Top 10 Oldest Football Clubs in the World and Their Stories

Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, is generally recognised as the world’s oldest association football club, a distinction attributed to the Football Association in Crystal Palace’s account. This list ranks 10 of the oldest football clubs in the world by founding year among clubs that still exist and play association football, with clubs founded in the same year grouped together.

The table below shows list of the oldest club today in the world

These are founding dates, not the dates clubs became professional. The selection excludes clubs listed as dissolved, while Crystal Palace’s disputed link to an 1861 team is explained separately below.

Rank	Club	Country	Year founded
1	Sheffield FC	England	1857
2	Hallam FC	England	1860
3	Notts County	England	1862
4	Stoke City	England	1863
5	Royal Engineers AFC	England	1863
6	Brigg Town	England	1864
7	Wrexham AFC	Wales	1864
8	Nottingham Forest	England	1865
9	Cambridge University AFC	England	1866
10	Chesterfield FC	England	1867

The final place isn’t exclusive: Queen’s Park and Sheffield Wednesday also have 1867, founding dates in Football History’s chronology. You should know that founding years alone don’t separate those three clubs.

1. Sheffield FC – 1857

Sheffield FC takes the first place, with a founding date of 24 October 1857. According to Crystal Palace’s account, the Football Association recognises Sheffield as the world’s oldest club. The club has also identifies itself as the world’s first football club. This should not be confused with Sheffield Wednesday, Wednesday was founded a decade later, in 1867, under the name The Wednesday according to footballhistory.org.

2. Hallam FC – 1860

Hallam’s founding year is 1860, placing it three years behind Sheffield FC in this selection. You won’t find every early name included here: Wanderers was founded in 1859 as Forest Club, but Football History records its dissolution in 1887.

3. Notts County – 1862

Notts County was founded in November 1862. Crystal Palace’s June 2022 account identifies it as the Football Association’s recognised oldest league club. That’s a different distinction from Sheffield FC’s overall record. Sheffield is described as non-league in the same account, so the two titles aren’t contradictory.

4. Stoke City – 1863

Stoke City dates to 1863 and was founded under the name Stoke Ramblers. Its entry is a useful reminder that a club’s founding name needn’t be the name you recognise today.

5. Royal Engineers AFC – 1863

Royal Engineers AFC also has an 1863 founding year in Football History’s chronology. That puts it alongside Stoke in this year-based ranking; neither receives an earlier position on the strength of the year alone.

6. Brigg Town – 1864

Brigg Town was founded in 1864, seven years after Sheffield FC. Its date places it ahead of Nottingham Forest and Cambridge University AFC, even if those names are more familiar to you.

7. Wrexham AFC – 1864

Wrexham also dates to 1864 and is the Welsh club in this selection. It shares its position with Brigg Town rather than being placed ahead on an unsupported day or month.

8. Nottingham Forest – 1865

Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865, three years after Notts County. They’re separate entries with separate dates, so Forest shouldn’t be substituted for County in a discussion about the oldest league club.

9. Cambridge University AFC – 1866

Football History dates Cambridge University AFC to 1866. That places the university club between Nottingham Forest’s 1865 foundation and the group of clubs dated to 1867 in this chronology.

10. Chesterfield FC – 1867

Chesterfield’s founding year is listed as 1867. It closes this selection, but shares that year with Scotland’s Queen’s Park and England’s Sheffield Wednesday, so there’s no unique tenth place on founding years alone.

What about the oldest professional club?

Notts County holds the recognised oldest league-club distinction described in Crystal Palace’s 2022 account. But Palace argues that its own history reaches back to 1861, rather than the professional club’s establishment in 1905; Football History treats the earlier team as a different club, dissolved in 1876.

Palace says its original football team grew out of cricket, with cricketers playing football during winter to keep fit. Its continuity argument centres on the Crystal Palace Company’s involvement in both the early team and the professional club.

There was a substantial interruption, though. Palace’s own account says organised football matches stopped in 1875 for almost two decades, while the wider club continued playing cricket. That’s why its 1861 claim belongs alongside the qualification, rather than quietly replacing Notts County in the ranking.

So if you’re settling a football argument, Sheffield FC and 1857 remain the clearest answer to the overall association-football question. The professional-club discussion needs that extra distinction.