Although the club celebrated its Centenary in 2001, it could be said that our history actually started with a bang on November 5th 1898. On that date, for the first time, the Old Boy's played the school in a game of Association Football. In the previous year the school had changed from playing rugby. 

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The captain of this first Old Finchleian soccer side was Sir Alan Gordon Smith. It was not until 1901 that the regular Old Finchleians Football Club started with a game on the College ground against a side called "the Foxes". 

Because of the political upheaval caused by the change from rugby to soccer at the School, the current Old Finchleians club was not founded until 1904 and there was another Old Finchleians Club running in parallel until 1946. The Football club proved to be the bridge between the two Clubs and in April 1905, the two football clubs were merged into one.