Balham

Balham compete in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South, Step 5 of the pyramid, from a ground they have occupied only since 2024: Imperial Fields in Mitcham, shared with Tooting & Mitcham United.

The club did not grow out of a breakaway or a pub side. Greg Cruttwell founded the Balham Blazers as a youth setup in 2001, and in 2011 built a senior team on top of it purely to give those players somewhere to go once they turned adult.

Balham took five promotions in six seasons, out of the Surrey South Eastern Combination and up to the Combined Counties League Premier Division by 2017, the same year they won the London Senior Trophy. Ground grading nearly stalled that climb: in 2015 the FA blocked a promotion because their pitch at Wimbledon Extension did not meet the required standard, and Balham spent time groundsharing in Cobham before qualifying properly.

The name attached to the club is Fabio Carvalho, who played for the Blazers and then Balham FC's youth section between 2012 and 2015 before Fulham's academy signed him. He went on to a Premier League debut and interest from Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea.

Locally, the rivalry runs through groundmates: Tooting & Mitcham United, whose pitch Balham now share, and Colliers Wood United, with whom they groundshared for years before that. There is no derby name attached to either fixture.