About England

The Football Association (The FA), founded on 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in London, is the oldest football association in the world. Its formation codified the rules of association football for the first time, separating the game from rugby — clubs that preferred handling the ball eventually broke away to form the Rugby Football Union in 1871. The FA is a founding member of FIFA (1904) and a permanent member of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), giving England a lasting voice in the Laws of the Game.

The FA Cup, created in 1872, is the longest-running association football competition in the world. England's national team won the FIFA World Cup in 1966, hosted on home soil, defeating West Germany 4–2 in the final at Wembley. In 1885 the FA legalised professional football, and in 1888 the Football League — the world's first professional league — was established in its wake. One controversial chapter was the ban on women's football imposed in 1921, which lasted until 1969.

In recent years, the England women's team claimed the UEFA European Championship in 2022 and 2025, signalling a new era of success for English football. The FA is headquartered at Wembley Stadium in London, which also serves as the national team's home ground.