England is home to the world's oldest association football club, the oldest national football governing body, the first national team. Today England's top domestic league, the 
Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world. During the early modern era students, former students and teachers at English public schools developed and wrote down the first codes of football. So one of the most surprising things about football in England is the great knowledge of the game which even the smallest schoolboy seems to have. He can tell you the name of players in most of the important teams. He has pictures of them and knows the results of large numbers of matches.