The Football League itself is the oldest football competition in the world. It was founded in 1888 and was the most important one until the Premier League was formed in 1992.

If you are looking for the oldest football clubs this harder to say for sure, since they are not all equally well documented and several different clubs claim the title. Groups of people were playing football in hired venues in London back in the middle ages, but for organised, official clubs you have to look to the 19th century.

The first documented football club was in Edinburgh in 1824. However, the oldest surviving club with an unbroken history, and definite proof of age, now playing Association Football, is Sheffield FC, which was founded in 1857.

For rugby, the clubs go back a similar distance; the oldest surviving open rugby club is Blackheath, which was founded in 1858.