The following are the football (soccer) events of the year 1956 throughout the world.

Events

• November 3 – Dutch club Rapid JC makes its European debut with a defeat (3-4) on home soil against Yugoslavia's Red Star Belgrade in the second round of the European Cup.
• Foundation of Royal Thai Navy F.C.

Winners club national championship

•  Argentina: River Plate
•  England: Manchester United
•  France: Nice
•  Israel: Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C.
•  Italy: ACF Fiorentina
•  Mexico: León
• Paraguay: Olimpia Asunción
•  Soviet Union: FC Spartak Moscow
• Spain: Atlético Bilbao
•  Sweden: IFK Norrköping
•  West Germany: Borussia Dortmund

International tournaments

• Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia (November 24 – December 8, 1956)^[1]
  1.  Soviet Union
  2.  Yugoslavia
  3.  Bulgaria
• 1956 British Home Championship (October 22, 1955 – April 14, 1956)

Shared by  England,  Scotland,  Wales &  Northern Ireland

Births

January

• January 16: Martin Jol (Dutch footballer and manager)
• January 17: Faouzi Mansouri (Algerian footballer) (died 2022)
• January 31: Stefan Majewski (Polish footballer)

February

• February 14: Reinhold Hintermaier (Austrian footballer)
• February 18: Rüdiger Abramczik (German footballer)
• February 25: Davie Cooper (Scottish footballer) (died 1995)
• February 28: Jimmy Nicholl (Northern Irish footballer)

March

• March 3: Zbigniew Boniek, Polish international footballer
• March 4: Philippe Mahut, French international footballer (died 2014)
• March 12: László Kiss, Hungarian footballer
• March 12: Pim Verbeek, Dutch footballer and manager (died 2019)
• March 15: Gilberto Yearwood, Honduran footballer
• March 24: Włodzimierz Ciołek, Polish footballer
• March 29: Ferenc Csongrádi, Hungarian footballer
• March 29: Dick Jol, Dutch football referee

April

• April 12: František Jakubec; Czech international footballer (died 2016)

May

• May 3: Bernd Förster (German international footballer)
• May 15: Ken Ayres (English former professional footballer)^[2]
• May 19: Jan Fiala (Czech footballer)

June

• June 5: Martin Koopman (Dutch footballer)
• June 12: David Narey (Scottish footballer)
• June 26: Maxime Bossis (French footballer)

July

• July 15: Emmanuel Kunde (Cameroonian footballer)
• July 20: Thomas N'Kono (Cameroonian footballer)
• July 29: Jean-Luc Ettori (French footballer)

August

• August 16: Patricio Hernández (Argentinian footballer)
• August 27: Jean-François Larios (French footballer)
• August 29: Viv Anderson (English footballer)

September

• September 8: Jacky Munaron (Belgian footballer)
• September 14: Béla Bodonyi (Hungarian footballer)
• September 14: Ray Wilkins (English footballer) (died 2018)
• September 23: Paolo Rossi (Italian footballer) (died 2020)
• September 30: Frank Arnesen (Danish footballer)

October

• October 10: Raúl Gorriti, Peruvian international footballer (died 2015)
• October 28: Frank Vercauteren (Belgian international footballer)

November

• November 4: Jan Korte (Dutch footballer and manager)
• November 10: José Luis Brown Argentine international footballer, (died 2019)
• November 16: Max Hagmayr (Austrian footballer)
• November 18: Noel Brotherston (Northern Irish footballer) (died 1995)

December

• December 6: Klaus Allofs (German footballer)
• December 9: Oscar Garré (Argentine footballer)
• December 10: Jan van Dijk (Dutch footballer and manager)
• December 11: Ricardo Giusti (Argentine footballer)

Deaths

August

• August 12 – Gianpiero Combi, 53, Italian goalkeeper, captaining winner of the 1934 FIFA World Cup and one of Italy's greatest goalkeepers of all-time.

October

• October 16 - Jules Rimet, 83, 3rd president of FIFA.
• October 24 - Tom Whittaker, 58, Arsenal manager, heart attack