Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

is home to several high-profile

sports clubs 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 ...

. These include two notable

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

clubs in the shape of

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

which, along with

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, is one of only two clubs in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to have won consecutive

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

s and

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

which is the oldest professional football club in the world.

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called th ...

is a top level county cricket club, whilst both the

National Ice Centre The National Ice Centre (NIC) is located in Nottingham, England. It is situated just east of the city centre, close to the historic Lace Market area. The NIC was the first twin Olympic-sized (60m x 30m) ice pad facility in the UK, "heralding ...

and the National Watersports Centre are also located in the city.

Football

Nottingham Forest F.C.

are currently members of the English Premier League (the top tier of English football). They are best remembered for their success under

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

, who was manager from 1975 to 1993 and guided them to a

title, two European Cups and four League Cups. The club has been based at the

City Ground The City Ground is a association football, football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,455. ...

, which stands in

West Bridgford West Bridgford () is a town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Rushcliffe, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies south of Nottingham city centre, east of Wilford, north of Ruddington and west of Radcliffe-on-Trent ...

on the banks of the

River Trent The Trent is the third Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands ...

, for over a century.

Notts County F.C.

, who play at

Meadow Lane Meadow Lane is a football (soccer), football stadium in Nottingham, England. It is the home ground of Notts County F.C., Notts County, who have played there since it opened in 1910. The stadium was also home to Notts County Ladies F.C. from 201 ...

stadium on the opposite side of the River Trent to Nottingham Forest, is the oldest professional Football League team in the world, having been founded in 1862 – a year before the establishment of the Football Association. They were founder members of the

in 1888 and won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 1894, but have spent most of their history outside the top flight of English football, the most recent spell ending in 1992 after just one season. The club's most notable manager was

Jimmy Sirrel James Sirrel (2 February 1922 – 25 September 2008) was a Scottish football player and manager. Born in Glasgow, Sirrel began his career with Celtic before moving to England, spending most of his playing career with Brighton & Hove Albion. ...

who oversaw the elevation of Notts County from Division Four strugglers to an established Division Two side.

2018 FIFA World Cup

In December 2009,

was selected by the FA as a candidate host city in England's 2018 FIFA World Cup Bid. If the English bid had been successful, a new stadium would have been built, exceeding

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

's 40,000 capacity requirement. The bid was unsuccessful, Russia was selected as the host of the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

Cricket

Trent Bridge Cricket Ground

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

ground, located across the river in

Rushcliffe Rushcliffe is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south Nottinghamshire, England. Its council is based in West Bridgford. The borough also includes the towns of Bingh ...

, is the home of

, who were winners of the 2005 County Championship and runners-up in the 2006

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

cup competition. Trent Bridge is a major venue for international

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

matches, and also hosts other important cricketing events such as the Twenty20 cup finals and regular One Day International games. The ground, which has won architectural awards for the design of some of its newer stands, also houses a cricket academy, a hotel, and a gym, and also uniquely features not one, but two public houses built within the ground itself, most famously the world-renowned Trent Bridge Inn.

National Ice Centre

The

consists of two ice rinks, one of which is olympic-sized; the city's links to ice skating can be traced back to arguably its most famous children of recent times, Olympic

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

champions

Jayne Torvill Jayne Torvill, OBE (born 7 October 1957) is a British professional ice dancer and former competitor. She and her partner Christopher Dean are considered amongst the greatest ice dancers of all time. The pair won a gold medal at the 1984 Wint ...

and

Christopher Dean Christopher Colin Dean, OBE (born 27 July 1958) is a British ice dancer considered, with his skating partner Jayne Torvill, amongst the greatest ice dancers of all time. The pair won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal ...

who collected a unanimous 6.0 score at the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

. The NIC is used as a training and competition venue for

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

sledge hockey Sledge hockey, also known as Sled hockey in American English, and Para ice hockey in international competition, is an Parasports, adaptation of ice hockey for players who have a physical disability. The sport was invented in the early 1960s at a ...

and

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

and receives an annual grant from bodies such as

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

to maintain and fund these sports. The NIC is the home of the

Nottingham Panthers The Nottingham Panthers are a British professional ice hockey club based in Nottingham, England. They are members of the Elite Ice Hockey League. RHPS are the Panthers' major sponsor for 2024–25. The Nottingham Panthers have won four league ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team, founded in 1946. The team are currently managed by Canadian Danny Stewart who coached Newcastle Vipers, Fife Flyers and Coventry blaze. In April 2025 it was announced that Stewart would remain as Panthers head coach for the 2025/2026 season. There is a thriving junior ice hockey programme which is also based at the centre. Since 2001, Nottingham has been the host city of the annual ice hockey Play-off Championship Finals weekend, which attracts fans from many different parts of the country. Also calling the NIC home is the Nottingham North Stars recreational ice hockey team. Founded in 1989 North Stars are one of the oldest recreational clubs in the country.

Rugby Union

The city's

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

side, Nottingham Rugby are currently members of the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when Eng ...

(the second tier of rugby union in England). In January 2015 they moved back to Lady Bay Sports Ground from

Rugby League

Nottingham is home to the Nottingham Outlaws RLFC who were recently added to the National conference league which is the fourth tier of English rugby league. They train regularly throughout the summer at Lady Bay (also known as 'the Bay') and have a number of junior teams.

Boxing

Nottingham is the home town of two time former WBC Supermiddleweight Champion and current Unified WBA And IBF Supermiddleweight World Champion Carl "the Cobra" Froch. A fan of Nottingham Forest, Froch will often attend games at the City Ground, walking out onto the pitch after he has won a fight.

Hockey

Beeston Hockey Club Beeston Hockey Club is a field hockey club based in Beeston, England. The club was founded in 1907, and plays its home games at the Nottingham Hockey Centre in Nottingham. Beeston is nicknamed ''the Bees''. The men's 1st XI plays in the Men's ...

is based at Nottingham Hockey Centre.

Tennis

There is a large tennis centre, where the annual

Nottingham Open The Nottingham Open, known as the Lexus Nottingham Open (originally known as the Nottingham Championships or Nottingham Lawn Tennis Tournament (1887–1967)), is a tennis tournament for men and women held in Nottingham, United Kingdom, played ...

was held in the weeks immediately prior to

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

until 2008 and has been used as warm-up practice by various tennis stars. After 2008 the tournament was replaced with the less important Aegon Nottingham Challenge.

Squash

Nottingham Squash Rackets Club can trace its roots back to 1909 - when it was formed in The Park, Nottingham. The club was significantly extended in 2000 - when 10 courts were created - 6 of which are glass back. The club has over 500 members and has a team in the Professional Squash League. Since 2013/14 the team have been sponsored by Air-IT and narrowly missed out on the play-offs in that season. The club will host the European Club Championships between 3–6 September 2014. The current club Chairman is Tim Garratt FRICS. The club announced a new manager to start from 1 August 2014 - Stuart Harding. Fantasy Squash operate an office and fully stocked shop out of the club.

National Watersports Centre

The National Water Sports Centre is based at

Holme Pierrepont Holme Pierrepont is a hamlet and civil parish located south-east of the city of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It is in the Gamston ward of the Rushcliffe local authority in the East Midlands region. The population of the civil parish ...

, with a 2000-metre

regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wa ...

lake for

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

and sailing, and a white water slalom canoe course fed from the river. A number of other sailing, rowing and canoeing clubs are also based along the River Trent, as is the boatbuilder Raymond Sims. The centre hosted the 1981 ICF Canoe Sprint and

1995 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships The 1995 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships were held in Nottingham, United Kingdom under the auspices of International Canoe Federation at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre. It was the 24th edition. Nottingham became the first ci ...

and was the training base for the highly successful

Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association Nottinghamshire County Rowing Association abbreviated NCRA is a rowing club based at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, England. History The club was formed in 1981 by a small group of elite rowers from the Trent ...

Robin Hood Marathon

Every year since 1981 Nottingham has played host to the 'Robin Hood Marathon' taking in many of the city's historic and scenic sights. The race is run alongside a

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

and a

fun run A fun run is a friendly race that involves either road running or cross country running with participants taking part for their own enjoyment rather than competition. A fun run will usually be held to raise funds for a charity, with sponsors prov ...

among other events. The 2009 event took place on Sunday 13 September.

Motorsport

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

racing was staged in Nottingham before the Second World War.Dalling, Philip (2007) ''Nottingham and Long Eaton Speedway'', Stadia, , p. 13–40, 49–65, 77–112 The original venue known as Olympic Speedway was redeveloped by the building of the White City stadium which also featured speedway. A book by Philip Dalling, published by Tempus Publishing, chronicles speedway events in Nottingham. In 1979 and 1980, the team based at

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has been part ...

raced under the name Nottingham Outlaws. *The city hosted the

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cal ...

in 1985 and 1989.

Other

*Nottingham is also home to the American football team

Nottingham Caesars The Nottingham Caesars are an American football team based in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, who operate in the BAFA National Leagues NFC South 1, the second level of British American football. They are based at the David Ross Sports ...

, who have recently been promoted to British American Football League ( BAFL) First Division. In 2009, they started a youth kitted team which is currently an associate member of the BAFL Youth League. *Nottingham also has four

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leaguesA Roller Derby league is synonymous with an individual club or team in other team sports, as ...

teams: Nottingham Roller Girls and Hellfire Harlots (women's teams), Super Smash Brollers (men's team) and Nottingham Outlaws "www.facebook.com/nottinghamoutlaws/" (men's team). *Nottingham is also a place where the

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The larg ...

has come in 2012. *

Nottingham Leander Swimming Club Nottingham Leander Swimming Club is a volunteer-run competitive swimming club in Nottingham. They have been accredited with the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) as a swim21 club. These kitemarks indicate that the club provide a safe sporting ...

is the largest swimming and water polo club in Nottingham. Their goal is to promote and take part in competitive swimming and water polo. All Club teaching/coaching processes are devised with this aim in mind and all swimmers are taught the correct techniques to achieve maximum potential. In due course, it is expected that members achieving the necessary standards will swim for the Club teams in appropriate events. *Nottingham also possesses two boat clubs, the

Nottingham Rowing Club Nottingham Rowing Club is a rowing club in West Bridgford, Nottingham, England. History The club was formed in 2006 as a merger of the Nottingham Boat Club and the Nottingham Britannia Rowing Club, two historic rowing clubs that were establ ...

and the Nottingham and Union Rowing Club, both located on the banks of the river Trent adjacent to the

Notes

{{Nottingham Nottingham