Continental Europe

The oldest club in continental Europe could be the Swiss club Lausanne Football and Cricket Club, founded 1860. Football was introduced in a Belgian school in Melle (nearGhent) in 1863.^[10] Association football was introduced in the Danish club, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB) by English residents,^[11] in Swiss club FC St. Gallen in 1879 and in BelgiumRoyal Antwerp FC in 1880. This makes KB, St. Gallen and Royal Antwerp FC the oldest still existing football clubs on Continental Europe. However, Royal Antwerp FC (nickname "The Great Old") is the only one that never merged with or into another club.

The Danish Football Association was founded in 1889. Italian football was played in regional groups from its foundation in 1898 until 1929 when the Serie A was organised into a national league by the Italian Football Federation. La Liga, Spain's national league, had its first season in 1928, with its participants based on the previous winners of the Copa del Rey, which began in 1902. The modern German national league, the Bundesliga was late in foundation, especially for European countries, given it wasn't founded until 1963. TheGerman Football Association was founded as early as 1900 with the first German football champions being Leipzig in 1903. However, prior to the formation of the Bundesliga,German football was played at an amateur level in a large number of regional leagues.