Why do no football teams use London in their name? Quirk of England's capital city soccer clubs explained

Team sports often include the names of the towns and cities in which they're based in order to maximise local support and honour their heritage. Football, for the most part, is no different.

Some of the world's major cities are prominent in the official titles of their football clubs. Paris Saint-Germain are the most famous team from France; Bayern Munich are serial winners of the German Bundesliga. Manchester boasts United and City, Madrid has Real and Atletico, and Milan has Inter and AC.

Then there are those clubs who use the city name as their team name. Liverpool, Barcelona, Porto, Copenhagen, Roma, Napoli, Sevilla, Marseille — sporting success and local pride run right through the heart of these famous old sides.

Modern football was founded in 1863 in London, England. Wembley Stadium is often referred to as 'The Home of Football'. There are seven Premier League teams in the 2023/24 season from London, and a further 10 clubs in the top five divisions of English football. And yet, not one of them uses the word 'London' in their team name.

Why is that?

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While there is no cast-iron rule that says London clubs can't use the name of the city, the reason they don't is largely local pride. Essentially, each club is representative of — and has an historic attachment to — the region of London in which they were founded, rather than the wider city.

As the capital of England, London was the heart of the sprawling British Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries: a vast, bustling city with a dense population. While there are many more populous cities around the globe today, London is still home to more than nine million people, a figure behind only Paris (~10.9 million) and Moscow