list of oldest football competitions

!Year

!Competition

!Type

!First Trophy, Years

!Original code

!Location

!Notes & references

|Lincolnshire FA County Senior Trophy

|county cup

|1884–

|Association Football

|Lincolnshire, England

|

|Medaille Fodbold Konkurrence

|regional cup

|April 29th, 1888

|Pre-association

|Denmark

|Oldest football league outside of Great Britain and Ireland.

| Association football

!Year (Date)

!Competition

!Type

!First Trophy,

Years

!Original code

!Location

!Notes & references

|Melbourne Grammar School-Scotch College Cordner-Eggleston Cup, 1989–

|schools fixture

|Cordner-Eggleston Cup

|experimental rules

|Melbourne, Australia

|

|South Australian Football Association

|club league

|Thomas Seymour Hill Premiership Trophy

|Australian rules football

|Adelaide, South Australia

|Oldest Australian rules football league and earliest governing body. The most influential footballing body in South Australia.

|Victorian Football Association

|club league

|

|Victorian rules

|Melbourne, Australia

|Most influential early governing body for Australian rules football in Victoria.

|Tasmanian Football League

|club league

|

|Victorian rules

|Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

|Some discontinuity, most recently dormant between 2001 and 2008.

|Bendigo Football League

|club league

|

|Victorian rules

|Bendigo, Australia

|Includes the Castlemaine football club, second oldest football club in Australia.

|Black Diamond Football League

|club league

|Black Diamond Challenge Cup, 1888–

|Australian rules football

|Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

|Trophy donated to the league by Newcastle's Richmond Tobacco Co., claims to be the longest running football trophy in Australia.{{cite news|date=12 May 1888|title=FOOTBALL.|page=6|newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876–1954)|publisher=National Library of Australia|location=NSW|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135915067|access-date=10 May 2014}}{{cite web|title=Australian Football 150 Years > Article > Football gold mined in coal country|url=http://150years.com.au/Home/Article/tabid/11376/Default.aspx?newsId=62244|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706100126/http://www.150years.com.au/Home/Article/tabid/11376/Default.aspx?newsId=62244|archive-date=6 July 2011|access-date=27 June 2008}}

|West Australian Football League

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Perth, Western Australia

|

|Broken Hill Football League

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia

|

|Ballarat Football Association

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Ballarat, Victoria

|

|Goldfields Football League

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

|

|Victorian Football League/Australian Football League

|club league

|Flag 1895-; AFL Premiership Cup, 1959–

|Australian rules football

|Victoria, Australia (national since 1990)

|Now the game's premier competition and highest governing body.

|Sydney AFL

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Sydney, Australia

|

|AFL Queensland State League

|club league

|

|Australian rules football

|Brisbane, Australia

|

!Year (Date)

!Competition

!Type

!First Trophy,

Years

!Original code

!Location

!Notes & references

|Edinburgh Academy vs Merchiston Castle School

|schools fixture

|

|Rugby football

|Edinburgh, Scotland

|{{cite web|last=Thau|first=Chris|date=26 December 2008|title=The oldest running rugby fixture in the world|url=https://www.world.rugby/news/23873|access-date=17 September 2019}}

|The Varsity Match

|University fixture

|Bowring Bowl

|Rugby football

|England

|The Varsity Match is an annual rugby union fixture played between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.

|United Hospitals Challenge Cup

|club trophy

|United Hospitals Challenge Cup – 1874–

|Rugby football

|Surrey, England

|Oldest rugby football competition in the world.

|Bromsgrove–KES

|schools fixture

|Siviter-Smith Cup, 1935–

|Rugby football

|Bromsgrove/Birmingham, England

|Later trophy donated by Paul Siviter-Smith, a Birmingham businessman, who had sons at both schools.Michael Blair, [https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-94779984 "RUGBY UNION: Refresher course in old values; King Edward's School Birmingham 0 Bromsgrove School 18"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030155348/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia |date=30 October 2022 }}, Birmingham Post, 2 December 2002Bromsgrove & KES Birmingham.

• Thomas Winter Hutton, King Edward's School, Birmingham, 1552–1952, Blackwell, 1952. p. 148 "The first Bromsgrove game was in 1875, and 121 games have been played—two in a season at one period."
• Henry Icely, Bromsgrove School through four centuries, Blackwell, 1953. pp. 69,99. "Rugby football, hitherto an unregulated and unsatisfactory game, was by 1875 a far better occupation for October half-holidays than wooding." "In the seventies the Rugby game was still twelve a side. There were School matches. KES, Birmingham, was an early fixture; SES, Oxford, was played for the first time in 1882."

|Ulster Schools Cup

|cup tournament

|Schools Cup 1876–

|Rugby football

|Ravenhill, Belfast, Northern Ireland

|

|Army Navy Match

|Inter-Services Competition

|The Babcock Trophy

|Rugby football

|England

|

|Calcutta Cup

|international challenge

|

|Rugby football

|England/Scotland

|Competed for by the England and Scotland international rugby teams annually.

|Home Nations Championship

|international tournament

|

|Rugby football

|Home Nations

|It is an annual international Rugby union competition between Home nations. It is also the oldest international sport tournament ever competed between Home Nations. But now, It became the Six Nations Championship with the addition of France and Italy.

|Auckland Premier

|club league

|

|Rugby football

|Auckland, New Zealand

|The winner of the competition has been awarded the Gallaher Shield since 1922.

|Currie Cup

|provincial tournament

|Currie Cup, 1889–

|Rugby football

|South Africa

|Oldest provincial rugby union competition in the world, and oldest national rugby union competition in the southern hemisphere.

|New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union

|club league

|

|Rugby union

|Sydney, Australia

|

|Ranfurly Shield

|provincial challenge

|Ranfurly Shield, 1902

|Rugby union

|New Zealand

| First won by Auckland in 1902, and first challenged for in 1904.

!Year (Date)

!Competition

!Type

!First Trophy,

Years

!Original code

!Location

!Notes & references

|Rugby Football League/Super League

|club league

|Rugby Football League Championship 1895–

|Rugby league

|England

|

|Challenge Cup

|club league

|

|Rugby league

|Europe

|

|NSWRL/National Rugby League

|club league

|

|Rugby league

|Sydney, Australia

|

|Queensland Rugby League

|club league

|

|Rugby league

|Brisbane, Australia

|

|The Ashes

|international challenge

|

|Rugby league

|Australia & Great Britain

|

|New Zealand Rugby League

|club league

|Rugby League Shield 1910–

|Rugby league

|Auckland, New Zealand

|

|Newcastle Rugby League

|club league

|

|Rugby league

|Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

|

|Illawarra Rugby League

|club league

|

|Rugby league

|Illawarra, New South Wales, Australia

|

!Year (Date)

!Competition

!Type

!First Trophy,

Years

!Original code

!Current Code

!Location

!Notes & references

|The Game

|Interscholastic match

|1875

|modified Rugby union

|American football

|United States

|

|All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

|inter-county cup

|1928

|Gaelic football

|Gaelic football

|

|

|Scarborough Fisherman v Fireman football match

|Cup

|The Silver Cup, 1901

|Experimental Rules

|Experimental Rules

|Scarborough, England

|Organised as a charity football match to raise money for the Evelyn and Maud that sank. Still played annually today to raise money for the Fisherman and Fireman fund.

|Yates Cup

|college league

|

|Canadian football

|Canadian football

|Ontario, Canada

|The Ontario University Athletics football trophy and oldest football trophy in North America.

|Rose Bowl Game

|bowl game

|

|American football

|American football

|Pasadena, California, United States

|

|Grey Cup

|Originally national club trophy; now national league

|

|"Rugby football" (early form of Canadian football)

|Canadian football

|Canada

|Now the championship trophy of the Canadian Football League.

!Years

!Date

!Competition

!Type

!First trophy awarded, years

!Original code

!Location

!Notes