Football in Australia has a unique standing in a sport-obsessed country, from local competitions, to the professional game, and the Matildas and Socceroos reaching the heights of the FIFA World Cup in the green and gold.
Regularly standing as the country's most participated junior game, football boasts a long heritage in Australia, with the game dating back to the 1850s.
With over 2,200 clubs in Australia and the first dating back to the 1880s, none can boast the longstanding history of Wollongong's Balgownie Rangers, Australia's oldest continually-running football club, which has been officially recognised among the oldest football clubs in the world.
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The club was started in 1883 as the fourth football club to form in Australia after Wanderers, Arcadian and Granville, however since the aforementioned clubs have now folded, Balgownie now sits as the 10th oldest football club in the world.
The list is headlined by English club Sheffield FC (1857) and Welsh club Wrexham AFC (1864), who earned back-to-back promotions, climbing the football pyramid to League One, after being bought by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
"It's a real honour to welcome the pioneer of Australian football into the Club of Pioneers project," Richard Tims, Chairman of Sheffield FC & Founder of the Club of Pioneers said.
The Club of Pioneers, begun by Sheffield FC — the world's oldest football club — brings together the oldest existing football clubs in the world and Balgownie Rangers will now see their jersey hung in the Sheffield FC football museum.
"It's a bit surreal, to tell you the truth, to think you can travel to England, go to Sheffield Football Club, walk into the football museum and look on the wall and see a Balgownie Rangers shirt hanging there," Balgownie's Club President Steve Buckley said.
"Since we've had this news on our social media I've ran into people down here, walking around, and they said they've seen it and they wanted to come and have a look."
| Rank | Team | Date Founded | Country |
| 1. | Sheffield FC | 24 Oct 1857 | England |
| 2. | Wrexham AFC | 4 Oct 1864 | Wales |
| 3. | Queens Park | 9 Jul 1867 | Scotland |
| 4. | Kjøbenhavns Boldklub | 24 Oct 1878 | Denmark |
| 5. | FC St Gallen | 19 Apr 1879 | Switzerland |
| 6. | Koninklijke HFC | 15 September 1879 | Netherlands |
| 7. | Cliftonville FC | 20 September 1879 | Northern Ireland |
| 8. | Royal Antwerp FC | 1 Jan 1880 | Belgium |
| 9. | Savages FC Pietermaritzburg | 1 Jan 1882 | South Africa |
| 10. | Balgownie Rangers | 16 Jun 1883 | Australia |
