World Football Day Date in the current year: May 25, 2025

Association football, commonly known as soccer or football, is the most popular sport in the world. Although its rules were formalized less than 200 years ago, football’s roots go back much further: ball games have been known since the Middle Ages.

The first school in England to have evidence of organized football is Eton College, which had football pitches in 1766. Other English public schools that played football in the first half of the 19th century included Charterhouse School, Rugby School, Harrow School, Westminster School, Winchester College, and others. Each school played football according to its own rules; the first school to codify its football rules was Rugby School in 1845.

On October 26, 1863, representatives of eleven London football clubs and schools met to agree on common rules and formed the Football Association. This date is considered the birth of modern association football. Around the same time, football began to spread from the United Kingdom to continental Europe and the Americas.

The first Football Association Challenge Cup (FA Cup) was played from November 1871 to March 1872, making it the oldest association football competition in the world. The first international football match was played between England and Scotland on November 30, 1872, and the world’s first football league, the English Football League (EFL), was established in 1888. Finally, the international governing body of football, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), was founded on May 21, 1904.

Today, football has immense global significance as a unifying cultural force that transcends national, ethnic and social boundaries. It is the most widely played and watched sport in the world, fostering community identity, national pride and international cooperation. Major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup serve not only as sporting events, but also as platforms for diplomacy, economic activity and cultural exchange. The accessibility of the sport, which requires minimal equipment, allows people from all backgrounds to participate, making it a powerful tool for social development, peace-building and global engagement.

The United Nations General Assembly designated May 25 as World Football Day in a resolution adopted on May 7, 2024. The date was chosen to commemorate the opening of the football tournament at the 1924 Summer Olympics, which was the first official open FIFA World Championship in history. The main objective of World Football Day is to recognize the global reach of football and its impact in various areas, including diplomacy, peace, sustainable development and the empowerment of women and girls.

In addition to World Football Day, some countries and regions have their own holidays dedicated to the sport. For example, South American Football Day is celebrated on June 9 to commemorate the day when Uruguay defeated Switzerland to win the football tournament at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Ukrainian Football Day, April 29, commemorates the first match of the Ukrainian national football team. And Kazakh Football Day (April 25) commemorates the day the country’s football federation became a full member of UEFA.