One for all football fans out there....
- Soccer - Football - as it is known in Europe and other countries other than North America, is played on every continent.
- FIFA (The Federation of World Football) counts 204 member countries.
- Soccer is a bigger sport than Baseball, Basketball and Football (American) combined.
- Organised soccer was born in Britain. England and Scotland being co-founders of the beautiful game.
- The World's First Football Club - Sheffield Football Club - was founded in 1857 by Colonel Nathaniel Cresswick and Major William Priest, two British Army officers.
- The oldest Football Associations are:
England - founded 1863.
Scotland - founded 1873.
Wales - founded 1875.
Ireland - founded 1880.
- The English League was founded in 1888.
- The founding clubs were:
Accrington (Old Reds) : Aston Villa : Blackburn Rovers : Bolton Wanderers : Burnley : DerbyCounty : Everton : Notts County : Preston North End : Stoke City : West Bromwich Albion : Wolverhampton Wanderers.
- The First League Goal - ever - was scored on 8th. September 1888, by Jack Gordon a Preston North End player.
- The First International Match was played in Glasgow, Scotland on 30th. November 1872 when Scotland played England. The Scottish FA did not then exist - it was not founded until three months later. The team England played that day was actually the oldest Scottish club team, Queen's Park - founded 1863.
- The First Professional Players were reputedly two Scots -John Love, and Fergus Suter, who played for a north of England club called Darwen in the 1879 season - and were paid for their soccer talent.