Football in the United Kingdom is organised on a separate basis in each of the four countries of the United Kingdom,with each having a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective country.There is no United Kingdom national football team.It has been the most popular sport in the United Kingdom since the 1860s.
Each of the countries of the United Kingdom,sometimes referred to as the home nations,has a national football association responsible for the overall management of football within their respective nation:The Football Association,(FA) is responsible for England and the Crown Dependencies and was founded in 1863,The Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded in 1873 followed by the Football Association of Wales in 1876 and Irish Football Association (IFA) in 1880.They are the world's four oldest national football associations and play an important part in football worldwide as they take up four of the eight seats on the International Football Association Board (IFAB),which determines the Laws of the Game,(the other four seats being occupied by FIFA.
There is currently no United Kingdom national football team as separate teams compete in international competition representing England,Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland.There are sometimes issues about which team players are eligible for (as all the players will have simply British passports),but a player is generally eligible for whichever nation he,his parents or grandparents were born in (in the case of these being different nations,then he can choose).This has been the case with some younger players such as Aiden McGeady and Jack Collison who have chosen to play for the country of their parental heritage rather than the country of their birth.Players from crown dependencies (like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands),which are technically not in the UK are eligible for all four teams (e.g.Matt Le Tissier and Graeme Le Saux,both of whom opted for England),as are British citizens born outside the UK or its possessions (e.g.current England international Owen Hargreaves,born in Canada).
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