Association football is a national sport in England and plays a significant role in English culture. England has no recognised national sport

Terminology

The sport is almost always referred to simply as "football". It is unusual for it to be called "soccer" and it is only referred to as "association football" in very limited circumstances. Any unqualified reference to football in an English context should be read as a reference to association football rather than to any other member of the football family of sports. The only other members of this family played to any great extent in England belong to the rugby football sub-family, and are usually referred to as rugby. The title and remainder of this article refers to football in its English sense.