Ирина Эланс

Автор который поможет с любыми образовательными и учебными заданиями

Football in Russia and Great Britain

Content

Introduction 2

Chapter 1 Football

1.1 What is football? 3

1.2 Game rules and regulations 4

Chapter 2 History

2.1 History of football 6

2.2 Oldest football clubs 10

2.3 Oldest football competitions 11

2.4 The Football Associations History 12

2.5 History of FIFA 14

Chapter 3 Football in Russia and Great Britain

3.1 Football in Russia and Great Britain 15

3.2 Leagues in Russian and Great Britain 20

3.3 Cup competitions in both the countries 23

Conclusion 26

Introduction

Modern football began its journey in the XII century medieval England. Then the football played in the market places and even on the crooked, narrow streets. They played from morning till night. The number of players exceeds 100, with almost no restrictions existed.

Now, football in England - the sport of national significance, which plays an important role in English culture and English way of life.

In this work we also consider the development of football in Russia and its place in the lives of citizens.

In this work we are going to describe one of the favorite plays in the world. It is football. At first we give some information about this game, rules and regulations for the game in order to give you some sense of understanding of play features. Then we describe the position of this play in two countries - Russia and England. From the third point of our work we compare football features, football efforts, league system and system of cup competitions in both the countries. And in the conclusion we resume my conclusions about football position in both these countries.

Relevance of this work stems from the fact that football is the most popular kind of sport worldwide.

Research of this problem allows better understanding basic principles of football by comparing this game in different countries, the example of England and Russia. The aim of this work to investigate and compare football in Russia and England considered all aspects of the game.

Chapter 1 Football

1.1 What is football?

Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games. These variations of football are known as football "codes".

Football as a game involving “kicking a ball” has been around for more than 100 years. Many of the previous games in the past were said to be played differently from the football people know today. A football-like game emerged in China in the 2nd or 3rd centuries wherein a leather ball was used for kicking into a small net made of bamboo. A similar game was also played in Japan by Kemaris. This Japanese version is not played competitively and the players just pass the ball to each other hoping that it will not touch the ground.

Today, football is a global sport governed by FIFA. Many countries around the world have their own leagues and football clubs that follow international rules on the sport. Every 4 years, FIFA organizes the biggest prize in football which is the “World Cup”. This particular tournament is participated by many countries from all continents to gain football supremacy.

1.2 Game rules and regulations

Size and marks of a football field under regulations. Matches can be conducted both in the fields of natural and in fields with artificial turf. According to the official rules of the game of football artificial turf should be green. The field of play is rectangular in shape. The lateral line has to be longer than the goal line. On each side of the field is marked goal area - an area beyond the borders of which the goal kick. On each side of the field is marked penalty area - an area in which the goalkeeper can play with his hands, and the gates of the team that committed in his own penalty area violation, punishable by a direct free kick will be assigned to the 11-meter kick. The gate should be placed in the center of each of the lines of the gate. They consist of two upright posts equidistant from the corner flag poles and connected at the top horizontal crossbar.

In football teams consist of 11. The match may not start if either team consisting of fewer than seven players. Maximum number of reserve players, who may take part in the match, set rules of competitions, but must lie in the range from three to seven. Team consists of goalkeeper, forwards and backs.

Goal of the game is to get the ball into the opponent’s gate by legs or other parts of the body (except hands) more times than the opposing team. Match consists of two halves of 45 minutes. Pause between the first and second halves of 15 minutes, during which teams of rest, and at its end change gates.

In football, players are prohibited to enter the field with different types of chains, bracelets and rings. Football players wear T-shirts on the backs of which are numbers proxy authentication. Besides T-shirts, numbers are usually posted on the shorts. Names or nicknames of the players are on the back of the shirts, above the number. Equipment required elements are: shirt or t-shirt that has sleeves, shorts, socks, pads and boots.

Pads shall be completely covered socks. They should be made of suitable material (plastic, rubber) and shall provide sufficient protection.

The form of the goalkeeper must be different by the color of the form of other players and referees.

Chapter 2 History

2.1 History of football

The contemporary history of the world's favourite game spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the Football Association in England was formed - becoming the sport's first governing body.

Both codes stemmed from a common root and both have a long and intricately branched ancestral tree. A search down the centuries reveals at least half a dozen different games, varying to different degrees, and to which the historical development of football has been traced back. Whether this can be justified in some instances is disputable. Nevertheless, the fact remains that people have enjoyed kicking a ball about for thousands of years and there is absolutely no reason to consider it an aberration of the more 'natural' form of playing a ball with the hands.

On the contrary, apart from the need to employ the legs and feet in tough tussles for the ball, often without any laws for protection, it was recognised right at the outset that the art of controlling the ball with the feet was not easy and, as such, required no small measure of skill. The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise from a military manual dating back to the second and third centuries BC in China.

This Han Dynasty forebear of football was called Tsu' Chu and it consisted of kicking a leather ball filled with feathers and hair through an opening, measuring only 30-40cm in width, into a small net fixed onto long bamboo canes. According to one variation of this exercise, the player was not permitted to aim at his target unimpeded, but had to use his feet, chest, back and shoulders while trying to withstand the attacks of his opponents. Use of the hands was not permitted.

Another form of the game, also originating from the Far East, was the Japanese Kemari, which began some 500-600 years later and is still played today. This is a sport lacking the competitive element of Tsu' Chu with no struggle for possession involved. Standing in a circle, the players had to pass the ball to each other, in a relatively small space, trying not to let it touch the ground.

The Greek 'Episkyros' - of which few concrete details survive - was much livelier, as was the Roman 'Harpastum'. The latter was played out with a smaller ball by two teams on a rectangular field marked by boundary lines and a centre line. The objective was to get the ball over the opposition's boundary lines and as players passed it between themselves, trickery was the order of the day. The game remained popular for 700-800 years, but, although the Romans took it to Britain with them, the use of feet was so small as to scarcely be of consequence.

The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. The game played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation, but the only pre-Norman reference is to boys playing "ball games" in the 9th century Historia Brittonum. Reports of a game played in Brittany,Normandy, and Picardy, known as La Soule or Choule, suggest that some of these football games could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest.

These forms of football, sometimes referred to as "mob football", would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people, struggling to move an item such as an inflated pig's bladder, to particular geographical points, such as their opponents' church. Shrovetide games have survived into the modern era in a number of English towns (see below).

Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball". This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked.

An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David" .Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard. Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "during the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".

In 1314, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree banning football in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A translation reads: "forasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee] in the fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city in the future." This is the earliest reference to football.

In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games", showing that "football" — whatever its exact form in this case — was being differentiated from games involving other parts of the body, such as handball.

King Henry IV of England also presented one of the earliest documented uses of the English word "football", in 1409, when he issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for "foteball".

There is also an account in Latin from the end of the 15th century of football being played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This is the first description of a "kicking game" and the first description of dribbling: "the game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football pitch, stating that: "the boundaries have been marked and the game had started.

2.2 Oldest football clubs

Sports clubs dedicated to playing football began in the 18th century, for example London's Gymnastic Society which was founded in the mid-18th century and ceased playing matches in 1796. The first documented club to bear the title "football club" is one in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the period 1824–41. The club forbade tripping but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball.

Two clubs which claim to be the world's oldest existing football club, in the sense of a club which is not part of a school or university, are strongholds of rugby football: the Barnes Club, said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy's Hospital Football Club, in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football played is well documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the popularity of rugby before other modern codes emerged.

In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were tasked with codifying the rules then being used at the school. These were the first set of written rules (or code) for any form of football. This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game. For instance, Dublin University Football Club—founded at Trinity College, Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game—is the world's oldest documented football club in any code.

2.3 Oldest football competitions

One of the longest running football fixture is the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, contested between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, Melbourne every year since 1858. It is believed by many to also be the first match of Australian rules football, although it was played under experimental rules in its first year. The first football trophy tournament was the Caledonian Challenge Cup, donated by the Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne, played in 1861 under the Melbourne Rules. The oldest football league is a rugby football competition, the United Hospitals Challenge Cup (1874), while the oldest rugby trophy is the Yorkshire Cup, contested since 1878. The South Australian Football Association (30 April 1877) is the oldest surviving Australian rules football competition. The oldest surviving soccer trophy is the Youdan Cup (1867) and the oldest national soccer competition is the English FA Cup (1871). The Football League (1888) is recognised as the longest running Association Football league. The first ever international football match took place between sides representing England and Scotland on March 5, 1870 at the Oval under the authority of the FA. The first Rugby international took place in 1871.

Modern balls

In Europe, early footballs were made out of animal bladders, more specifically pig's bladders, which were inflated. Later leather coverings were introduced to allow the ball to keep their shape. However, in 1851, Richard Lindon and William Gilbert, both shoemakers from the town of Rugby(near the school), exhibited both round and oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in London. Richard Lindon's wife is said to have died of lung disease caused by blowing up pig's bladders.

Lindon also won medals for the invention of the "Rubber inflatable Bladder" and the "Brass Hand Pump".

2.4 The Football Association History

During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various public school games. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at Uppingham School and he issued his own rules of what he called "The Simplest Game" (these are also known as the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863 another new revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.

At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of October 26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area met for the inaugural meeting of The Football Association (FA). The aim of the Association was to establish a single unifying code and regulate the playing of the game among its members. Following the first meeting, the public schools were invited to join the association. All of them declined, except Charterhouse and Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between October and December 1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the recently published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely running with (carrying) the ball and hacking (kicking opposing players in the shins).

At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed. Most of the delegates supported this, but F. M. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected. He said: "hacking is the true football". However, the motion to ban running with the ball in hand and hacking was carried and Blackheath withdrew from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December, the FA published the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as Association Football. The term "soccer", in use since the late 19th century, derives from an abbreviation of "Association".

The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of association football, but which are still recognisable in other games (such as Australian football and rugby football): for instance, a player could make a fair catch and claim a mark, which entitled him to a free kick; and if a player touched the ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to afree kick at goal, from 15 yards (13.5 metres) in front of the goal line.

2.5 History of FIFA

The need for a single body to oversee association football had become apparent by the beginning of the 20th century, with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The English Football Association had chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no progress. It fell to associations from seven other European countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to form an international association. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904. Its first president was Robert Guérin. The French name and acronym has remained, even outside French-speaking countries.

Chapter 3 Football in Russia and in Great Britain

3.1 Football in Russia and in Great Britain

When the USSR broke down into 15 different countries, the once renowned sports structure collapsed as well. Football was one of the most popular sports in the Soviet Union. While the national teams and the clubs used to be linked to state institutions or mass organizations, in 1991 they became private enterprises. Just like in many other spheres of business, corrupt and sometimes bloody division of power began. Furthermore, many teams of the erstwhile Soviet Top League, which was once considered to be one of the strongest and was able to compete with those of England and Italy, were now in divided between the national football associations of the newly independent republics. Many of the top brand names lost their financing from the government and were left to rot, waiting for some forms of sponsorship. Citizens of Russia are interested mostly in the national team that gets to compete in the World Cup and the European Championship, and in the Premier league, where clubs from different cities look to become champions of Russia. There are also competitions considered less important, such as the Russian Cup. Some of the most famous clubs include Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow. There are in fact six teams in the Premier League from the city of Moscow as it was the first city to recover from the destruction of the old system.

Due to the large extension of the country, the top Russian division and its European-based clubs have often had problems adjusting to having to play clubs from Siberia, particularly those from the Far East, such as Okean Nakhodka, Luch-Energia Vladivostok and SKA-Energia Khabarovsk. Although it is very rare that a Far Eastern club competes for the Russian league title or spots in UEFA competitions, European-based teams often complain about lost matches due to jet lag or other such factors. The Russian national team gained attention when they beat traditional European powerhouses The Netherlands 3-1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions Spain. Nevertheless, four players made the Team of the Tournament. Some players such as Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko earned big-money moves to the English Barclays Premier League after impressing at the tournament.

Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country.

England is home to, amongst others, the world's oldest association football club (Sheffield F.C.), the oldest national governing body (The Football Association), the first national team, the oldest national knockout competition (the FA Cup) and the oldest national league (The Football League). Today England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, and is home to some of the world's most famous football clubs.

The modern global game of association football was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games.

Football was played in England as far back as medieval times. The first written evidence of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his visit to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to mention that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to view the contests of their juniors, and in their fashion sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a stirring of natural heat by viewing so much activity and by participation in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280.

Modernisation followed in the 1960s, with revolutions in the game such as the George Eastham case allowing players greater freedom of movement, and the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961. Tottenham Hotspur became the first club to win the Double in the 20th century in 1960-61, and the first English club to win a European trophy, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1962-63 when they beat Atlético Madrid 5–1 in the final. In 1966–67 Leeds United reached the final where they lost 2–0 to Dinamo Zagreb. The following season they went one better, beating Ferencvárosi 1-0 in the final. Newcastle United won the 1968–69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup beating Újpest 6-2 in the final. The following season Arsenal made it a hat-trick of English triumphs beating Anderlecht 4-3 in the final. In the last Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970–71, Leeds United again were winners once again, when they beat Juventus on away goals.

Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup in 1967–68 when they beat Benfica 4–1 at Wembley in the final. However, it was Liverpool who dominated the game in England from the early 1970s onwards, for nearly two decades. They won eleven league titles and four European Cups between 1972 and 1990. Other successful clubs in the 1970s and 1980s included their rivals Nottingham Forest, who won a league title and two European Cups in the late 1970s, and Everton, with two titles in the mid-1980s, and Aston Villa with a European Cup triumph in 1982. However while club sides thrived in European competition, the national team struggled, failing to qualify for both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.

By this time serious problems had surfaced. The rise of football hooliganism marred the game throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with attendances dipping. In August, 1974, a Blackpool fan was stabbed to death at the back of the Spion Kop, Bloomfield Road at Blackpool's home match with Bolton Wanderers. It was widely reported as being the first hooligan death at an English football match and together with Manchester United fans behaviour, during their one season in the Second Division that year, it ushered in a dark era of hooliganism in England. The nadir came in 1985, when Liverpool fans hooliganism, combined with poor policing and infrastructure, led to the deaths of 39 Juventus fans before the European Cup final, in the Heysel Stadium disaster. English clubs were banned from Europe for five years as a result. England's ageing and poorly-built stadiums were responsible, along with other factors, for two disasters, one at Bradford in 1985 and the other at Hillsborough in 1989, killing 56 and 96 people respectively.

Up until the 1985–86 season there was no direct promotion and relegation between the Football League and non-league football, with the bottom four clubs in the Fourth Division each year having to apply for re-election for the following season. A few non-league clubs were successful forcing league clubs to leave the Fourth Division, such as Hereford United. However, in 1986–87 automatic promotion and relegation was introduced, with the bottom club in the league being relegated to the Conference. Eventually this was increased to two clubs in 2002–03. In the 1980s, play-offs were introduced throughout the Football League for promotion each season, with one club each season being promoted via the end of season play-offs in addition to those clubs promoted automatically.

The post-Hillsborough Taylor Report forced the conversion of major stadia to all-seater. At the same time, the money from television coverage was increasing rapidly. These, combined with England's relative success at the 1990 World Cup, reaching the semi-finals only to lose on penalties to West Germany, and a concerted effort to drive out hooliganism reinvigorated the national game. In the spring of 1992, the 22 clubs in the First Division resigned en masse from the Football League, forming a new top-level competition, The FA Premier League, overseen by The FA, largely to capitalize upon their status as the biggest and most wealthy clubs in the country, and negotiate more profitable television rights. The Football League was consequently re-organised, with the Second, Third and Fourth Divisions renamed as the First, Second and Third Divisions respectively. Thus, the First Division, while still the top level of the Football League, became the second level of the entire English football league system with the top clubs inheriting the promotion playoff system from the old Second Division.

Despite the success of the domestic game, and a resurgence in fortunes for English clubs in Europe (Liverpool won the Champions League again in 2005 as did Manchester United in an all-English final in 2008), the national team's fortunes have been decidedly mixed. They missed the '94 World Cup entirely. They had their best post-1990 performance in Euro 96, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals on penalties by Germany. Penalty shoot-out defeats went on to haunt England at the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup as well. England also failed to reach the finals of Euro 2008, with manager Steve McClaren being sacked as a result in November 2007 and the appointment of Fabio Capello.

The Premier League also has the highest total attendances of all football leagues throughout the world based on the 2007-8 season with 13,676,390. The Championship, despite being the second tier in English football, is the fourth most watched league with a total of 9,396,144, behind only the Premier League the Bundesliga in Germany (11,815,215) and La Liga in Spain (11,067,020), but ahead of every other top-flight league including Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France, the Primera División in Argentina and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A in Brazil. League One with 4,133,928 was also ahead of a large number of top-flight leagues including the Scottish Premier League, Major League Soccer in the United States and the Belgian Pro League in Belgium. Even League Two with a total of 2,281,416 had higher total attendances than the top-flights in a lot of countries including Ukraine, Russia and Norway.

3.2 Leagues in Russian and Great Britain

There are some differences in the league system in both countries. The Football League in Great Britain, established in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor, was the first professional football league in the world. Since its founding, however, many other leagues have been founded in England. Over the years there has been an increasing effort to link all these leagues together in a Pyramidal structure allowing promotion and relegation between different levels. The primary motivation for this drive is to maintain the possibility that any club in England may dream of one day rising to the very top, no matter what status they currently hold. In a study made by FIFA in 2006 there are around 40,000 clubs registered with the FA, which is 11,000 more than any other country, the closest being the Brazilian Football Confederation who have 29,000 registered clubs. Even without taking relative population into account, England has more football clubs than any other country in the world.

Premier League

The Premier League was founded in 1992 after England's top clubs broke away from the Football League in a successful effort aimed at increasing their income at the expense of clubs in the lower divisions. Links with The Football League were maintained, and each season the bottom three clubs are relegated from the Premier League and replaced by three from the Championship. The Premier League is contested between 20 clubs each season. Each club in the Premier League in any given season owns one twentieth of a share in the league itself, meaning that they are all supposedly equal owners with equal rights and responsibilities.

The Football League

Although the oldest league in the world, The Football League now ranks second in the hierarchy of English football since the split of England's top clubs in 1992 to form the FA Premier League. The Football League has 72 member clubs evenly divided among three divisions, currently named the Championship, League One and League Two. Despite the organisational split, promotion and relegation of clubs still takes place between the Premier League and the Football League.

The first level of the Russian league system is the 16-club Premier League. Below it are the First Division and Second Division, administered by the Professional Football League. The First Division consists of 22 clubs, and the Second Division is split geographically into five zones (West, Centre, South, Ural-Povolzhye, and East) with varying number of clubs. The total number of clubs in the Second Division is 73. After each season, top two clubs of the First Division replace bottom two clubs of the Premier League, and champions of each Second Division zone replace five bottom clubs of the First Division. A championship between youth teams of Premier League clubs also exists.

The Second Division is the lowest level of professional football in Russia. The next level of football is the Amateur Football League, which is split into ten zones: Northwest, Golden Ring, Moscow, Podmoskovye (Moscow region), Chernozemye (Black Earth region), South, Privolzhye (Volga region), Ural and West Siberia, Siberia, and Far East. After each season, the bottom finishers of each Second Division zone are relegated to the Amateur Football League, and the winners of each Amateur Football League are eligible for promotion to the Second Division, subject to meeting Professional Football League requirements.

Seven of the Amateur Football League zones are using one-tier system. The rest (Moscow, Podmoskovye, and Siberia) consist of two divisions with promotion and relegation. This means that a newly created team can enter the Russian league system at the fourth level and reach the Premier League in three years.

There are also championships of federal subjects. These competitions that are not part of the league system; clubs can enter the Amateur Football League without participation in them.

3.3 Cup competitions in both the countries

The main cup competition in Russia is the Russian Cup. Only professional clubs take part in it.

There is also an Amateur Football League Cup, a competition for the Amateur Football League clubs. The winners of this cup are eligible for promotion to the Second Division.

Cups of federal subjects are also played.

The cup system in Great Britain is much richer. There are several cup competitions for clubs at different levels of the football pyramid. The two major cup competitions are the FA Cup and the Football League Cup, with the winners of those competitions qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.

- The FA Cup, first held in 1872, is the oldest and most respected national cup competition in the world. It is open to around 600 clubs in levels 1–11 of the football pyramid.

- The FA Community Shield is a single match played each August between the FA Cup winners and the Premier League champions.

- The Football League Cup (currently known as the Carling Cup) is England's second major cup competition, and is contested by the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs.

- The Football League Trophy is a competition for clubs in Football League One and Football League Two.

- The FA Trophy is for clubs playing in levels 5–8 of the football pyramid (steps 1–4 of the National League System), i.e. the twelve divisions of the Football Conference, the Southern Football League, the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League.^[13]

- The FA Vase is for clubs in levels 9–10 of the football pyramid (steps 5–6 of the National League System)^[13]

- The Conference League Cup is for clubs in level 5–6 i.e. the three divisions of the Football Conference. It was formed in 1979.

- The FA Inter-League Cup (NLS Cup) was formed in the 2003–04 to provide an English representative in the UEFA Regions' Cup. It is contested by representative sides from leagues at level 11 of the English football pyramid (level 7 of the National League System), which is roughly the county level, together with a few other leagues permitted by the FA. The first winner of the NLS Cup was the Mid Cheshire League, who beat the Cambridgeshire County League 2–0 in May 2004.

- A number of lower leagues organise their own cup competitions, such as the North West Counties Football League who run a League Cup and a Division One Trophy.

- Many County Football Associations organise their own cup competitions involving Premier League and Football League clubs as well as non-league clubs in some counties. Most league clubs tend to use reserve or youth teams whereas non-league clubs will use their first team. County cups include the Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup, which is the third oldest surviving cup competition in the world, the Lancashire Senior Cup which is competed for by Premier League and Football League clubs from the historic county of Lancashire, including Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic along with Blackpool, Burnley, Preston North End, Bury and Morecambe. The Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy is for senior non-league clubs in the same county. Everton, Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers enter the Liverpool Senior Cup using their reserve or youth teams, along with local Merseyside non-league clubs, such as Burscough and Marine. Other competitions include the London Senior Cup and the Middlesex Senior Cup.

- The FA Sunday Cup began in 1964 and is a national knockout competition for all Sunday league teams. The 2008 final was played at Anfield.^[14]

-The AFA Senior Cup is an amateur football competition organised by the Amateur Football Alliance and contested by the first teams of clubs affiliated to the Alliance.

- Although not an FA-affiliated contest, the Masters Football contest is a contest between former players and is refereed by former Premier League Referees

Conclusion

As we see the native land for football is Great Britain. That’s why this country has very strong team, strong football schools. The history of football playing from the ancient time is very reach. Great Britain was the champion of the World in the year 1966. And two times it won bronze in the championship of Europe (in 1968 and in 1996). Russia has never been the champion of the World in football. The best result was in the year 1966. The USSR took the 4^th place in the championship of the World and the 1^st place in the championship of Europe in the year 1960. In the championship of Europe it won bronze in the year 2008.

What about the history look it should be said that in the USSR football was one of the favorite games. And some players were strong and the country has some good results in the world. But with the creation of the other country, the Russian Federation, they have to build up a new team, new schools and to burst open. Today, football is the number one sport in Russia. A very high proportion of men are interested in it to a certain extent (and many children play it regularly) and women also join men when it comes to the national team.

The Russian league is rapidly regaining its former strength because of huge sponsorship deals, an influx of finances and a fairly high degree of competitiveness with roughly 10 teams capable of winning the title. Many notable talented foreign players have been and are playing in the Russian league as well as local talented players worthy of a spot in the starting eleven of the best clubs. The relegation battles are also competitive and considered very exciting.

I think that football in Russia develops not bad. Thus now the Russian Premier League are among the best in Eastern Europe, as evidenced by recent victories in the UEFA Cup (CSKA Moscow defeated Sporting CP in the 2005 final and Zenit St. Petersburg earned a victory over Rangers F.C. in the 2008 UEFA Cup in Manchester) and also claimed the UEFA Super Cup in a 2-1 win over Manchester United. On December 2nd, 2010, Russia was awarded the FIFA World Cup 2018. Russia will host the tournament for the first time.