page_title: Oldest football clubs
section_title: Argentina
hierarchical_section_title: Oldest football clubs / Rest of the world / South America / Argentina
caption_attribution_description: English: The Rosario Athletic Club rugby team of 1884, considered the oldest photo of a rugby team in Argentina. Players were C.E. Baines, W. Graham, A. Musgrove, Williamson, A. Dickensen, R.C. Baines (cap), Bolland, Geary, Hall, Hanckell, Miles, Parry, Topping, Keenan, Jones.
context_page_description: The oldest football clubs trace their origins to the mid-19th century, a period when football evolved from being a casual pastime to an organised, mainstream sport.
  The identity of the oldest football clubs in the world, or even in a particular country, is often disputed or claimed by several clubs, across several codes of football. Late rugby clubs also referred to themselves, or continue to refer to themselves, as simply a "football club", or as a "rugby football club". "Club" has always meant an independent entity and, during the historical period in question, very few high school or university teams were independent of the educational institutions concerned. Consequently, school and university football teams were seldom referred to as "clubs". That has always been the case, for example, in American football, which has always had ties to college sport in general. Conversely, however, the oldest still-existing "football club" with a well-documented, continuous history is Dublin University Football Club, a rugby union club founded in 1854 at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, although there exists some record of Guy's Hospital Football Club being founded in 1843.
context_section_description: Buenos Aires Cricket & Rugby Club claims to be the oldest club still in existence in Argentina. According to the club's website, the club was founded before 8 December 1864 as a cricket institution. The date of foundation has been recognised by the Buenos Aires Rugby Union. It is however believed that the club was founded in 1831, with existing documentary evidence about a cricket match played by Buenos Aires that same year. Nevertheless, the practise of any "football" code did not start until 1951 when the BACC merged with the Buenos Aires F.C. and rugby union was added.
  Club Atlético del Rosario was officially established in 1867 as a cricket institution. The club soon added association football, being the first club from Rosario playing in the Primera División, the top division of Argentina. In rugby union, Rosario AC played the first inter-clubs match in the country on 28 June 1886, when the team faced Buenos Aires Football Club.
  Having been established in 1875, Club Mercedes is considered the oldest association football club still in existence in Argentina. This places Mercedes above Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata and Quilmes, both founded in 1887.
caption: Argentine Rosario A.C. rugby union squad in 1884. This is supposed to be the oldest photo of a rugby team in the country
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