The Football Association, which has been governing England’s national football team right from the beginning, played a key role in establishing football in England in the late 19th century. Currently, the Football Association organizes over 50 international matches, besides the home and away matches at Senior, B, Under-21, Youth, Schoolboy, Semi-Professional, and Women’s levels.
The English national team, nicknamed The Three Lions, is the oldest in the world. Following the first international match in 1872, the team toured Germany in 1899, and Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia in 1908. Its traditional kit includes white shirts with navy shorts and white socks, while its away kit consists of red shirts, white shorts and red socks. The team changes its kits once in two years. The English players first wore numbers on their shirts in a match played against Scotland in Birmingham in 1922. With the fans associating the players with specific numbers, the players have continued to have the numbers on their shirts in all the matches except in major international tournaments.
England is also home to several internationally renowned football clubs. Some of the most important of these are Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Sunderland, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, and Wolves.
The England national football team’s participation in the other major international event, the European Championship, is not very impressive. The team has never won the Championship. Its best success at the event was in 1968, when it stood third. Its record in the other years has been:
• 1960 – Did not enter• 1964 – Preliminary round• 1972 – Quarterfinals• 1976 – Did not enter• 1980 – 1st Round• 1984 – Did not qualify• 1988 – 1st Round• 1992 – 1st Round• 1996 – Semifinals• 2000 – 1st Round• 2004 – Quarterfinals• 2008 – Did not qualify