Most Popular Sports in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is notable for the diversity of its sporting interest. Sports play an important role in promoting integration and in nurturing talents in the country. The country has given birth to several major international sports such as football, rugby, cricket, golf, tennis, and track and field among others. Sport is a major source of entertainment in the UK with thousands of spectators filling stadiums and arenas to cheer on their favorite teams. Sports are also major sources of revenue in the UK for players, government, and investors. Here are some of the most popular sports in the UK.





Sports include not only physical competitiveness but also provide entertainment both to the players and audience. Similar to different culture and traditions, different countries share different sports too. We all know that the United Kingdom is a well recognized and urbanized country, here are the top 10 most played sports in the United Kingdom.





Sports participation in the United Kingdom is gradually on the decline in past 5 years, even the 2012 Olympics could not help increase the numbers as the BBC revealed in 2014. Today we take a look at 10 of the most popular sports across England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland was also known as the United Kingdom. There is no surprise as Football is by far the most popular among major sports which are followed by Rugby Union and Rugby League (the two version of the kind of same sport) closely followed by Cricket. But the most the sports people in the UK played or participated the most are two of the leading Olympics sports of Swimming and Athletics. So let's get down to number game and remember these figures are combined number of two years 2013 and 2014.

Most Popular Sports in the United Kingdom

Cricket in the United Kingdom: Cricket is England’s national sport although the country itself does not have its own team. Instead, it fields a team jointly with Wales. Cricket was first embedded in the UK before spreading to the rest of the countries. There are 18 professional cricket clubs in the UK with the majority in England. The clubs compete in first-class County Championship each summer. The championship consists of two leagues in which matches are played over four days. Although Scotland and Ireland have their own cricket teams, the game is not as popular in the two countries as it is in England and Wales.Cricket is the national game of the U.K. 


Cricket in fact first embedded in the UK, and now it extends to numbers of countries in all over the world. More than 20 cricket club can be found in the UK and also thousands of cricket teams in the country. The oldest cricket championship in the world is the first class country championship of UK and many teams play in this first-class championship every year.




Football in the United Kingdom: Football is one of the most popular games in the U.K.  Following the traditional league system, this consists of more than hundred teams. On the other hand, the famous premier league consisting most elite 20 teams chosen from all over U.K. Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are the U.K. most prominent teams of this league.


Rugby in the United Kingdom: In early times, only the elite class people played Rugby but it improved its popularity through time that it was played by many people in the U.K. too.  Like football, rugby is also sponsored by the Government of U.K. and is handled by the Rugby Football League, generally known as RFL. This game is now known and played all over the country. Yorkshire, North West England and Cumbria are some of the places where the sport is well-liked.


Badminton in the United Kingdom: In the year 1893, The Badminton Association of England was established. Badminton is also known as the most popular for racket games. Badminton was reflected on as a long heritage in U.K. the association grew progressively and now it is identified as Badminton England. This founding member of the international badminton federation is also accountable for giving support 41 countries of England.




Tennis in the United Kingdom: Wimbledon, also known as the most popular Tennis tournament originated in the U.K.  Around 1877, the first tennis club originated at a small club in the south of London.  Tennis can trace its early roots back to Birmingham, England. The most prestigious tennis event in the UK (and the world!) is the Wimbledon Championship. The championship is one of the four grand slams with others being the French, the US, and the Australian Open tennis tournament. Although tennis is an individual sport, it’s the third most popular sport in the UK attracting sports lovers, tourists, and critics worldwide. Tennis in the UK is governed by Lawn Tennis Association. The body invests most of the profits from the tournaments in the game with the hope of producing world champions. The UK has produced some of the finest tennis players in the history of the game including Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, and Murray.

Swimming in the United Kingdom: Swimming is one of the largest sports in England by participation. It is even larger than athletics according to Sports England (2014). Young people are fond and fanatical about swimming with the majority taking part in several swimming events just for fun. British Swimming, an umbrella body formed by swimming organization in different countries of the UK, is responsible for managing and promoting the sport in the UK. TYoung people in the country are very fond and fanatical of this sport. They train and exercise many swimming tricks. If you pay a visit to U.K. you will definitely witness a different kind of swimming that includes acrobatic stunts in pools. British Olympic Association and British Paralympics’ Association organize different international swimming competition in Great Britain every year.


Athletics in the United Kingdom: England has the most numbers of athletes than any other country. The large squad of U.K. athletes, which consist of world and Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and world champion Keri-Anne Payne.  Not many years ago U.K Sport support services, determined to provide athletes the edge and more support at London.






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Mukesh Rajput

Mukesh Rajput

I am a Computer Engineer, a small amount of the programming tips as it’s my hobby, I love to travel and meet people so little about travel, a fashion lover and love to eat food, I am investing a good time to keep the body fit so little about fitness also..

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