It all started on a bright sunny afternoon in September 1888 with 12 Founder Clubs from the North-West and Midlands. Today, The Football League features 72 clubs in three divisions playing 1,656 matches every season.

As The League kicks off the celebrations of its 125th anniversary, we dusted down the record books to tell the story of 125 years in numbers.

Matches:
• There have been 177,625 matches played in The Football League since its inception in 1888
• The most played Football League fixtures are between:

- Aston Villa and Everton (154 times)
- Arsenal and Manchester United (146 times)
- Everton and Liverpool (146 times)

• The most played match amongst current members of The Football League is between Hartlepool United and Rochdale (136 times)

Results:
• 52% of games have been home wins (91,431 games)
• 23% have been away wins (41,591 games)
• 25% have been draws (44,603 games)
• The most common result has been 1-0 with 28,276 occurrences (16% of matches) - NB: this includes games finishing 1-0 and 0-1
• Other regular scores are:

- 2-1 (25,717 - 14%)
- 1-1 (20,472 - 12%)
- 2-0 (20, 473 - 12%)
- 0-0 (12,592) - 7%)

Goals:
• 515,411 goals have been scored
• The home club has scored 317,885 goals (62%), with 197,526 (38%) scored by the away club

Players:
• In total, 39,605 players have appeared in Football League matches
• 509 were called Smith, 384 Jones, 298 Brown, 266 Williams and 228 Taylor
• 3,329 players appeared only once (2,869 of which were 'starts' and 460 substitutes)

Grounds:
• League games have been played on 220 different grounds
• Most matches have been played at Preston North End's Deepdale (2,342), Burnley's Turf Moor (2,311) and Bury's Gigg Lane (2,288)
• There are three stadiums still in use today that were used in the first season. They are Deepdale, Turf Moor and Anfield (which was used by Everton)

Fans:
• The total number of spectators through Football League turnstiles is just under 2.2 billion (2,194,196,865)

Clubs:
• There have been 136 clubs that have played in The Football League. Although there are numerous examples of defunct clubs reforming under new names. In such cases it is often a moot point as to whether these are a continuation of the same club or constitute an entirely separate entity.

Analysis supplied by Tony Brown at

Following the formation of The Football League in 1888, the popularity of league football spread around the world with domestic leagues being formed in the following years:

1888: England
1890: Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands
1891: Argentina
1895: Belgium
1897: Switzerland
1900: Uruguay
1901: Hungary
1906: Paraguay
1909: Romania
1911: Austria
1912: Peru
1921: USA, Ireland, Tunisia, Venezuela
1924: Sweden, Bulgaria
1925: Czechoslovakia (then 1993: Czech Republic & Slovakia)
1927: Greece
1929: Spain, Italy, Denmark
1932: France
1933: Chile
1936: USSR
1937: Norway, Haiti
1938: Portugal
1943: Mexico
1948: Colombia
1956: Ghana
1957: Ecuador
1959: Brazil, Turkey
1960: Ivory Coast
1962: Algeria, Zambia
1963: Germany
1965: Japan
1966: Mali, Nigeria
1977: Australia, Bolivia
1983: South Korea
1988: Panama
1992: Croatia, Ukraine
2000: Bosnia
2001: Russia
2006: Montenegro, Serbia

Information supplied by Nick Harris at www.sportingintelligence.com