Oldest football clubs

The oldest football clubs trace their origins to the mid-19th century, a period when football evolved from being a casual pastime to an organised mainstream sport.

The identity of the oldest football clubs in the world, or even in a particular country, is often disputed or claimed by several clubs, across several codes of football. The Foot-Ball Club of Edinburgh is thought to be the earliest recorded football club in the world, with records going back to 1824. Rugby clubs also referred to themselves, or continue to refer to themselves, as simply a "football club", or as a "rugby football club". "Club" has always meant an independent entity and, during the historical period in question, very few high school or university ''teams'' were independent of the educational institutions concerned. Consequently, school and university football teams were seldom referred to as "clubs". That has always been the case, for example, in American football, which has always had ties to college sport in general. Conversely, however, the ''oldest'' still-existing "football club" with a well-documented, continuous history is Dublin University Football Club, a rugby union club founded in 1854 at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. There exists some record of Guy's Hospital Football Club being founded in London in 1843, through an 1883 fixture card referring to Guy's 40th season.

British Isles

Defunct clubs

While the first clubs emerged in Britain, possibly as early as the fifteenth century, these are poorly-documented and defunct. For example, the records of the Brewers' Company of London between 1421 and 1423 mention the hiring out of their hall "by the "football players" for "20 pence", under the heading "Trades and Fraternities". The listing of football players as a "fraternity" or a group of players meeting socially under this identity is the earliest allusion to what might be considered a football club. Other early sporting bodies dedicated to playing football include " The Gymnastic Society" of London which met ''regularly'' during the second half of the eighteenth century to pursue two sports: football and wrestling. The club played its matches – for example between London-based natives of Cumberland and Westmorland – at the Kennington Common from well before 1789 until about 1800.

The Foot-Ball Club (active 1824–41) of Edinburgh, Scotland, is the first documented club dedicated to football, and the first to describe itself as a football club. The only surviving club rules forbade tripping, but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball. Other documents describe a game involving 39 players and "such kicking of shins and such tumbling".

Other early clubs include the Great Leicestershire Cricket and Football Club present in 1840.

On Christmas Day 1841, an early documented match between two self-described "football clubs" took place. The Body-guard Club (of Rochdale) lost to the Fear-nought Club after using an ineligible player as a substitute. The complete rules used in this game are unknown, but they specified twelve players on each side, with each team providing its own umpire, and the game being started by the firing of a pistol.

A club for playing "cricket, quoits and football" was established in Newcastle on Tyne in or before 1848. The Surrey Football Club was established in 1849 and published the first non-school football list of rules (which were probably based upon the eighteenth century Gymnastic Society cited above). Windsor Home Park F.C. was in existence as early as 1854, and would go on to compete in early editions of the FA Cup.

Continuous clubs

Supported by the ''Guinness Book of Records'', and founded by staff at Guy's Hospital in London in 1843, the Guy's, Kings and St Thomas' RFC would be the oldest "football" club of any code. Nevertheless, the connection between the present club and the original "Guy's Hospital" formed in 1843 is still disputed, alleging that the present club is a modern amalgam of three formerly distinct hospital rugby clubs, starting with the Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital teams which were the first to merge following the union of their respective Medical Departments. The last department to merge was the King's College Hospital in 1999, although its club (founded in 1869) remained as a separate institution.

As the Guy's, Kings and St Thomas' RFC status is still disputed, other sources state that the Dublin University Football Club (DUFC), founded in 1854, at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, would be the oldest "football" club. DUFC plays to the rugby union rules.

In Northern Ireland, the oldest football club is Cliftonville FC, formed in September 1879. It is also the oldest active professional football club on the island of Ireland.

It has been claimed that the present-day Barnes Rugby Football Club, from Barnes in London, is a continuation of the nineteenth-century Barnes Football Club, and moreover that the latter club was formed in 1839 and is thus the oldest club to have played football for its entire history. However, as of 2018, Barnes RFC's website claims only that the club was established in the 1920s, while alluding to "possibilities" that its history stretches back to 1862.

Sheffield F.C. in England, is the world's oldest surviving ''independent'' open football club; that is, the oldest club not associated with an institution such as a school, hospital or university in which was open to all to play. It was founded in 1857. Sheffield F.C. initially played Sheffield rules, a code of its own devising, although the club's rules influenced those of the England Football Association (FA (1863) including handball, free kicks, corners and throw ins. While the international governing body of association football, FIFA and the FA recognise Sheffield F.C. as the "world's oldest football club", and the club joined the FA in 1863, it continued to use the Sheffield rules. Sheffield F.C. did not officially adopt association football until 1877.

Setting its birth date in 1856, Cambridge University A.F.C. has been described by the university as the oldest club now playing association football, being recognised by The FA. For example, : " Salopians formed a club of their own in the late 1830s/early 1840s but that was presumably absorbed by the Cambridge University Football Club that they were so influential in creating in 1846". According to Charles Astor Bristed, in the early 1840s at Cambridge, there were games played between clubs from colleges and houses. Football is documented as being played on the original club ground, Parkers Piece, as early as 1838. The earliest existing evidence of the Cambridge University Football Club comes from " The Laws of the University Football Club" dated 1856, and held at Shrewsbury School. The Cambridge rules of 1863 would provide the basis for the FA's original rules.

The only survivor among the FA's founding clubs still playing association football is Civil Service F.C. Six of the 18 founding members later adopted rugby exclusively. Cray Wanderers F.C., originally of St Mary Cray and currently playing in Bromley, founded in 1860, is the oldest club now playing association football in Greater London. The code played by Cray Wanderers in its earliest years is unknown.

Liverpool Football Club (not to be confused with Liverpool F.C. of the Premier League), later known as Liverpool St Helens F.C., were formed in 1857, which claims to be the oldest open rugby club in the world. The club adopted the Rugby Union rules in 1872, never playing association rules.

Rest of the world

Africa

South Africa

Savages FC was the oldest club in Africa, founded on 26 August 1882.

Egypt

Gezira SC was the oldest club in Egypt founded in 1882.

Algeria

CDJ Oran was founded in 1894. It is the oldest club in Algeria and Maghreb.

Tanzania

Young Africans was founded in 1935. It is the oldest club in Tanzania.

Tunisia

ES Tunis was founded in 1919. It is the oldest club in Tunisia.

Ghana

Accra Hearts Of Oaks was founded in 1911. It is the oldest club in Ghana.

Morocco

Moghreb Tétouan was founded in 1922. It is the oldest club in Morocco. Moghreb Tétouan took part in Spanish Liga for 33 years until Morocco's independence was achieved in 1956.

Asia

Hong Kong

Some of the oldest clubs in Hong Kong include St Joseph's (1880), Hong Kong Football Club (1886), Buffs (1886), all formed by Britons. The first club formed by locals was South China AA (1904).

India

In India, some of the oldest clubs are Calcutta Football Club (founded in 1872, later merged with Calcutta Cricket Club founded in 1792 to form Calcutta Cricket and Football Club), Sarada FC, Aryan FC (1884), Sovabazar FC (1886), Mohun Bagan AC (1889), Mohammedan SC (1891), and East Bengal Club (1920). All of these clubs are from Kolkata.

Iraq

Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya is a Baghdad-based men's club founded in 1931 in Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration. It plays within the Iraqi Premier League.

Japan

In Japan, the oldest rugby (1866) and association football club (1886) is Yokohama Country & Athletic Club.

The oldest continuing association football club is Tokyo Shukyu-Dan, founded in 1917.

Pakistan

The oldest continuing association football club for men of nowadays Pakistan is Karachi Port Trust Football Club, founded in 1887, at the time of the British Raj, when Karachi was part of the Bombay Presidency.

For women, the oldest club is Diya W.F.C., established in Karachi in 2002.

Continental Europe

Austria

The oldest still active football club is the First Vienna Football Club founded on the 22nd of August 1894. Their early rivals, the Vienna Cricket and Football-Club, was founded only one day later.

Belgium

Football Club Spa was founded by the Hunter-Blair family of Blairquhan, Ayrshire, Scotland, and was in operation in 1863. The fourth Baronet took his family there in order to economise. The oldest club still in existence today in Belgium is Royal Antwerp FC, founded in 1880.

Czech Republic

The oldest football club still in existence today is Slavia Prague, founded in 1892. The first football club to be founded in the country was the football section of the sport club Regatta Prague, founded in May 1891, but discontinued in 1896, when all its footballers left to found the club DFC Prague.

Croatia

The oldest functioning football clubs in Croatia are NK Rijeka, formed in 1906 competing in the highest Croatian division, and possibly HNK Segesta, a club playing in the third division and founded in the same year.

Denmark

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub is the oldest football club in Denmark and the oldest active club in continental Europe. The sports club was formed in 1876 and association football was first played two years later.

France

The first football club in France was established in Paris in 1863 by English expatriates, as the following excerpt from a contemporary newspaper shows: "A number of English gentlemen living in Paris have lately organised a football club.... The football contests take place in the Bois de Boulogne, by permission of the authorities and surprise the French amazingly".

Le Havre AC was founded as an athletics and rugby club in 1872, making it the oldest surviving football club registered in France and continental Europe. They began playing association football on a regular basis in 1894. Technically AS Strasbourg could be considered the first French association football team, being established in 1890; they were however a German team at the time.

Germany

The oldest surviving rugby football club is Heidelberger RK, which was founded on 9 May 1872 as a rowing and rugby club. The HRK has won 14 national titles 1927, 1928, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1986, 2010–2015, 2017 and 2018. The biggest success of the club was the qualification for the Rugby European Challenge Cup 2018/19 - only to be denied participation, because their main sponsor owns Stade Francais. The second oldest still surviving rugby club is Hannover 1878 founded 1878 and winning 9 German championships. Both clubs still play in the 1. Bundesliga.

The first association football in Germany (and likely the first outside Great Britain) was Dresden English, founded on 18 March 1874. The club had over 70 members by then, primarily Englishmen working in Dresden, with its matches being attended by hundreds of spectators. Nevertheless, Dresden English was dissolved in 1898.

The oldest still active association football club is BFC Germania 1888 founded on 15 April 1888. They play in the 10th division as of season 2020/21 and never managed to win any national titles.

Greece

The oldest still active football club is Panionios F.C. founded on 14 September 1890.

Hungary

The oldest still active football clubs in Hungary are Műegyetemi AFC founded in autumn 1897 as a proper football club and III. Kerületi TVE, which whose football section was founded officially in 1899 but stemmed from the 1897-founded Budai Football Csapat. The first ever football club to be founded in Hungary was Budapesti Torna Club having founded its football section in February 1897, dissolved in 1945–46.

Italy

In Italy, Genoa C.F.C. is the oldest active football club: it was founded by Charles De Grave Sells, S. Green, George Blake, W. Rilley, George Dormer Fawcus, H.M. Sandys, E. De Thierry, Johnathan Summerhill Sr., Johnathan Summerhill Jr. and Sir Charles Alfred Payton in Genoa on 7 September 1893. However, Genoa C.F.C. was not the first Italian football club, being Torino Football & Cricket Club (1887) but its history lasted only for 4 years. Founded by Edoardo Bosio (owner of Bosio & Caratsch, the earliest brewery in Italy), the team broke up in 1891. Older than Genoa and Torino is Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Fanfulla, a sports club founded in Lodi in 1873, but its football section was established thirty-five years later in 1908.

Poland

The oldest football club in Poland was Lechia Lwów, established in 1903. As Lviv became a part of the USSR (and nowadays Ukraine), the club ceased to exist. Seniority of the football club in current borders of Poland and still active in the Polish league system is subject to a dispute between two Kraków based clubs Wisła Kraków and Cracovia. Both clubs have been founded in 1906.

Portugal

In Portugal, Académica de Coimbra is the oldest active football club, founded on 3 November 1887.

Slovakia

The oldest football club in Slovakia is 1. FC Tatran Prešov, founded in 1898, that after many name changes plays in the Slovakian second league.

Slovenia

The first football club was founded in 1900 by the German minority in Ljubljana, the Laibacher Sportverein and got discontinued in 1909, followed by the Hungarian minority Lendevai FE in 1903, and the German minority in Celje (Athletik SK in 1906). In 1911, the first Slovenian football club of the Slovenian minority opened in Ljubljana, Ilirija, followed by Slovan two years later. Ilirija is nowadays considered by the Slovenian FA as the oldest running football club in the country, because the Lendava-based club went bankrupt in 2012, although it got recreated right away.

Spain

Founded on 23 December 1889, Recreativo de Huelva is the oldest football club in Spain. Two Scots, Alexander Mackay and Robert Russell Ross, overseas workers at the Rio Tinto mines, founded Huelva Recreation Club to provide their employees with physical recreation. Recreativo predates Sevilla Foot-ball Club, which was founded a month later and it is not related with Sevilla FC, founded on 1905.

Switzerland

FC St. Gallen 1879 is the oldest active football club in Switzerland, founded on 19 April 1879 as FC St. Gallen.

Netherlands

The oldest football (and also the oldest cricket) club in The Netherlands is Koninklijke UD (Royal UD) from Deventer, founded in 1875.

North America

Although football variants have been played in North America since the 1820s, the claim of oldest continuous football club in North America is still a matter of debate.

Oneida Football Club

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