Manchester United became the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968, ten years after eight players tragically died in the Munich plane tragedy. By winning the Europa League in 2017, the team has completed the whole set of European titles.
English teams have been successful in continental competitions, with five FA Cups and two World Club Championships to their name. However, it is Manchester United who are considered the first true European powerhouse, having won the UEFA Champions League a record breaking nine times before Bayer Leverkusen's victory in 2016.
Other notable English clubs include the current holders Liverpool, who have won the UEFA Champions League twice; Arsenal, who have won the FA Cup once; and Tottenham Hotspur, who have won the Europa League twice.
The earliest evidence of a football club in England is around 1872, when Oxford University played Cambridge University using a "ball" that can be seen in the British Museum. The game was an annual event, but there is no evidence that it was ever officially sanctioned by the university authorities. Instead, it seems more likely that this sport-like activity created the groundwork for modern football. It is known as "Oxford vs. Cambridge" because both universities used this game to select new students -- it is believed to be the ancestor of today's varsity match.
In 1873, the Football Association was founded in London.
Manchester United is the only English club to have won the Intercontinental Cup, and only United and Liverpool have won the Club World Cup. The FA Cup, England's first competition organized by a national organisation, began in the 1871-72 season, making it one of the world's oldest football events.
Five different English clubs have won the Europa League or the Uefa Cup since the competition's start in 1970. Arsenal and Chelsea will square off in a strange London derby this week as they compete for the Uefa Europa League title in Wednesday's final in Baku.
It is the first time since 2009 that four English clubs have reached the final eight, emulating Manchester United's record a year earlier. This year, United is joined in the quarter-finals by Manchester City, Liverpool, and Tottenham, with Ajax, Porto, Barcelona, and Juventus rounding out the field.
The last time four English teams were in the Champions League was 2009 - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United. That season ended with Chelsea beating A.C. Milan on penalties after playing 120 minutes of extra time without scoring. The match went to penalties because neither team could be scored upon during regulation time; however, it was Liverpool who won on penalties after their first three attempts failed to yield a score.
This year's Champions League final will be held at Wembley Stadium in London on June 1. It will be a rematch of last year's UEFA Europa League final, which Barcelona won 2-1 over Atletico Madrid.
For Arsenal, it will be their third straight European final; they lost 1-7 to Inter Milan in the 1994 Champions League final before winning the 1995 Cup Winners' Cup title against Sevilla 3-2 on penalty kicks. For Chelsea, it will be their second straight European final; they also lost 2-4 to Bayern Munich in Moscow in 1996.
Liverpool won the European Cup/Champions League five times in six seasons from 1977/78 to 1982/83.
In 1970, Manchester City won both the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup in the same season, making them only the second English club (Leeds United was the first in 1968) to achieve a domestic cup and a European cup double in the same year, and the first English club to do so within the same season.
Since the league's inception in 1992, six different teams have won it: Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, and Leicester City. Manchester United has enjoyed the greatest success, with 13 trophies in 25 seasons.
Manchester City is a Manchester-based English professional association football team that presently competes in the Premier League.
In 1970, Manchester City won both the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup in the same season, making them only the second English club (Leeds United was the first in 1968) to achieve a domestic cup and a European cup double in the same year, and the first English club to do so within the same season.
Inaugural European championship Manchester United won the 1966-67 Football League title by four points with a game to spare against Nottingham Forest, securing their second European Cup berth in three seasons (1967-68). They went on to beat Benfica 5-3 on aggregate in the final.
They are the only team to have won the English league title and European Cup/Champions League in the same year.
This feat has been achieved twice before: by Liverpool in 1995 and by Chelsea in 2012.
Manchester United's victory was particularly satisfying as it came just three months after they were declared bankrupt. The club had been purchased by the American entrepreneur Edward Woodward (nephew of Malcolm) and John Magnier (former partner of the Texan oil family), but despite this, manager Tommy Docherty was sacked two weeks before the start of the season and replaced by former England manager Bobby Robson. Under his management, they overcame the odds to claim what many consider to be one of the greatest victories in European football history.
They played Portugal's Benfica in the final and won both games out of three on aggregate to claim their first ever European crown. It was also the first time that an English team had won the competition since its inception in 1955.
1904 Manchester City joined the Football League in 1892 and won their first major trophy in 1904, the FA Cup. Under the direction of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison, the club experienced its first big era of success in the late 1960s, winning the league, the European Cup Winners' Cup, the FA Cup, and the League Cup. In 1968–69, they became the first team to retain the English title after being promoted the previous season. In 1992, City again retained the title, this time having been relegated the previous season.
City have been FA Cup winners twice more since 1969, in 1999 and 2010. They also made an immediate return by winning the League Cup that same year.
Overall, City have won the FA Cup nine times - a record that has never been matched - most recently in 2014 when they beat Southampton 1-0 at Wembley Stadium. The club have appeared in every final since they were founded in 1880 and will be looking to go one step further than ever before by winning their third League Cup this season. That would give them three trophies each for Lord Ashcroft (who owned the club at the time), then Charles Wreford-Brown (the club's chairman from 1905 to 1910) and now Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Mercer's side went on to win the double that season, their tenth league championship in 1911–12.
1955/6 Hibernian were the first British club to enter European play in 1955/6 (the next year, Matt Busby would follow Hibs' lead with Manchester United as the first English team into Europe), and they had graced the Maracana Stadium in Brazil three years before that. English teams have been playing in Europe for nearly half a century now.
There are several reasons why England has not joined the European Union. One of them is its reluctance to give up its imperial interests outside of Europe. Another is its fear of losing its cricketing ties with Australia and India. The third is its concern over immigration into Europe. The last reason is probably the most important one - money. Britain cannot afford to be part of the EU budget if it wants to keep its sports facilities open.
In fact, only five countries in Europe can afford to buy in international competitions - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Even though England is not quite as rich as some other nations, it's still one of the biggest economies in Europe and therefore has enough cash to spare. But most national teams in Europe are funded by their respective governments or large corporations, so if England joined the EU then the government would have to stop funding other sports like tennis or rugby or there would be no more British men's or women's singles titles in tennis or rugby.
There are two ways around this problem.