The British are proud that many sports originated in their country. These sports are football, golf, cricket, table tennis, lawn tennis and darts.

The most popular sport in Britain is football. Football was invented in Great Britain in the 19th century. At present, the official name of the game is Association football, after the name of their British Football Association, which established the modern football rules. Association football is also called soccer or socker: from (as)soc(iation)+cer. Another kind of football is rugby football or rugger, named after the Rugby public school for boys in the town of Rugby, where it originated.

There are many football clubs in the UK, such as Rangers, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Celtic.

The other popular games are golf, cricket and steeplechase. The steeplechase is crosscountry running and it is very popular in the UK, too.

The British people like racing, such as horse-racing, motor-car racing, boat-racing, dog-racing and donkey-racing. The most famous boat race in England is between the teams of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Thousands of people come to watch it on the river Thames.

There are several places in Britain associated with a particular kind of sports.

The Derby Stakes (also the Derby or the Epsom Derby) is a horse race in Great Britain, that takes

place each year in early June at the town of Epsom near London. The competition is named after the Earl of Derby, its founder in 1780.

Tennis is played in exclusive tennis clubs or on public tennis courts. People all over the world know Wimbledon (a suburb of London) as the centre of lawn tennis since 1877.

The new Wembley Stadium in London is the most expensive stadium ever built, costing £793 mln, where international football matches, the Cup Finals and other events have taken place since 1923.