The beautiful game’s global domination

ENGLAND’S Football Association (FA) celebrates 150 years since "the laws of the game" were agreed upon by a dozen clubs and schools at the Freemasons' Tavern in London in October 1863. Since then the game has spread across the globe, becoming the most popular sport, with over 250m players, from international superstars to children using jumpers for goalposts. Since the "laws" were promulgated, 209 countries and territories have formed national associations. Yet a saturation point was reached in the 1990s; since then only the newly formed countries of Timor-Leste and South Sudan have added associations. Greenland's FA hopes its artificial pitches will allow it to join FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, itself founded in 1904) in the near future.

Football remains an obsession in the home nations of the United Kingdom, yet this enthusiasm has not been reflected in results on the international stage in recent decades. England leads the way for the number of clubs, with more than 42,000 under the FA's jurisdiction—over 10,000 more than second-placed Brazil. Scotland has three times as many registered clubs as China. Approximately 26,000 of the world's clubs have at least one women's team.