Every football shirt
has a story. Football clubs, players and leagues
Clubs, players and leagues, collected one sticker at a time. Turn a sticker over, then open the page for the full story.
Liverpool FC from the 1892 Everton split to Istanbul 2005: Anfield and the Spion Kop, Shankly and Paisley, six European Cups, Heysel and Hillsborough.
Open the pageManchester United history from Newton Heath in 1878 to the Busby Babes, Munich, 1968 and the Ferguson era, with a full timeline and the titles by era.
Open the pageHow the Premier League works: the 1992 breakaway, the 20-club format, relegation, European places, every title winner by club and the records that last.
Open the pageHow a football club history is built: founding names, grounds, colours, rivalries and honours, with Liverpool and Manchester United as the first examples.
Open the pageGianluigi Buffon biography: Carrara 1978, a Parma debut at 17, a record move to Juventus, the 2006 World Cup with Italy, 176 caps and his Serie A feats.
Open the pageFootball player positions, the old shirt numbers from 1 to 11 and what a full player biography covers, with Gianluigi Buffon as the first worked example.
Open the pageHow football leagues, cups and continental competitions differ, how points, promotion and relegation work, and the five big European leagues in one table.
Open the pageNewest stickers
Open a pack
Three articles from the archive, drawn at random. Every pack is different.
The archive, one volume per season
Football clubs, players and leagues in one place
Footbo is a football reference built around three questions supporters keep asking: where football clubs came from, who the football players really were, and how a competition actually works. The answers sit on long pages with the dates checked, and each one starts with the basics before it gets to the arguments.
Manchester United's history begins at a railway works in Newton Heath in 1878, long before Old Trafford opened in 1910. Liverpool's begins with a rent dispute in 1892 that left Anfield without a tenant. Gianluigi Buffon's biography runs from Carrara to Parma, Juventus and a World Cup winner's medal in 2006. The Premier League page explains how 20 clubs, 38 rounds and three relegation places fit together.
How the pages are built
Each section has a hub that explains the ground rules first. The Teams hub sets out what goes into the history of football clubs, from founding names to first titles. The Players hub covers positions, the old shirt numbers from 1 to 11 and what a biography of football players should include. The Leagues hub separates leagues from cups, and both from continental competitions such as the Champions League, then walks through promotion and relegation.
Facts come from club records, league and governing-body sources and standard references. When two sources disagree on a date, the page says which one it follows.
Match pieces and portraits
Alongside the reference pages runs a long list of shorter, dated articles: match reviews and previews, transfer stories, managers under pressure, cup runs from Middlesbrough to Southampton, and portraits of players such as Francesco Totti, David Seaman and Miroslav Klose. Each one is tied to its date, so a prediction from a Leicester City title race reads as a prediction, not as a result.
The newest of them are listed below. The full list, sorted by year, sits under Articles in the menu.
Latest articles
- Comparing casino RTP, house edge and overround for Canadian players9 June 2026
- Who might move in January 2022: Premier League transfer targets15 December 2021
- Leading contenders in the 2021/22 English top-flight title race10 November 2021
- Manchester United lose to Los Blancos in the Skopje showpiece9 August 2017
- Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic moves to Old Trafford1 August 2017
- Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid? The Monaco talent in demand26 July 2017
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic: a return to Manchester United in October?12 July 2017
- Chile's La Roja beat Portugal on penalties to make the 2017 decider28 June 2017
- Confederations Cup Group B: the Germans edge Australia 3-220 June 2017
- Late Harry Kane goal earns England a draw in Scotland12 June 2017
Questions people ask
How long is a football match?
A match lasts 90 minutes, played as two halves of 45 minutes with a break in between. The referee adds time at the end of each half for stoppages, and some cup ties go to extra time and penalties.
How many players does each team have on the pitch?
Each team has a maximum of eleven players, one of whom must be the goalkeeper. A match may not start or continue if either team has fewer than seven players.
How many points is a win worth in a league?
In almost every league a win is worth three points, a draw one point and a defeat none. England's Football League moved from two points to three for a win in 1981.
What is the difference between a league and a cup?
A league is decided by a table after every club has played every other club, usually home and away. A cup is a knockout competition in which the loser of each tie goes out.
What happens to clubs that finish bottom of a league?
In most European countries the lowest-placed clubs are relegated to the division below and replaced by the best clubs from that division. In the Premier League the bottom three clubs go down to the Championship.