Savages FC was Africa’s first club, formed on August 26th, 1882. Gezira SC was Egypt’s first club, formed in 1882. CDJ Oran was established in 1894. They played in red and white stripes.
Gezira became one of the most successful clubs in Egyptian history, winning six Egyptian Premier League titles. In 1948 they merged with Al-Ahly to form Ahly Ghizlane (the merged team played in green and white colors). That same year Savages disbanded. The new name of the club was Ahly Sports Club and it still exists today.
Savages were considered the best club in Africa before the emergence of CAF leaders Maroc Cricket and Étoile du Congo Football Club. They dominated African football in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their demise was due to political turmoil following the signing of a treaty with England, which made it difficult for English players to enter Egypt. Only two Englishmen played for Gezira during its period of success - Walter Winterbottom in 1931 and 1932 and Edward Horlock in 1933. Both men came from the young Gezira side that defeated Savages 4-1 in the final match of the season. Winterbottom went on to manage the team after retiring from playing career.
It is Tunisia’s oldest club. St. Joseph’s (1880), Hong Kong Football Club (1886), and Buffs are among the earliest clubs in Hong Kong (1886). The British founded all of these clubs. South China AA was the first club created by natives (1904). They also were the first club to win the Hong Kong FA Cup, doing so in 1925. Their victory was later revoked by the Football Association due to concerns over discrimination against Chinese players.
In Africa, CA Bizertin is the oldest club still active today. Founded in 1876, they play in the Tunisian Ligue 1.
The club was based in Bizerte until 1969 when they moved to Tunis. This move was made because there were not enough players available in Bizerte to form a team that could compete with the other teams. The club has always had trouble attracting players from Bizerte because of this. Now they mainly draw their players from Tunis which is why they are such a popular team in the capital city.
St. Joseph’s originally began as two separate clubs: St. Joseph’s College Football Club and St. Joseph’s R.C. Football Club. In 1880, they joined together as one organization called St. Joseph’s Athletic Club. They eventually became a permanent organization in 1889. The club started out playing in the East India Company Cricket Ground before moving to the African Sports Club Grounds in 1890.
By 1886, London had established the first “true” hockey association. The Blackheath & Old Elthamians Hockey Club, founded in 1861, is said to be the world’s oldest club. There are conflicting reports about whether the Blackheath team actually played a game that year.
Hockey is a winter sport that was originally played on ice surfaces made of snow or water. Today, it is performed on ice rinks which are usually built with natural ice that has been melted down or an artificial surface that has been painted white like the old ice surfaces used for playing hockey.
The first known hockey match was played in Canada in 1859. A Canadian group called the Philadelphian Rink Rangers defeated an American team 8-7 in front of a crowd of approximately 100 people. In 1872, the first international hockey match was played between Canada and the United States. The Canadians won the match 3-1.
In 1901, the first modern Olympic tournament was held in Stockholm, Sweden. It included a hockey event for the first time. Eleven countries participated in this first tournament. Canada, the country who has always dominated the event, took home the gold medal after beating Norway 4-3 in the final match.
RCD Mallorca is the Balearic Islands’ oldest club. Adolfo Vazquez, a republican engineer, created the team in 1916 and called it Alfonso XIII Football Club after the then-Spanish king. The original stadium, Buenos Aires, was opened on March 25, 1916, with an 0-8 loss to Barcelona. In 1919, the team moved to the new La Manga Stadium and never returned to Buenos Aires.
They became one of the top teams in Spain immediately after their founding. In 1937, they won the first division championship of Spanish football (then known as Primera Fuerza). After World War II, RCD continued to be one of the best clubs in Spain, winning the league again in 1946 and 1947. The club has also won the King’s Cup twice, in 1944 and 1945. Today, RCD plays in the second division - the third tier of Spanish football. They have been playing there since 1953 when they dropped down after finishing last.
If you ask most people which team is more famous in the Balearic Islands, they will probably say FC Barcelona. However, according to research done by the newspaper El Periodico, the oldest team here is actually RCD Mallorca. They were founded in 1916 just months before Barça did and they are still very popular among the local population.
Besides being the oldest team in the islands, they are also the most successful with four championships and two King’s Cups.
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