are one of Edinburgh's two major teams. Maroon shirts, white shorts. Named for the historic county of Midlothian - originally, the 'Heart of Midlothian' was the nickname for Edinburgh's Old Tolbooth prison which gave its name to a Creator/WalterScott novel as well as the pavement mosaic on the Royal Mile which marks the location of the jail's entrance. Hearts are considered to be Edinburgh's "Protestant" team, although the sectarianism has never been anywhere near as overt as it is in Glasgow. Hearts are among the most successful non-Glaswegian sides in Scotland with 7 Scottish Cups, 4 League Cups and 4 League titles (the last of which came way back in 1960, but they came famously close in 1986 before losing it to Celtic on the last day); their Scottish Cup victory in 1998 ended a 36-year trophy drought. Playing out of Tynecastle Stadium in the Gorgie area of the city, the club were owned by [[CloudCuckooLander eccentric]] Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov from 2005 to 2013, when his business empire went under and pushed Hearts into bankruptcy and eventual relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2013–14 season. The next season, they blew away the Championship field (including Rangers) to secure a return to the Prem for 2015–16. They were controversially relegated in 2020 despite the season being unfinished due to Covid-19. Fierce rivals with... |
| 178 | |
| 179 | * '''Hibernian'''. Wearing green and known simply as "Hibs" (or "The Hibees"), Hibernian's home at Easter Road is based in the Leith district of Edinburgh. Won their fourth (and so far last) League title in 1952, they have also won the League Cup three times and the Scottish Cup three times (most recently in 2016, ending a 114-year wait for the trophy that was formerly a source of mocking for Hearts fans). Sharing Celtic's Irish roots (but predating the Glaswegian side) Hibs were a Catholics-only club in the early years but have long since moved away from their sectarian/political roots. Also relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2013–14 season, but managed to return to the Prem in 2017 under Neil Lennon. |
| 180 | ** Music/TheProclaimers are fans. Yes, the guys behind "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". No, they don't play it at Easter Road, but they ''do'' play "Sunshine on Leith" after a home win. |
| 181 | ** The Hearts-Hibs rivalry got a shout-out in the ''Series/{{Succession}}'' episode [[Recap/SuccessionS02E08 "Dundee"]], when Roman buys Hearts under the impression that it was the team Logan supported as a child -- only to find that he's actually a Hibs fan. In real life, Creator/BrianCox (who plays Logan) is from Dundee but has been somewhat cagey about which football club he supports. |
| 182 | ** Another fictional Hibs fan is Siobhan Clarke from the Literature/{{Rebus}} novels. It is sometimes stated that she goes to most home games and quite a few away ones as well, police work permitting. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | * The youngest side in the SPFL is Highlands club '''Inverness Caledonian Thistle''' (known as "Caley" or "ICT"). Founded in 1994, the club joined the SFL and soon gained a reputation as giant-killers after a famous victory over Celtic in a 1999 Scottish Cup match [[note]]The Scottish version of ''The Sun'' won the 1999 Sports Headline of the Year for "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious"[[/note]]. However, ICT would have to wait to pick up a major trophy until 2015, when they won the Scottish Cup. This made them the first Highland club ever to win a major Scottish football trophy. They were most recently in the Premiership from 2010 to 2017, but dropped to the Championship after a last-place finish in the Prem. Their home ground, the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, is situated beside the Moray Firth and they wear royal blue and red. |
| 185 | |
| 186 | * Ayrshire side '''Kilmarnock''' are the oldest club side playing in the Premiership, formed in 1869. "Killie" however have only won a single top-flight title (in 1964-65 season) and three Scottish Cups (the last of which came in 1997). They play at Rugby Park, wear blue and white stripes and are famous for the quality of their matchday pies. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | * '''Livingston''' are one of the newer clubs now playing in the Premiership. Originally based in Edinburgh, they formed in 1943 as the works team of now-defunct engineering term Ferranti, first as Ferranti Amateurs and a few years later Ferranti Thistle. They became Meadowbank Thistle in 1974 when they joined the SFL. In 1995, they controversially moved from Edinburgh to the new town of Livingston, 15 miles west of Edinburgh, adopting the town's name at that time. They have had a turbulent history in their current home, making the SPL in 2001 but going through administration twice in that decade, but eventually clawing their way back from the bottom professional level to return to the Premiership by winning the 2018 promotion/relegation play-off. "Livi", or "The Lions", play at Almondvale Park -- also known as the Tony Macaroni Arena (yes, really) for sponsorship reasons [[note]] Tony Macaroni is a chain of Italian restaurants in Scotland and Northern Ireland that has sponsored Livingston since 2013, this deal being extended to the renaming of the ground two years later; as a result, the ground is now nicknamed "The Spaghettihad", a play on Man City's ground which has been known as The Etihad for similar sponsorship reasons [[/note]] -- and wear amber and black, currently all-amber at home and all-black away. |
| 189 | |
| 190 | * North Lanarkshire side '''Motherwell''' play in claret and amber and were formed in 1886. Known as "The Well" or "The Steelmen", Motherwell are based at Fir Park Stadium and share a geography-based rivalry with Hamilton Academical. Winning their solitary title in 1932, The Well also have won a League Cup and two Scottish Cups (the most famous of which was in 1991). Tragedy struck the club in December 2007 when club captain and fan-favourite Phil O'Donnell (who scored in that 1991 victory) died of a left ventricular failure on the pitch. |
| 191 | ** Some believe that the "Viking Thunder Clap" chant [[note]] a loud shout and clap in unison, repeated several seconds later and gradually sped up thereafter [[/note]], popularised by Iceland fans at Euro 2016, was first used by Motherwell fans -- although this is disputed, with French side Lens and Greek side PAOK having similar claims. |
| 192 | ** ''Off the Ball'' presenter Tam Cowan is a fan. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | * '''Partick Thistle''', one of the Glasgow clubs outside the Old Firm, are now in the Championship after having lost to Livingston in the 2018 promotion/relegation play-off. They had most recently been promoted to the top flight in 2013. Founded in 1876, they have played at Firhill Stadium in Maryhill since 1909, but retain their "Partick" name. "The Jags" wear yellow and red stripes and have won the Scottish Cup once. |
| 195 | |
| 196 | * '''Queen of the South''' are well-known for being humorously cited as the only professional football club (in Britain, at least) to be mentioned in Literature/TheBible [[note]] "The Queen of the South shall rise up at the judgement with the men of this generation and condemn them" (Luke 11:31)[[/note]]. The club itself {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this with its anthem, "The Only Team in the Bible", which is played before the players emerge from the tunnel at home games. The good behaviour of their fans has often been commented on; after a UEFA Cup qualifying game in Denmark in 2008, they were described (by the Danish police, no less) as "a great credit both to their club and to Scotland". Their unusual name derives from their home town of Dumfries, which has been nicknamed the "Queen of the South" (of Scotland) since the nineteenth century. Nicknames include "Queens", "QOS" and "The Doonhamers" (that last one being a colloquial term for people from Dumfries). They play in an all-blue kit at Palmerston Park. |
| 197 | ** Nothing to do with the [[Series/QueenOfTheSouth TV series]]. Reported to be the fictional character Donald "Ducky" Mallard's (from Series/{{NCIS}}) favourite team. In RealLife, they are Creator/HunterDavies's Scottish team -- his family lived in Dumfries when he was a child, and he's stated that his boyhood hero was Billy Houliston, the club's centre-forward in the late 1940s. Additionally, Music/CalvinHarris is a fan, as is Bill Drummond of Music/TheKLF. |
| 198 | |
| 199 | * '''Queen's Park''' are a League Two (fourth division) side based in Glasgow. They are notable for a number of reasons: firstly, they play out of 52,000 seater stadium Hampden Park (Scotland's national stadium) and are the oldest club in Scotland (founded in 1867). Until 2019, they were also the only amateur side left in the senior Scottish game, a long-standing tradition dating back to their opposition to professionalisation in the late 19th century (their motto is "''Ludere Causa Ludendi''" – to play for the sake of playing). They are the only Scottish club to have played in the (English) FA Cup Final (in 1884 and 1885), own the oldest football-related structure in existence (a farmhouse that's used as the pavilion at Lesser Hampden, their training ground), won the first televised game involving a Scottish side in 1951 and are the third most successful side in the Scottish Cup, winning the trophy ten times - although the last was in 1893! The appearance of Rangers in League Two in the 2012/13 season inadvertently led to a revival of the "Original Glasgow Derby", Rangers and Queen's Park having first played each other in 1877, eleven years before the first Old Firm match. Nicknamed "The Spiders", they play in black and white hooped shirts. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | * '''Raith Rovers''' are best-known for two things that have absolutely nothing to do with their performances on the pitch. The first is that ''there isn't actually a place called Raith'' - they're based in Kirkcaldy in Fife. Ignorance of this once led a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] commentator to famously declare that fans would be "dancing in the streets of Raith" following a victory [[note]] although this has been attributed to David Coleman - a commentator so well-known for his on-air gaffes and mispronunciations that ''Magazine/PrivateEye'' calls its sports bloopers column "Colemanballs" - the commentator who actually said it was Sam Leitch[[/note]]. The second reason is that former British Prime Minister UsefulNotes/GordonBrown, who's from Kirkcaldy and was the town's Member of Parliament for over thirty years, is a fan. So's [[Literature/{{Rebus}} John Rebus]], who gets this from his creator, Ian Rankin. |
| 202 | ** "The Rovers" briefly graced the top division in the mid-1990s, the same time they won their only major honour - the 1994 Scottish League Cup. They play in navy shirts and white shorts at Stark's Park. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | * '''St Johnstone''' - one of several clubs known as "The Saints" - were formed in 1884 and call [=McDiarmid=] Park their home. Something of a "yo-yo" team between the top two divisions, they hail from Perth and wear blue shirts and white shorts. They had no major honours to their name prior to winning the Scottish Cup in 2014. |
| 205 | |
| 206 | * '''St Mirren''' is Paisley's only representative in top-flight football, having returned to the Premiership after winning the 2017–18 Championship crown. Formed in 1877 the club are based out of St Mirren Park, originally at Love Street (which the stadium was commonly known as) before moving to a new home in 2009. Nicknamed "The Saints" or "The Buddies", they play in black and white striped shirts and have won the Scottish Cup on three occasions (most recently in 1987) and the Scottish League Cup once (in 2013). Fierce rivals with Greenock Morton. |
| 207 | |
| 208 | * '''Third Lanark''' were a Glasgow-based side formed in 1872 by a group of reservist soldiers in the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers who were inspired by the first international football match that took place that year. Founder members of the SFL, they were champions once (in 1904) and won the Scottish Cup twice (1889 and 1905). In the 1960s the club went into decline amid player squabbles, rising debts, mismanagement and even an attempt to defraud the club's lottery scheme. The club folded in 1967, their last game being a 5-1 away defeat to Dumbarton. Some fans of "Thirds" moved their support to other Glasgow clubs like Queen's Park, Clyde, the Old Firm or Junior club Pollok but most gave up following football altogether. In 1996, an amateur side called Third Lanark was founded; they currently play in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League. |
| 209 | [[/folder]] |
| 210 | |
| 211 | [[folder:The Football Association of Wales]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | Welsh club football doesn't get much publicity because UsefulNotes/RugbyUnion is much more popular as a spectator sport in Wales, and for those who do prefer football the (English) Premier League is a big draw. Although it has its own league structure, the situation is complicated by the fact that five clubs, including the biggest two in the country by some distance, play in the ''English'' league system. Also, some clubs based in England play in the Welsh system. Furthermore, Wales actually didn't even ''have'' a national league system prior to 1992 -- just unrelated semi-pro leagues in the north and south of the country [[note]] and even then, the main impetus for setting up a Welsh league came from outside - at that time, various newly independent countries which emerged from the remains of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia applied to join UEFA and were told that they had to have a national league system to do so. Then someone noticed that Wales, which has been playing international football since 1876, didn't have one[[/note]], the top levels of which were merged to form a semi-pro league covering the whole country. Initially called the League of Wales, it has since been rebranded twice -- as the Welsh Premier League (2002) and the Cymru Premier (since 2019). The FA Cup equivalent, the Welsh Cup, used to be open to the Welsh clubs playing in the English leagues and even to English clubs located in border areas [[note]] Shrewsbury Town won it six times[[/note]] but this is no longer the case, due mainly to the fact that winning it is a way to European competition and UEFA didn't like the idea of teams in the English leagues getting into this via a Welsh domestic competition, even if the teams in question ''were'' Welsh. This did have the by-product of allowing Welsh teams playing in the English system to qualify for Europe as representatives of England, which was not previously allowed. Swansea City were the first Welsh team to represent England in Europe, in the 2013-14 Europa League. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | !! Welsh clubs that play in the English league system |
| 216 | * '''Cardiff City''' |
| 217 | ** AKA "The Bluebirds". Blue shirts, white shorts. The only non-English side to have won the FA Cup (in 1927) and got to the 2008 final, where they were beaten by Portsmouth. Won the Championship title in 2013, earning them a spot in the Premiership for 2013–14 ... but dropped back to the Championship at the end of that season. They eventually made it back to the Prem for 2018–19, but once again immediately suffered the drop. |
| 218 | ** In 2012, the club controversially changed its kit to red, a move pushed by Malaysian owner Vincent Tan in an rebranding attempt. After strong opposition from fans, the club reverted to the traditional blue in 2015. |
| 219 | ** Fierce rivals with Swansea City; matches between the two still produce crowd trouble on a regular basis. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | * '''Swansea City''' |
| 222 | ** AKA "The Swans" or "The Jacks". White shirts, black shorts (although they've sometimes gone for an all-white kit). Reached the old First Division in 1981 after three successive promotions, but by 1986 they were back in the Fourth Division. In 2003 they narrowly avoided being relegated to the Conference, and subsequently climbed up through the divisions again, winning the four-team Championship promotion playoff in 2011 to earn promotion to the Premier League (making them the first Welsh team in the Prem's history [[note]] which is, of course, post-1992[[/note]]) - as chronicled in the 2014 documentary film ''Jack to a King: The Swansea Story''. Won the League Cup, in 2013, giving them a spot in the 2013–14 Europa League. Established themselves as a solid mid-table side until a disastrous 2017–18 season sent them packing to the Championship. |
| 223 | ** In one of the most high-profile examples of the involvement of a supporters' trust in the running of a football club, 20% of Swansea City is owned by the Swansea City Supporters Society Ltd, with the rest being owned by a US consortium which includes former US international Landon Donovan (once of Everton) and Creator/MindyKaling. |
| 224 | ** Fierce rivals with Cardiff City; matches between the two still produce crowd trouble on a regular basis. |
| 225 | |
| 226 | * '''Wrexham AFC''' |
| 227 | ** AKA "The Red Dragons" (because they're Welsh) or "The Robins" (because of their red kit). The oldest football club in Wales and the third oldest in the world (founded in 1864), playing at the Racecourse Ground (which is the oldest international football stadium in the world, having hosted Wales's first home fixture back in 1877 and is still occasionally used by the Welsh national team). Welsh Cup winners a record 23 times, and performed a notable upset in the FA Cup in 1992 when they knocked Arsenal (at the time, the reigning League Champions) out in the third round. Returned to League Two in 2023 after a 15-year stint in non-league football, and secured a second straight promotion to League One in 2024. |
| 228 | ** The future of the club came into doubt when they were bought by Alex Hamilton, a notorious corporate raider. He did everything he could to kill the team so he could strip the assets and sell off the land the home ground sits on for commercial developments. The fans led a popular uprising to take back control. Although the fans were successful, Hamilton's damage had lasting effects that negatively affected the club's finances and ability to attract talented coaches and players. |
| 229 | ** Creator/RyanReynolds (yes, [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesDeadpool that guy]]) and Creator/RobMcElhenney have owned the club (through their company, RR [=McReynolds=] Company LLC) since 2020. This is chronicled in the TV documentary series ''Series/WelcomeToWrexham'' which shows their efforts to connect with the local community, untangle the boondoggle Hamilton left behind, build a winning line-up and gain promotion back into the Football League. As a result, ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} appears to have been adopted as an unofficial club mascot (some fans can be seen dressed as him in the show). Thanks to the resulting higher profile, Wrexham were included in [[VideoGame/FIFASoccer FIFA 22]] as part of the "Rest of the World" section, the first non-League club to be thus featured (they'd previously been in FIFA 07 prior to their relegation from League Two). |
| 230 | ** Wrexham narrowly missed out on promotion in 2022, losing to Grimsby Town in the play-offs. They achieved a return to the Football League on 22 April 2023, 15 years to the day since they were relegated from it, with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood confirming them to have won the National League title. Less than a year later, Wrexham's 6–0 smashing of Forest Green Rovers on 13 April 2024, combined with the only two clubs that could have pipped them to the promotion places (MK Dons and Barrow) dropping points that day, secured a promotion to League One. |
| 231 | ** Wrexham fans consider their main rivals to be Chester (the successor club of Chester City), with whom they contest the Cross-Border Derby; the legendary former Liverpool and Wales striker Ian Rush, who played on both sides, has described the rivalry as "as intense as they come" and "like Wales v England really". |
| 232 | |
| 233 | * In addition to those three, '''Newport County''' and '''Merthyr Town''' also play in the English league system. '''Chester''', the [[SpiritualSuccessor successor club]] to the now-defunct Chester City, are an odd anomaly, as their ground, the Deva Stadium, straddles the English-Welsh border -- the pitch itself is in Wales, but the offices (and therefore the club's official address) are in England; due to the latter, they are to all intents and purposes an English club -- although immediately prior to being wound up in 2010, Chester City did make an unsuccessful application to join the Welsh Premier League. The city of Chester, from where the team draws most of its support, is also in England (although some of its western suburbs do stray over the border). |
| 234 | |
| 235 | !!Clubs that play in the Welsh league system |
| 236 | |
| 237 | * '''Aberystwyth Town''' |
| 238 | ** Founder members of the League of Wales, and one of very few teams to have played in what's now the Cymru Premier for every season of its existence, although the best they've ever managed was finishing third in the first-ever season. Made history for the wrong reasons in 2019 by getting thumped 10-1 ''at home'' by The New Saints, the joint-heaviest away win in the Cymru Premier's history. Green shirts and white shorts, home games at Park Avenue where the bar is named after Welsh footballing legend John Charles, although he never played for them. |
| 239 | |
| 240 | * '''Airbus UK Broughton''' |
| 241 | ** Originated as the works team of the aerospace factory in Broughton, Flintshire (historically known as Vickers-Armstrong, de Havillands, British Aerospace, etc). Nicknamed "The Wingmakers", their ground is unusual for having three retracting floodlights owing to its close proximity to an operational runway (said ground is actually called The Airfield). Earned promotion to the top level in Welsh football in 2004, and were runners-up twice before being relegated to the Cymru Alliance (later renamed Cymru North) in 2017. All-blue home kit. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | * '''Bangor City''' |
| 244 | ** Founder members of the League of Wales (which they won three times), having previously played in the English non-League system. Relegated in 2018 due to financial irregularities and narrowly avoided being wound up by HM Revenue & Customs. In 2019 the club was taken over by the Italian musician and producer Domenico Serafino, who also owned the lower-division Italian club A.S. Sambenedettese; both clubs quickly became the subject of reports about players and staff not being paid [[note]] Serafino's entry on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} the other Wiki]] bluntly states that he "has failed miserably at being chairman/owner of association football clubs in Italy and Wales" [[/note]]. This led Bangor to be suspended from all football activity by the FAW in late 2021. All-blue home kit. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | * '''Barry Town''' |
| 247 | ** Dominated Welsh football from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, winning the League seven times and the Welsh Cup five times (adding to the one they won back in the 1950s), in addition to which they set the Cymru Premier records for the most consecutive wins (18, during the 1997-98 season) and the heaviest win (12-0 against Cemaes Bay in 1998). Traditionally played in green but switched to red in the early 1990s, only to adopt their "lucky" yellow change kit as the home kit after the team wore it for their famous Welsh Cup final win over Cardiff City in 1994. Yellow thus became indelibly associated with the club's greatest period of success, which included becoming the first Welsh club to record a win in the Champions League.[[note]] Over Azerbaijani side FC Shamkir; this set up a tie against Portuguese giants FC Porto, which they lost, although they did win the home leg of that tie.[[/note]] The club's subsequent sharp decline in fortunes coincided with a short and ill-advised switch to fluorescent lime which was apparently ordered in error. They have since reverted to yellow and currently play in the Cymru South, one division below the Cymru Premier; following its takeover by a fan-led committee, the club is now called Barry Town United. Home games at Jenner Park. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | * '''Cefn Druids''' |
| 250 | ** The result of several mergers -- one of its parent clubs, Druids, was founded in 1872 which makes "The Ancients", who are based near Wrexham, one of the oldest football clubs in Wales. Black and white striped shirts, black shorts. |
| 251 | |
| 252 | * '''Connah's Quay Nomads''' |
| 253 | ** The club that ended The New Saints' 2010s dominance of Cymru Premier (Welsh Premier League), winning the title in both 2020 and 2021; in addition to this, they won the Welsh Cup in 2018, and in 2019 they became the first non-Scottish side to reach the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup. Located in Flintshire near the English border, they were founded as a youth club in 1946 and fielded their first senior side in 1948, returning senior football to the town after the failure of two previous clubs. Play in all-red at home and all-black away. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | * '''The New Saints''' |
| 256 | ** Originally known as Llansantffraid, this is probably the best-known Cymru Premier club due to a 1990s sponsorship deal which resulted in "The Saints" (as they were nicknamed) becoming the first British football club to ''rename itself after its sponsor'', communications company [[ProductPlacementName Total Network Solutions]]. This in turn became famous thanks to [[Series/SoccerSaturday Jeff Stelling]] joking about fans "dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions" whenever they won [[note]] For where he got this, see the entry for Raith Rovers above [[/note]]. The name changed to the present one after the parent company got taken over by British Telecom in 2006, keeping the initials by which the club had become known while reflecting its old nickname. Stelling [[RunningGag continued with the gag]] until his retirement in 2023, using "The New Saints" instead. |
| 257 | ** TNS, who've won the Welsh League a record 16 times (most recently in 2024, with eight consecutive titles between 2012 and 2019) actually play their home games in England -- they absorbed Oswestry Town (a nearby English club that played in the Welsh leagues) when the latter club folded in 2003, and chose to play at Park Hall, Oswestry's larger home ground. Almost immediately, the club sought to create a new identity as an Oswestry-based club (officially, the club's full name is "The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club") -- although the home kit of green and white hooped shirts and green shorts reflects the Llansantffraid part of its heritage. |
| 258 | ** Disaffected fans back in Llansantffraid [[StartMyOwn formed their own club]] Llansantffraid Village, in 2007; based at TNS's old ground, they currently play in the East Division of the Mid Wales Football League which is three divisions below the Cymru Premier. |
| 259 | [[/folder]] |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[folder:The Irish Football Association (Northern Ireland)]] |
| 262 | The Irish Football Association (IFA) covers football in ''Northern'' Ireland (for the Republic, it's the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) which was set up after Ireland was partitioned in 1921). Northern Ireland therefore has a separate league structure to the Republic. The league, which consists of mostly semi-professional clubs, is called the Northern Ireland Football League (historically, the Irish League - a name many still use) and is split into the NIFL Premiership and the NIFL Championship; below the latter is the NIFL Premier Intermediate League. The main knock-out tournament is the Irish Cup. Domestic football in Northern Ireland is not particularly well-known in the rest of the UK, and in Northern Ireland itself it can get overshadowed by Scotland's Old Firm (see above), the religious elements of which spill over into the Province (or vice-versa) -- as with everything else in Northern Ireland, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles has had a significant impact on football. Those who prefer their football without a heavy dose of sectarianism tend to gravitate towards the English Premier League; Liverpool in particular has plenty of Northern Irish fans. |
| 263 | |
| 264 | !!The Big Two |
| 265 | Just as Scottish football is dominated by the Old Firm, Northern Irish football is dominated by the '''Big Two''' - Linfield and Glentoran, both based in Belfast. Unlike the Old Firm, though, there's little sectarianism to this rivalry as both teams' fanbases are mostly Protestant. That said, other sides are more likely to get a look-in in terms of major silverware than their Scottish counterparts. |
| 266 | * '''Linfield''' is the most successful Northern Irish club. Widely regarded as a Protestant club, they wear blue shirts and white shorts (like Rangers) and play at Windsor Park in Belfast. They've won the Irish League 56 times and the Irish Cup 44 times. Historically, their biggest rivals were Belfast Celtic -- but since they dissolved in 1949 that place has been taken by... |
| 267 | * '''Glentoran''' (green shirts, black shorts) have won the Irish League and the Irish Cup 23 times each - although the last time they won the former was in 2008. Their fierce rivalry with Linfield includes the annual Boxing Day fixture which is the most high-profile domestic football match in Northern Ireland. The 1995 fixture was played out on a snow-covered pitch with an orange ball; when that burst and no replacement could be found, they continued with a regular ''white'' ball ... an incident which reached a much wider-than-usual audience due to footage of it being used as a "What Happened Next?" question on ''Series/AQuestionOfSport''. |
| 268 | ** George Best was a fan growing up; he tried out for them, but they rejected him for being "too small and light". Shortly afterwards, he was scouted by Manchester United ... and the rest is history. |
| 269 | |
| 270 | !!The rest |
| 271 | * '''Ballymena United''' have a rich history of success in the Irish Cup, having won it six times although the last one came in 1989, at the end of the most successful period in the club's history. Nicknamed "The Sky Blues" due to the colour of their shirts, their main rivals are the bigger and more successful Coleraine. The annual Boxing Day fixture between the two attracts large crowds and is one of the high-profile fixtures in the Northern Irish football league calendar outside of the Big Two. |
| 272 | * Founded in 1879, '''Cliftonville''' is the oldest football club in Ireland. Based in the North Belfast suburb of that name, they play in all-red and are fierce local rivals of Crusaders. The Reds' fanbase is mostly Catholic, giving a sectarian edge to their matches with teams with mainly Protestant support. |
| 273 | * '''Coleraine''' play in blue and white stripes; they've won the Irish League once (in 1974) and the Irish cup six times, most recently in 2018. |
| 274 | * '''Crusaders''' (red and black halved shirts) of North Belfast have overcome recent financial hardship and can boast one of the highest average attendances in Northern Ireland - in 2015/16, it was second only to Linfield. Champions in 2018. |
| 275 | * Lurgan-based '''Glenavon''' was the first club from outside Belfast to win the League (back in 1952). Bitter rivals of Portadown, with whom they contest the "Mid-Ulster Derby". |
| 276 | * '''Larne''' (red shirts with white sleeves), founded in 1889 and based in the seaside town of that name, played for much of its history outside of senior football.[[note]]Northern Ireland has three levels of football leagues—senior (at least semi-pro), intermediate (mix of semi-pro and amateur), and junior (amateur).[[/note]] It was in senior football from 1972–2008, dropped from that level, and returned to senior level in 2016, when Northern Ireland added a second level to its senior system, reaching the Prem two years later. It's never won the Irish Cup despite making six finals (the most ever for a team without a Cup win), and is the only club to have made the Irish League Cup final more than once without winning (twice). However, to the delight of their supporters, they finally claimed the Premiership title in 2023, their first piece of top-flight silverware ever, and repeated in 2024. |
| 277 | * '''Newry City''' was called Newry Town prior to Newry - five miles north of the border with the Republic - being given city status in 2004. Legendary Northern Ireland goalkeeper Pat Jennings played for them in the early 1960s before moving to England (initially to Watford, although he would go on to play for Spurs and Arsenal). Dissolved in 2012 after losing a lawsuit for unfair dismissal brought by a former manager and being unable to pay the damages. A club of the same name was formed a year later - although it claims to have no connection with the old club, it plays in the same colours at the same ground and is very much seen as its SpiritualSuccessor. Currently plays in the Championship. |
| 278 | * '''Portadown''' was initially formed as a junior side, but has won the Irish League four times, most recently in 2002. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | !!Former IFA sides |
| 281 | Two predominantly Catholic Northern Irish sides left the IFA due to sectarian difficulties; one of them now plays in the League of (the Republic of) Ireland. |
| 282 | * '''Belfast Celtic''' was one of the most successful clubs in Northern Ireland until it left the Irish League in 1949 following a particularly violent encounter with main rivals Linfield. It was dissolved shortly afterwards. |
| 283 | ** The name was revived in 2019 when lower-division Sport & Leisure Swifts changed their name and adopted the old side's green and white hooped shirts. |
| 284 | * '''Derry City''' left the Irish League in the 1970s because of UsefulNotes/TheTroubles and now play in the League of Ireland. They've won the latter twice, which makes them the only side in the British Isles to have won domestic leagues in more than one country, as the won the former once in the 1960s. |
| 285 | ** Notably, their jersey appears in the music video for The Undertones' punk hit, "My Perfect Cousin" in the very early 80s, as well as on the single sleeve, probably due to the Undertones hailing from the same city and a a reference to Subbuteo midway the song. |
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