Oldest Football Clubs in the World

Being the oldest football club in the world, Sheffield FC was actually founded in 1857 by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, two members of the Sheffield cricket club. The club’s headquarters was actually a greenhouse located at the East Bank Road in Sheffield. The adjacent field to the greenhouse was used as the club’s first playing ground. On November 30, 1863, Sheffield FC became a member of the Football Association (FA) in England.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
One interesting fact about Sheffield FC is that they played a match against Nottingham Forest in January 1865 where each team had 18 players instead of 11! Sheffield FC’s first appearance in FA Cup was in 1873 in a match against Shropshire Wanderers. Another interesting fact about Sheffield FC is that they were awarded the FIFA Order of Merit - the most honorable award given by FIFA to people or clubs who have made a significant contribution to the game - in 2004. The only team besides Sheffield FC who have been honored by the same award in the history of football are Real Madrid.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
Although Sheffield FC were first established in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, they are now a Dronfield-based club in Derbyshire county. The league in which they currently compete is the Northern Premier League - an English league founded in 1968 with three divisions. Sheffield FC are in fact older than football rules! The club was founded 6 years before the rules of the game were decided upon in the first meeting of the Football Association.

The second oldest football club in the world, Hallam FC was founded in 1860 in Crosspool, Sheffield, by John Charles Shaw who became Hallam FC captain and later the president of the Sheffield Football Association. Hallam FC playing ground, Sandygate Road, has been recognized as the oldest football ground in the world by the Guinness Book of Records, since it has been used since the foundation of the club in 1860 up until now. Hallam FC has a longtime rivalry with Sheffield FC which is known as Rules Derby.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
The first trophy Hallam FC won was the Youdan Cup which was one of the first ever established tournaments in the history of football. Although in 1870s, football was taking a turn toward professionalism, Hallam FC remained an amateur club. The club was even dissolved in the summer of 1886, probably for financial issues, but a year later it was reformed and re-registered again.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
Hallam currently compete in the Division One of the Northern Counties East League which is actually a level-10 league in the English football league system. Hallam is honored to be one of the legs in the first ever interclub match in the history of football - the other leg which you may have probably guessed was Sheffield FC. And one interesting fact about the match is that again it was played by more than 11 players on each side – each team had 16 players on the pitch.

A London-based football club, Cray Wonderers FC is as old as Hallam FC, so not the third oldest football club in the world, the club sits on the second place in the list of world’s oldest football clubs jointly with Hallam FC. Their current playing ground is Hayes Lane with a capacity of 5000. One of the club’s honors is that they have won the Kent League four times in their history. For now, they are competing in the Premier Division of the Isthmian League which is actually the 7th tier of the English football league system.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
Between 1895 and 1905, Cray Wonderers were among professional football clubs in England, and after World War I, they moved to the London League and remained there until 1934. Although a semi-professional club, Cray Wonderers have not been able to rise to the higher-tier leagues, however, they are a strong force in the league they play. How the club originated is also interesting: Migrant workers who worked on the construction of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway line between 1858 to 1860 played football in their leisure time in the St Mary Cray village. The pitch they played on, namely Star Lane pitch, has now turned to a cemetery.

Nicknamed the Tigers and with a logo that portrays a tiger’s head, Worksop Town FC was actually founded just one year after the world’s oldest football clubs in 1861 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. They currently compete in the Northern Premier League Division One South East, and have a shared playing ground (Sandy Lane) with another football club in the same league, namely Handsworth FC. Since one of the oldest teams in the world, Worksop Town FC have a history behind them.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
After the World War One that put an end to football in Worksop, Worksop Town and Manton Athletic merged and formed Worksop and Manton Athletic in 1919, however, the new club remained mostly known as Worksop Town than Worksop and Manton Athletic. Maybe one of the club’s honors is that they drew once against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup in 1923, although that was followed by a 9-0 defeat in a replay match at Tottenham’s home ground, White Hart Lane. Worksop Town are also the twelve-time winners of Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup.

The oldest professional association football club in the world and indeed among the oldest football clubs ever, Notts County was founded in 1862 in Nottingham. Their first playing ground was Park Hallow, at Park Estate, where they only played for one year, before they moved to Meadow Lane in 1863. Notts County are considered to be as one of the pioneers of the modern game of football; they are also one of the 12 founders of the English Football League (EFL) in 1888 which remained England’s top-level football league until 1992 before 22 teams moved away from it to form the Premier League.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
Notts County performed the best in the EFL in 1890-91 season when they finished the third in the league table; in the same season, they also reached the FA Cup final for the first time, but lost 3-1 to Blackburn Rovers to finish runners-up, however a few years later, in March 1894, they beat Bolton Wanderers 4-1 in the FA Cup final and not only won the FA Cup for the first time in their history but also became the first team not in the EFL - they were in Division Two that season - to have won the trophy.

Oldest Football Clubs in the World
Notts county are nicknamed “the Magpies” for the black and white color of their jerseys, which they say inspired the Italian club, Juventus, to adopt the same style. They were relegated from the EFL in 1926 and couldn’t get back to the top-tier English league for more than 50 years. Although Nott County have even relegated to Third Division in their history, but they have always been an unpredictable team, imposing defeat on top-tier teams such as Aston Villa and Manchester City.