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The Six Nations Championship is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is also the oldest sports tournament ever between Home Nations. The championship holders are Ireland, who won the 2024 tournament.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2), with an estimated population of nearly 67.6 million people in 2022.
The administrative geography of the United Kingdom is complex, multi-layered and non-uniform. The United Kingdom, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe, consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For local government in the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own system of administrative and geographic demarcation. Consequently, there is "no common stratum of administrative unit encompassing the United Kingdom".
The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Football League.
Home Nations is a collective term in sport. It usually refers to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. When a sport is governed by a council representing the island of Ireland, such as the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the term can refer to the nations of the constituent countries on the island of Great Britain and the island of Ireland as a whole.
Sport popularity in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations were heavily involved in setting out the formal rules of many sports and formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After 1922, some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland, though many continued to be organised on an all-Ireland basis. For this reason, in many though not all sports, most domestic and international sport is carried on a Home Nations basis, and England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are recognised as national entities. This is in contrast to the majority of other states that participate in international sports which field a single national team to represent the entire polity.
The United Kingdom national football team are a football team that represents the United Kingdom. Despite football being the most popular sport in the country, the team has not played since 1965 as separate teams represent each home nation in all major international football tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, as well as various friendlies. It is the home nations which are FIFA affiliated and not the United Kingdom as a whole.
The terminology of the British Isles comprises the words and phrases that are used to describe the geographical and political areas of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the smaller islands which surround them. The terms are often a source of confusion, partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used but also because they are often used loosely. Many of the words carry geographical and political connotations which are affected by the history of the islands. The inclusion of Ireland in the geographical definition of British Isles is debated. Ordnance Survey Ireland does not use the term.
Paddle UK is a national governing body for canoeing and other paddlesports, such as Standup paddleboarding in the United Kingdom. Established in 1936 as the British Canoe Union, in 2000 it federalised to become the umbrella organisation for the home nation associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 2015 it took on the name British Canoeing and amalgamated the former BCU, Canoe England and GB Canoeing. In March 2024, British Canoeing changed their name to Paddle UK.
The British Judo Association (BJA) is the governing body for the Olympic sport of judo in the United Kingdom. In 2019 there were 35,000 members.
The Rivers Access Campaign is an ongoing initiative by the British Canoe Union (BCU) to open up the inland waterways of England and Wales to the public. Under current English and Welsh law, public access to rivers is restricted, and only 2% of all rivers in England and Wales have public access rights.
In the United Kingdom, unionism is a political stance favouring the continued unity of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Those who support the union are referred to as Unionists. Though not all unionists are nationalists, UK or British unionism is associated with British nationalism, which asserts that the British are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of the Britons, which may include people of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Jersey, Manx and Guernsey descent.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the United Kingdom:
Since 1922, the United Kingdom has been made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom.
The Great Britain Olympic football team was the men's football team that represented the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games. The team was organised by the Football Association as the men's footballing representative of the British Olympic Association. The team only competed in the Olympic Games. In other international football tournaments, the Home Nations of the United Kingdom are represented by their own national teams, a situation which pre-dated the establishment of a GB team.
Cardiff International White Water is an Olympic standard white water rafting centre based at the Cardiff International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay.
In association football, the FIFA eligibility rules are the eligibility criteria established by FIFA, the sport's governing body, to facilitate the selection of representative teams for international competitions. Specifically, FIFA maintains and implements rules determining a player's eligibility to represent a particular national team in officially sanctioned international competitions and friendly matches.
The Canoe Association of Northern Ireland (CANI) was formed in 1964 and is the governing body for canoeing and kayaking in Northern Ireland. CANI is the Northern Ireland Division of British Canoeing. British Canoeing is the governing body for the UK. CANI, through British Canoeing is affiliated to the International Canoe Federation.
Federalism in the United Kingdom aims at constitutional reform to achieve a federal UK or a British federation, where there is a division of legislative powers between two or more levels of government, so that sovereignty is decentralised between a federal government and autonomous governments in a federal system.
References
- ↑ "Paddle UK - A new chapter for British Canoeing". Paddle UK. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
