Calcutta Football Club was founded in 1872, making it the first football club in India. It does not exist as a separate club now, having into the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club in 1965. Among clubs that still exist, Mohun Bagan is the oldest being established on 15 August 1889 and 135 years later it is still playing at the highest level of Indian football.
This is a complete list of all teams who have claimed to be the “oldest football club in India” based on their establishment date, with the rundown on the fate of each one, the trophies they won and how India’s oldest football rivalries developed. It also mentions the oldest club outside Bengal, something which the better part of lists on this subject fail to do.
Top 10 Oldest Football Clubs in India and Their Founding Years
Here’s everything to know about India’s Oldest Football Clubs including their year, founded year, city and current status:
| Rank | Club | Founded | City | Status In 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calcutta Football Club | 1872 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Merged into Calcutta Cricket and Football Club in 1965 |
| 2 | Dalhousie Athletic Club | 1878, as Trades Club | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Still active in the Calcutta Football League |
| 3 | Wellington Club | 1884 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Dissolved by its own founder over caste discrimination |
| 4 | Aryan Club | 1884 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Still active, now known as Techno Aryan FC |
| 5 | Kumartuli Club, Town Club, National Club | 1885 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | No longer active at the senior level |
| 6 | Sovabazar Club | 1887 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Still exists, but not a senior football force |
| 7 | Mohammedan Sporting Club | 1887 as Jubilee Club, renamed 1891 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Active, playing in the I-League after 2025-26 ISL relegation |
| 8 | Mohun Bagan | 1889 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Active, playing in the ISL, India’s most decorated club |
| 9 | R.B. Ferguson Club (Young Men’s Football Club) | 1899 | Thrissur, Kerala | Oldest football club in South India |
| 10 | East Bengal | 1920 | Calcutta (Kolkata) | Active, reigning 2025-26 ISL champions |
Why It’s Difficult to Name the Oldest Football Club in India
Football was introduced in India by British soldiers and civilians in the city of Calcutta during the early 19th century, and a game was played between the Calcutta Club of Civilians and the Gentlemen of Barrackpore in 1854.
The first of these is the British in Calcutta, beginning with Calcutta Football Club (1872). These were the first organised football clubs in the country, although most merged into other clubs or dissolved entirely in the following hundred years.
The second section covers clubs established by Indians, from 1884 to the present day, many of which still currently participate either in the Calcutta Football League or at some level of the national league system. If “oldest” is taken to mean the first founded or the oldest still in operation two different clubs qualify, which is why there are varying answers on the matter.
Calcutta Football Club: India’s First Football Club Since 1872
Calcutta FC was the first football club in India and was established by the British in Calcutta in 1872. Possibly the club began playing rugby before playing football, and early attendance to the sports club was limited to the upper tiers of British society in the city, which is part of the reason why the Trades Club, and later various Indian clubs, were founded.
Calcutta FC is no more as an independent entity. In 1965, it merged with the Calcutta Cricket Club and the Ballygunge Cricket Club to form the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (CC&FC), which continues to field a football team in the Calcutta Football League.
Dalhousie Athletic Club (1878): One of India’s Oldest Active Football Clubs
Dalhousie AC was originally known as the Trades Club and was established in 1878 by two Calcutta traders, Towfett and Love, to provide the city’s tradesmen a club of their own away from the officer-class Calcutta FC. It changed its name to Dalhousie Club around 1880, after the Dalhousie Institute situated near the Dalhousie Square, and subsequently took the name of Dalhousie Athletic Club.
Dalhousie further went on to host the Trades Cup in 1889, the first open football tournament in Asia where Indian teams took on British, Regimental and College teams. The club achieved the Calcutta Football League four times, in 1910, 1921, 1928 and 1929 when the league was still ruled by the British Army teams.
Unlike Calcutta FC, Dalhousie AC never merged out of existence. It still participates in the Calcutta Football League Premier Division today, which could make it the oldest football club in India retaining its original name and identity through the 19th century.
Wellington Club and Aryan Club (1884): The First Indian-Founded Clubs
Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, considered the father of Indian football, was the founder of the Wellington Club in 1884, which was the first organized effort by an Indian to establish a club that could stand against the British teams on the Calcutta maidan.
The Wellington was open to the members of all castes and Sarbadhikari himself brought Moni Das, son of a potter, into the club. When the richer class members opposed the step, Sarbadhikari opted to wind up the entire Wellington Club rather than lose out on the principle.
The Aryan Club was also established in 1884, as Aryan Sports Club, however, it was involved in football only after some years.
It is among the very few clubs of that period which is still in existence, now does business as Techno Aryan FC (after a corporate rebranding in the 2010s) competing in the Calcutta Football League.
Kumartuli, Town Club and National Club: Three Historic Clubs Founded in 1885
One year after Wellington was established and vanished, four more Indian clubs were founded in succession in 1885: Kumartuli Club, Town Club, National Club and Sovabazar Club. These clubs provided Bengali footballers with a real alternative to the exclusively European teams which had ruled the maidan for years.
Kumartuli went on to become the first Indian club to win the second division of the Calcutta Football League, in 1917, repeating the feat in 1918 and 1919, and Town Club secured the second division championship in 1920.
These three clubs are no longer a force in senior football today but were vital in establishing Indian players in the structured game far before the more celebrated rise of Mohun Bagan.
Sovabazar Club (1887): The Indian Club That Beat the British
Sarbadhikari established Sovabazar Club in 1887 with the support of the Sovabazar and Cooch Behar royal families, as his time at Wellington Club had made him realize that for a caste-free club to survive he needed the patronage of the upper classes. It expanded quickly and by all accounts had above five hundred members of diverse castes and communities.
The moment that defined it was in 1892, when Sovabazar captured the Trades Cup after defeating a British military team, the first Indian side to come out on top against a European team in an organised tournament, some 19 years before Mohun Bagan’s more celebrated 1911 triumph.
Sovabazar continues to exist as an organisation in Kolkata, but it has not been a senior football powerhouse for decades.
Mohammedan Sporting Club (1887): A Historic Kolkata Football Club
The origin of Mohammedan Sporting can be traced back to 1887 when Khan Bahadur Aminul Islam set up the Jubilee Club to participate in the corporate sports arrangement for the Muslim community of Calcutta. It had been renamed twice, first Crescent Club then Hamidia Club before finally Mohammedan Sporting Club in 1891.
In 1934, Mohammedan Sporting was the first Indian team to win the Calcutta Football League, ending a series of British domination the league had witnessed ever since the league was formed in 1898, and then clinched the CFL five times consecutively from 1934 to 1938. In 1940, it was also the first Indian team to win the Durand Cup, the oldest football tournament in Asia.
Along with East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting constitutes the Big Three of Maidan football in Kolkata. The club emerged victorious in the 2023-24 I-League and gained promotion to ISL, but ended up at the bottom of the 14-team table in the 2025-26 season and was relegated once again to I-League.
Mohun Bagan (1889): India’s Oldest Existing Football Club
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was established on 15 August 1889 with Bhupendra Nath Bose as the founding president. It is the oldest football club in India to have played continuously at the top tier of the domestic game and is also considered one of the oldest football clubs in Asia after being admitted to the international Club of Pioneers network of historic clubs in 2019.
The defining moment of Mohan Bagan’s was on 29 July 1911, when a group of barefooted Bengali men defeated the British Army’s East Yorkshire Regiment 2-1 to claim the IFA Shield, thereby becoming the first Indian team to beat a European side in a major open tournament. The victory is remembered as one the sports icons of India’s struggle for freedom, and 29 July is celebrated widely as Mohun Bagan Day.
The Success of Mohun Bagan in Trophies:
- 265 total trophies across all competitions.
- 5 Indian top-tier league titles, a record.
- 3 National Football League titles and 1 I-League title.
- 17 Durand Cup titles, the most by any club.
- 14 Federation Cup titles, another Indian record.
- 30 Calcutta Football League titles, the most in the competition.
- 23 IFA Shield titles, also a record.
R.B. Ferguson Club (1899): South India’s Oldest Football Club
The R.B. Ferguson Club is also known as Young Men’s Football Club was established on 20th February 1899 at Thrissur in Kerala by the then Kochi police superintendent R.B.
It is the oldest football team in South India and had a big part in forming the football culture in Kerala, a state which has now turned out to be one of those which consistently were able to provide Indian football with natural talent along with Bengal.
East Bengal (1920): The Club Born From a Derby Dispute
East Bengal is the youngest of the historic Indian clubs but is also its most significant, carved straight out of dispute within the ranks of Mohun Bagan. On 28 July 1920, Jorabagan Club, who were Mohun Bagan’s rivals at the time in a Cooch Behar Cup semi-final, surprised everyone and withdrew defender Sailesh Bose from their line-up for reasons unknown.
Jorabagan vice-president Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri contended for Bose’s inclusion, was denied, then resigned. Along with Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Aurobinda Ghosh, he established the East Bengal Club on 1 August 1920, naming it after their beloved East, which was in the eastern part of undivided Bengal, where all of the founders were originally from.
East Bengal’s Record Trophies:
- 29 IFA Shield titles, the most by any club.
- 40 Calcutta Football League titles, an Indian record.
- 16 Durand Cup titles and 8 Federation Cups.
- Won the Hercules Cup just days after being founded.
- Lifted their first major trophy, the IFA Shield, in 1943.
- Won the 2025–26 ISL title, ending a 22-year wait for a national top-flight league crown.
- The 2025–26 title was East Bengal’s fourth Indian top-flight league title overall.
Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal: Inside India’s Biggest Football Rivalry
The Kolkata Derby is said to be Asia’s oldest and largest football rivalry and is directly rooted in their history of East Bengal’s founding. The two sides initially met on 8 August 1921 in a Cooch Behar Cup semi-final, Mohun Bagan won 3-0 in a replay after a goalless draw.
| Kolkata Derby record (As Of 2026) | Total |
|---|---|
| Matches played | 408 |
| Mohun Bagan wins | 134 |
| East Bengal wins | 144 |
| Draws | 130 |
The competition also has a strong regional identity along with the football. Mohun Bagan is generally considered the club of the Ghotis, the natives of western Bengal and East Bengal the club of bangals, the refugees who migrated from eastern Bengal, now Bangladesh. Supporters celebrate victories in the derby with feasts revolving around ilish, or hilsa fish, for East Bengal, and golda chingri, or prawns, for Mohun Bagan.
Major Trophies and Achievements of India’s Oldest Football Clubs
| Club | Founded | Top-flight league titles | Durand Cup | Federation Cup | IFA Shield | Calcutta Football League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohun Bagan | 1889 | 7 (record) | 17 (record) | 14 (record) | 23 | 30 |
| East Bengal | 1920 | 4 | 16 | 8 | 29 (record) | 40 (record) |
| Mohammedan Sporting | 1887/1891 | 1 (2023-24 I-League) | 1 (1940, first Indian winner) | – | – | 7 (1934-38, 1940, 1941) |
Top-flight league titles cover the National Football League, I-League and Indian Super League eras combined. The early successes of Mohammedan Sporting are earlier in history than many of these records and are historically significant even if the number of trophies is rarely documented as much as that for Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
Notable Milestones from India’s Football History
- The Durand Cup, founded in 1888 in Shimla, is the oldest football tournament in Asia and the third oldest in the world after the FA Cup and the Scottish Cup.
- The Calcutta Football League, founded in 1898, is Asia’s oldest football league, though Indian clubs were barred from its top division for its first fifteen seasons.
- Indian clubs were only admitted to the Calcutta Football League’s second division in 1914, when Mohun Bagan and Aryan Club became the first two to enter.
- Mohun Bagan’s crest has featured a sailing country boat since the 1920s, after an earlier tiger-and-palm-tree design caused confusion with a similar crest used by Rajasthan Club, another maidan side.
Conclusion: Calcutta Football Club is India’s First Football Club, While Mohun Bagan is the Country’s Oldest Active Football Club
Calcutta Football Club, established in 1872, was the first football club in India, but it is no longer exists now. The oldest among them who are still actively participating in Mohun Bagan which was founded in 1889 is now the most decorated club in the country even after 135 years.
While Dalhousie A.C., founded a decade earlier in 1878, can boast of being the oldest club surviving identity-wise, yet it failed to soar high like that of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal or Mohammedan Sporting.
