4 Oldest Football Clubs in Asia

The history of football in Asia is very long, but it is frequently neglected. Though Europe and South America still are the main players in the worldwide football talks, the late 19th and early 20th centuries already saw Asia’s forming of organized football clubs.

A very early case of this was the Calcutta Football Club, which was formed in 1872 and later on became the first organized football association in Asia.

Soon after the club was established, the regional tournaments organized in Asia came along and among them were the Far Eastern Championship Games (1913–1934) where Japan, China, and the Philippines participated.

Further significant dates in the history of Asian football were the introduction of the sport into the Asian Games in 1951 and the starting of the Asian Cup in 1956.

Here are four of the oldest football clubs in Asia and why they matter.

Asia’s Oldest Football Clubs: Top 4 by Founding Year

1. Hong Kong Football Club

Founded: 1886

Hong Kong Football Club is the oldest Football club in entire Asia, which was founded on the 12th of February 1886 by Sir James Haldane Lockhart. The club was set up at the Victoria Recreation Gymnasium and was planned to be for both association football and rugby.

The club’s first sporting activity was rugby, played just four days after its formation. Its first football match was played on 16 March 1886, when it faced the Royal Engineers. Over time, football became a core part of the club’s identity.

A decision point in the club’s subsequent history took place in 1976 when it started to form its football section dedicated to that sport. Initially, the matches used to be at Sports Road and then moved to the Hong Kong Government Stadium in 1982. The club has been a historic football player from the very beginning in Hong Kong.

2. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club

Founded: 1889

The Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was established in Kolkata on August 15, 1889. The club was initially a result of local youngsters from Shyambazar wanting to have a football team and getting help from the Mohun Bagan Villa, which was owned by the Mitra family.

The informal meeting that established the foundation of the club gathered the Mitra, Basu, and Sen families and was led by Bhupendra Nath Basu, who later became the first president. The first secretary of the club was Jyotindra Nath Basu.

The club was initially called Mohun Bagan Sporting Club but later changed its name to Athletic Club on the advice of Professor F. J. Rowe, who thought that the original name did not correspond to the club’s activities. The early grounds of the club changed locations with the help of people like Maharaja Durga Charan Laha and Henry Lee.

Mohun Bagan made its debut in tournament football at the 1893 Cooch Behar Cup, which was a significant step for the club as it had already been recognized in competitive sports.

3. Tokyo Shukyu-Dan

Founded: 1917

Founded in 1917, Tokyo Shukyu-Dan is the oldest football club in Japan. The club emerged at a time when football was still developing in the country and played a major role in its early structure.

Its most notable achievement was winning the first-ever Emperor’s Cup, which placed the club firmly in Japanese football history. Like early clubs in England and Scotland, Tokyo Shukyu-Dan followed amateur principles, driven by passion rather than professionalism.

As Japanese football evolved and professional, company-backed teams became dominant, the club faced increasing challenges. Even so, it recorded strong league performances, including second-place finishes in 1978 and 1983, highlighting its long-term resilience.

4. East Bengal Football Club

Founded: 1920

East Bengal Football Club was founded on 1 August 1920 under Suresh Chandra Chaudhury. The club joined the Indian Football Association in 1924 and established itself at the Maidan in Kolkata.

In the same year, East Bengal won the Second Division jointly with Cameroon ‘B’. The club’s early progress was marked by steady growth, including promotion to the First Division in 1925. Although their first top-division match ended in defeat, the club quickly secured its first league win and continued to build momentum.

After relegation in 1928, East Bengal bounced back by winning the Second Division in 1931. A defining moment arrived in 1936, when East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan 4–0, igniting one of the most intense rivalries in Asian football.

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