British football guide: soccer teams/matches/games in England, Wales and Scotland

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Football (soccer) in the UK


Sections:	Introduction
	UK football
	European football
	World Cup
	Vocabulary
	Further information
	Links

INTRODUCTION

This page gives a brief guide to British football.

In the UK the term football is usually used for the game played by kicking a round ball (the game which is popular in the US, played with an oval ball, is known as "American football"). The term soccer is also used widely, although it should really only be used for professional games, as the word is a short form of the phrase "association football".

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UK FOOTBALL

You can find information about the main international games from the websites of the national football associations:
- England & Wales: Football Association: http://www.thefa.com
- Scotland: Scottish Football Association: http://www.scottishfa.co.uk
- Northern Ireland: Northern Irish Football Association: http://www.irishfa.com
International games can be sold out quickly. Tickets usually go on sale about 2 months before the game. Tickets for the English team's home games can be bought from the Football Association (FA): the number to call for tickets is 0870 902 0005.

The top teams in England play each other every season (from August until May) in the Premier League (the Premiership). Among the most famous clubs in England are Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. The teams play each other twice each season (at home and away), and the three teams with the lowest number of points are relegated (into the Championship League). The two divisions below the Championship League are called League One and League Two.

For club games, find out if tickets are available by contacting the football club or by checking its website. People who have bought a season ticket will get tickets first, then members, then non-members. It can be difficult for visitors to get tickets to see the most popular Premiership teams.

The Premiership teams in the 2011/12 season are as follows:

Football club (FC)	Nickname	Location	Name of ground	Website
Arsenal	The Gunners	N London	Emirates Stadium	here
Aston Villa	The Villans	Birmingham	Villa Park	here
Birmingham	The Blues	Birmingham	St Andrew's Stadium	here
Blackburn Rovers	Rovers	Blackburn	Ewood Park	here
Blackpool	The Seasiders/The 'Pool/The Tangerines	Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	here
Bolton Wanderers	The Trotters	Bolton	Reebok Stadium	here
Chelsea	The Blues	London	Stamford Bridge	here
Everton	The Toffees	Liverpool	Goodison Park	here
Fulham	The Cottagers	SW London	Craven Cottage	here
Liverpool	The Reds	Liverpool	Anfield	here
Manchester City (Man City)	The Blues/Citizens	Manchester	Maine Road	here
Manchester United (Man Utd)	The Red Devils	Manchester	Old Trafford	here
Newcastle United	The Magpies/The Toon	Newcastle upon Tyne	St James' Park	here
Norwich City	The Canaries	Norwich	Carrow Road	here
Queens Park Rangers (QPR)	The Hoops/Super Hoops	London	Loftus Road	here
Stoke City	The Potters	Stoke	Britannia Stadium	here
Sunderland	The Black Cats/Mackems	Sunderland	Stadium of Light	here
Swansea City	The Swans/Jacks	Swansea	Liberty Stadium	here
Tottenham Hotspur	Spurs/Lilywhites	N London	White Hart Lane	here
West Bromwich Albion (West Brom)	Albion, The Baggies, The Throstles	Newcastle	The Hawthorns	here
West Ham	The Hammers	E London	Boleyon Ground	here
Wigan Athletic	The Latics	Wigan	JJB Stadium	here
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Wolves	Wolverhampton	Molineux Stadium	here

Manchester United

Manchester City

Chelsea

Liverpool

Arsenal

Clubs from all of the football divisions in England and Wales take part in a knockout competition which ends with the FA Cup Final in May.
For more information about the FA Cup, see the Football Association's website: http://www.thefa.com

The FA Cup Final is played at Wembley Stadium (London)

Fans enjoy pre-match celebrations

Entrance to the stadium

Flypast by the Red Arrows before the game starts

Another team competition is the Football League Cup (known as the Carling Cup since 2004). This starts as a knock-out competition. The semi-final is played in two legs (a home game and away game), and the final is played as a single game at a neutral ground.

The top Scottish teams play in the Scottish Premier League. There is also a knockout competition in Scotland to win the Scottish FA Cup. Top Scottish teams include Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United. Celtic and Rangers are both based in Glasgow, and Hearts is based in Edinburgh.

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EUROPEAN FOOTBALL

The main competition between top European local teams is the UEFA Champions League (formerly known as the European Cup). The second most important competition is the UEFA Cup. Both of these competitions take place every year.

The European Cup (UEFA European Football Championship) finals take place every 4 years. Matches are between national teams from throughout Europe.

The Euro 2012 competition will be held jointly in Poland and Ukraine from 8 June - 1 July 2012.

For the European Cup finals, teams are divided into qualifying groups and play a league system (each team plays each of the other teams once at home and once away, 3 points are awarded for a win and 1 point for a draw). The two teams in each group with the highest number of points go through to the finals (the host country/countries for the finals automatically qualify). In the finals the teams are divided into 4 groups of 4. At first there is a league-style competition and the two top teams in each group go through. This is followed by the knockout rounds: only one game is played in each of these rounds. If the score is even after 90 minutes, a further 30 minutes of extra time is played. If the score is still even the winner is chosen using a penalty shoot-out.

The qualifying groups for the 2012 competition are as follows:

Group	Team 1	Team 2	Team 3	Team 4
A	Poland	Greece	Russia	Czech Republic
B	Netherlands	Denmark	Germany	Portugal
C	Spain	Italy	Republic of Ireland	Croatia
D	Ukraine	Sweden	France	England

The match schedule is shown below (kick-off times are UK times - the time in Ukraine is 2 hours ahead of the UK, and the time in Poland is 1 hour ahead of the UK):

Date	UK Time	Group/Stage	Teams	Venue
Fri 8th June	5:00pm	A	Poland v Greece	Warsaw
Fri 8th June	7:45pm	A	Russia v Czech Republic	Wroclaw
Sat 9th June	5:00pm	B	Netherlands v Denmark	Kharkiv
Sat 9th June	7:45pm	B	Germany v Portugal	Lviv
Sun 10th June	5:00pm	C	Spain v Italy	Gdansk
Sun 10th June	7:45pm	C	Rep of Ireland v Croatia	Poznan
Mon 11th June	5:00pm	D	France v England	Donetsk
Mon 11th June	7:45pm	D	Ukraine v Sweden	Kiev
Tue 12th June	5:00pm	A	Greece v Czech Republic	Wroclaw
Tue 12th June	7:45pm	A	Poland v Russia	Warsaw
Wed 13th June	5:00pm	B	Denmark v Portugal	Lviv
Wed 13th June	7:45pm	B	Netherlands v Germany	Kharkiv
Thu 14th June	5:00pm	C	Italy v Croatia	Poznan
Thu 14th June	7:45pm	C	Spain v Rep of Ireland	Gdansk
Fri 15th June	5:00pm	D	Sweden v England	Kiev
Fri 15th June	7:45pm	D	Ukraine v France	Donetsk
Sat 16th June	7:45pm	A	Czech Republic v Poland	Wroclaw
Sat 16th June	7:45pm	A	Greece v Russia	Warsaw
Sun 17th June	7:45pm	B	Portugal v Netherlands	Kharkiv
Sun 17th June	7:45pm	B	Denmark v Germany	Lviv
Mon 18th June	7:45pm	C	Croatia v Spain	Gdansk
Mon 18th June	7:45pm	C	Italy v Rep of Ireland	Poznan
Tue 19th June	7:45pm	D	England v Ukraine	Donetsk
Tue 19th June	7:45pm	D	Sweden v France	Kiev
Thu 21st June	7:45pm	QF1	1st Group A v 2nd Group B	Warsaw
Fri 22nd June	7:45pm	QF2	1st Group B v 2nd Group A	Gdansk
Sat 23rd June	7:45pm	QF3	1st Group C v 2nd Group D	Donetsk
Sun 24th June	7:45pm	QF4	1st Group D v 2nd Group C	Kiev
Wed 27th June	7:45pm	SF1	Winner QF1 v Winner QF3	Donetsk
Thu 28th June	7:45pm	SF2	Winner QF2 v Winner QF4	Warsaw
Sun 1st July	7:45pm	Final	Final	Kiev

For further information about Euro 2012, see: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro

Past events:
The Euro 2008 competition was held jointly in Austria and Switzerland in June 2008. Spain defeated Germany 1-0 in the final.
The Euro 2004 competition was held in Portugal. The final was won 1-0 by Greece (playing Portugal).

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WORLD CUP

The 2014 World Cup will be played in Brazil in June/July 2014.
32 teams will compete. As the host nation, Brazil has automatically qualified. The other countries will be selected in a series of regional competitions in Asia, Africa, North/Central America, South America, Europe and Pacific/Oceania.
The European qualification games will start in August 2012, after the Euro 2012 competition has finished.

The official website of the World Cup competition: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup

Past events:
The 2010 World Cup was played in South Africa. In the final, Spain beat the Netherlands in extra time.
The 2006 World Cup was played in Germany. In the final, Italy beat France (on penalty kicks).

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VOCABULARY

The goalkeeper (also known as the goalie, or keeper) wears the number 1 shirt. The person's job is to save goals, by stopping the ball from crossing the line under the goalposts. He is allowed to use his hands, but only inside the box (18 yard box or penalty box) marked around the goalposts. If a member of the attacking team touches the ball inside the box (known as handball), or if an attacker is held or tackled unfairly in the box, the attacking team way be awarded a penalty kick (penalty). This gives a member of the attacking team a chance to kick the ball from the edge of the penalty box, with only the goalkeeper defending the goal.

A defender plays mainly in the area in front of his own team's goal. A full-back plays the wider positions, a central defender plays in the middle. Two possible variations are a wing-back, who plays the wider positions at the back but comes forward as well, and a sweeper, whose job is to stay close to the goal area to make the defence stronger.

A midfielder plays mainly in the centre of the field. A winger (or wide midfielder) plays the wider positions, while a central midfielder plays in the middle.

A striker plays mainly in the opposing team's half of the field. The person's main job is to try to score a goal.

The formation of a team depends on the main roles of the players. The most common formation in British football is 4-4-2, meaning 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers.

Positions
(note: numbers/positions vary)

1 : Goalkeeper ("goalie")

Defenders:
2/3 : Centre back
4 : Right back/fullback
5 : Left back/fullback

Midfielders:
6: Inside right or right wing half
7 : Right wing
8: Inside left or left wing half
11: Left wing

Strikers:
9/10 : Centre forward

For more football vocabulary, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/vocabulary/football.shtml

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FURTHER INFORMATION

BBC Sport (football): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football
Football rules explained: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/rules_and_equipment

UK football headlines:

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