Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

that acts as an entity through which

association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

s organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as an independent unit or as part of a larger sports organization by which it carries a parent-subsidiary stakeholdership. The sport of association football allows teams that partake in some sort of club activity to participate in tournaments such as leagues and other competitions. Teams must register their players as well as staff and other personnel in order to be eligible to represent the club in any activity as it regards to association football competitions. In association football terminology, competitions are referred to as "club competitions". Supporters may also acquire membership rights within their club. Even sponsors may be accounted for as members of the club of affiliation. This is one of the reasons why the sport came to be called association football. The exact requirements for club licensing are regulated by FIFA and implemented on a national level within each national member association. The majority of association football clubs take part in a

league system A league system is a hierarchy of leagues in a sport. They are often called pyramids, due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions further down the system. League systems of some sort are used in many sports in ...

. These league systems are governed on a

continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continent, the major landmasses of Earth * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (a ...

level by the six regional FIFA confederations. Football clubs exist all over the world on amateur, semi-professional or professional levels of the game. They can be owned by members as well as business entities.

History

Football clubs have been in practice since the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

, with the existence of clubs dating back to the

1850s The 1850s (pronounced "eighteen-fifties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1850, and ended on December 31, 1859. It was a very turbulent decade, as wars such as the Crimean War, shifted and shook European poli ...

. During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various football games that were played in the public schools as well in the industrial north under the Sheffield Rules. Working class, industrial cities all over the U.K. began forming their own Football Associations in the late 1800s, from the Scottish Football Association in 1873 to Lancashire FA in 1878. Teams still in existence began popping up, some with the help of the Church; for example,

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

was founded in 1874,

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

in 1877,

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

in 1874 and Everton in 1878.

Professional football clubs

Due to the scope and popularity of the sport, professional football clubs carry a significant commercial existence, with fans expecting personal service and interactivity, and stakeholders viewing the field of professional football as a source of significant business advantages. For this reason, expensive player transfers have become an expectable part of the sport.

Awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An aw ...

are also handed out to

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

on a yearly basis for excellent performances. The designs, logos and names of professional football clubs are often licensed trademarks. The difference between a

and a (professional) football club is

incorporation Incorporation may refer to: * Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation * Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county * Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student having ...

, a football club is an entity which is formed and governed by a committee and has members which may consist of supporters in addition to players. A consequence of the FIFA rules and regulations for association football clubs is that players are not allowed to be owned by any other legal entities than the clubs themselves. This means that the involvement of external investors in the acquirement of players to the club must only involve the eventual transfer of the rights to the contract of the player in question, and not the contract itself. Contrast to other sports where regulations on player ownership generally are more loosely defined. There are several professional football clubs that are publicly traded. The English first division

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

is wholly owned by its 20 participating member clubs.

Markets

A professional football club is also a market entity as it offers a highly sought after product to an entertainment sector audience. It therefor acts as a market intermediator between its product (the football players) and its market (the supporters). In doing so, it fills a presence within a certain geographic area where football is a natural part of the culture. Football clubs may also expand their area of reach further from the local region of origin to whom they belong.

Youth systems

Many association football clubs will have either one or more

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

s connected to the organization, either as part of the club, or as an affiliate to the club. The more prestigious football clubs often have a combination of their own youth academies, as well as external sources of talent (pools) through affiliated clubs as well as the arrangement of youth tournaments.

Stadiums

Association football clubs typically have their own home ground, where they play their home games, which normally make up about half of fixtures for a given season. The home ground can either be owned by the club itself or by some other entity like a business, city or district. Clubs are often the sole

event organiser Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of small and/or large-scale personal or corporate events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. ...

s of their home games.

References

External links

FIFA Club Licensing