The 2004–05 season was the 125th season of competitive football in England.

England began their qualifying campaign for the Football World Cup 2006. They played alongside UK neighbours Wales and Northern Ireland in the European Group 6.

* England score given first

Chelsea lost just one Premiership game all season (to Manchester City) and set a top flight record of 29 wins and 95 points, opening up a 12-point gap over runners-up and F.A Cup winners Arsenal (unbeaten league champions a year earlier) and finishing 18 points ahead of third-placed Manchester United. Everton, who had narrowly avoided relegation a year earlier, surprised all the observers by clinching the fourth Champions League place (even more remarkable considering they lost striker Wayne Rooney to Manchester United at the end of August), while Liverpool's European Cup triumph (the fifth of their history) meant that England would have five sides entering the continent's leading club competition for the 2005–06 season – a first for the competition.

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.