Episode 1 of 5

Traditional Foundation Date

When: 1862
Where: Nottingham, England
Part of: Event of 1862: Notts County F.C. is founded in Nottingham, England, making it the world's oldes

Notts County is recognized as the world's oldest professional football club, with a traditional foundation date of 1862.

Although formally organized in December 1864, the club's traditional foundation date is 1862. This date establishes Notts County as the oldest professional football club in the world, a status supported by historical records and official histories.

Sources

Notts County F.C. Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.