Oldest football clubs
Dresden English Football Club was founded on 18 March 1874 and was the first association football club in Germany, and likely the first outside Great Britain. In 1874, over 70 members participated, primarily Englishmen working in Dresden, watched by hundreds of spectators. Another German club, 1860 Munich did not play football until 1899, although it has its origins in a gymnastics and fitness club formed in 1848 and reestablished in the year indicated by its name.
History of association football
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 (near Ghent) in 1863. In the Netherlands the first football match was played in 1865 in Enschede. This was followed by the founding of Koninklijke HFC by Pim Mulier in 1879. The Koninklijke HFC was the first Dutch football club. Ten years later, in 1889, the Royal Dutch Football Association (the KNVB) was founded. Association football was introduced in the Danish club, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB) by English residents, in Swiss club FC St. Gallen in 1879 and in Belgium Royal Antwerp FC in 1880. This makes KB, St. Gallen, Koninklijke HFC 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.