County football association
The county football associations are the local governing bodies of association football in England and the Crown dependencies. County FAs exist to govern all aspects of football in England. They are responsible for administering club and player registration as well as promoting development amongst those bodies and referees.
Most of the county FAs align roughly along historic county boundaries, although some cover more than one county, and some of the major cities, particularly those with a strong football tradition, have their own FAs. The Sheffield FA was the first to be created, in 1867. Several institutions have county FA status in their own right, including Cambridge and Oxford universities, the armed forces, and the Amateur Football Alliance, which has a strong presence in the south-east of England.
County football associations host 'county cups' – knockout cup competitions held at a sub-regional level, which are open to all affiliated members of the county FA. Typically, county FAs will host county cup competitions at the following levels: senior, intermediate, junior, women's, veterans, senior Sunday football, intermediate Sunday football and junior Sunday football.
The county football associations, along with their fellow associations from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland ran the Tesco Cup, a tournament for players under 16, from 2005 to 2011.
List of county FAs
Association | Founded | Main county cup |
Amateur Football Alliance | 1907 | AFA Senior Cup |
Army | 1888 | Army FA Challenge Cup |
Bedfordshire | 1894 | Bedfordshire Senior Cup |
Berks & Bucks | 1878 | Berks & Bucks Senior Cup |
Birmingham | 1875 | Birmingham Senior Cup |
Cambridgeshire | 1884 | Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup |
Cheshire | 1878 | Cheshire Senior Cup |
Cornwall | 1889 | Cornwall Senior Cup |
Cumberland | 1885 | Cumberland Senior Cup |
Derbyshire | 1883 | Derbyshire Senior Cup |
Devon | 1887 | Devon St Lukes Challenge Cup |
Dorset | 1887 | Dorset Senior Cup |
Durham | 1883 | Durham Challenge Cup |
East Riding | 1903 | East Riding Senior Cup |
English Schools | 1904 | |
Essex | 1882 | Essex Senior Cup |
Gloucestershire | 1886 | Gloucestershire Senior Cup |
Guernsey | 1894 | Guernsey FA Cup |
Hampshire | 1887 | Hampshire Senior Cup |
Herefordshire | 1893 | Herefordshire Senior Cup |
Hertfordshire | 1886 | Herts Senior Cup |
Huntingdonshire | 1886 | Huntingdonshire Senior Cup |
Isle of Man | 1890 | Isle of Man FA Cup |
Jersey | 1905 | Le Riche Cup |
Kent | 1881 | Kent Senior Cup |
Lancashire | 1878 | Lancashire Senior Cup |
Leicestershire & Rutland | 1887 | Leicestershire and Rutland Senior Cup |
Lincolnshire | 1881 | Lincolnshire Senior Cup |
Liverpool | 1882 | Liverpool Senior Cup |
London | 1882 | London Senior Cup |
Manchester | 1884 | Manchester Senior Cup |
Middlesex | 1883 | Middlesex Senior Cup |
Norfolk | 1881 | Norfolk Senior Cup |
North Riding | 1881 | North Riding Senior Cup |
Northamptonshire | 1887 | Northamptonshire Senior Cup |
Northumberland | 1882 | Northumberland Senior Cup |
Nottinghamshire | 1882 | Nottinghamshire Senior Cup |
Oxfordshire | 1884 | Oxfordshire Senior Cup |
Royal Air Force | 1920 | Royal Air Force FA Cup |
Royal Navy | 1904 | Royal Navy FA Cup |
Sheffield and Hallamshire | 1867 | Sheffield and Hallamshire Senior Cup |
Shropshire | 1877 | Shropshire Senior Cup |
Somerset | 1885 | Somerset Premier Cup |
Staffordshire | 1887 | Staffordshire Senior Cup |
Suffolk | 1885 | Suffolk Senior Cup |
Surrey | 1877 | Surrey Senior Cup |
Sussex | 1882 | Sussex Senior Challenge Cup |
Westmorland | 1897 | Westmorland Senior Challenge Cup |
West Riding | 1896 | West Riding County Cup |
Wiltshire | 1886 | Wiltshire County FA Senior Cup |
Worcestershire | 1893 | Worcestershire Senior Cup |