World's oldest football club back on pitch

THE world's oldest football club is set to play its first match after reforming last year.

The Foot Ball Club of Edinburgh, established in 1824 by student lawyer John Hope, has been resurrected by 27-year-old Kenny Cameron.

The club will officially get the ball rolling in May when a team plays the McCrae's Battalion Trust at Tynecastle.

Organisers recently staged an open training session – the type the very first club became famous for a century and a half ago.

Mr Cameron said: "We had the club's first Saturday Club in around 150 years on Saturday there. We have the first 20 new members we needed and we'll play our first match in May in a charity game for the Forth 1 Help a Child Appeal. We are playing for the PMR Leisure Cup.

"The game is against the McCrae's Battalion Trust, which was set up to raise awareness of those who signed up to the battalion in the First World War.

"It was made famous as it was the one into which the entire Hearts first team enlisted. They were arguably the best team in Britain at the time.

"It's a great Edinburgh story and is a fitting first game for the world's first football club."