FA Cup

The FA Cup is an annual knockout cup competition in English football; first held in 1871–72, it is the oldest association football competition in the world. It is organised by and named after the Football Association, its official name being The Football Association Challenge Cup. For sponsorship reasons, from 2015 through to 2018 it is also known as The Emirates FA Cup. A concurrent women's tournament is also held, known as the FA Women's Cup.

The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 of the English football league system, i.e. all 92 professional clubs (the Premier League and the three levels of the The Football League), as well as several hundred "non-league" teams in Steps 1 to 6 of the National League System. A record 763 clubs competed in 2011–12. The tournament is unseeded, although a system of byes based on league level ensures most competitors enter at progressively later stages. Played over 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and final, the first six rounds are the Qualifying Competition, followed by six rounds of the Competition Proper, where 32 qualifiers meet professional sides for the first time.

Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London, England, which opened in 2007, on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002–2003. The stadium hosts major football matches including the FA Cup Final and home matches of the England national football team.

Wembley Stadium is a UEFA category four stadium. With 90,000 seats, it is the second-largest stadium in Europe and the largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is owned by The Football Association through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL).

Designed by HOK Sport and Foster and Partners, it includes a partially retractable roof and the 134-metre-high (440 ft) Wembley Arch. The stadium was built by Australian firm Multiplex at a cost of £798 million.

In addition to the FA Cup Final, the stadium hosts the season-opening FA Community Shield, the League Cup Final, the Football League Trophy and the Football League play-offs. It hosted the 2011 and 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, the Gold medal matches at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament, and will host both the semi-finals and final of UEFA Euro 2020. The stadium also hosts the rugby league Challenge Cup Final, the NFL International Series and music concerts.

Football Manager

Football Manager is a series of football management simulation games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager. However, following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publishers Sega. The latest version of Football Manager was released on 13th November 2015.

Main series

Football Manager 2005

On 12 February 2004, after splitting from publishers Eidos Interactive, it was announced that Sports Interactive, developers of the Championship Manager game, had retained the rights to the source code but not the rights to the title Championship Manager, which were held onto by Eidos (who previously acquired the brand rights from Domark upon their merger in 1995). These developments led to a further announcement that future Sports Interactive football management games would be released under the famous Football Manager brand name. Whilst the Championship Manager series would go on, Eidos no longer had any source code, or, indeed a developer for Championship Manager.

FA WSL

The Football Association Women's Super League (FA WSL) is the highest league of women's football in England. The league consists of two divisions, the WSL 1 and the WSL 2. It is run by the Football Association and began in April 2011. An initial eight teams competed in one division, which replaced the FA Women's Premier League as the highest level of women's football in England. The FA WSL 2, introduced in 2014, added a second division and a further 10 teams to the league. There is promotion and relegation between the two divisions, and planned promotion for 2016 from the FA Women's Premier League (level 3), which continues to play a winter season. WSL seasons run from April until October. The WSL champions and runners-up qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League the following season. The current champions are Chelsea. The bottom team of the WSL 1 at the end of each season will be replaced by the WSL 2 champion in the next season; however for the 2015 and 2016 seasons both the WSL 2 champions and runners-up will be promoted as part of the league's planned expansion.

Football

Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called 'football' in certain places include: association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football (either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football. These different variations of football are known as football codes.

Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century. The expanse of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world.