Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard was founded in 1928 under the name "Football Club Sochaux" by Jean-Pierre Peugeot, a director of Peugeot, a French car manufacturing company. Peugeot sought to create a football club for the leisure time of the company's workers. He installed Louis Maillard-Salin as the club's first president, and made Maurice Bailly the club's first manager. Bailly was also a member of the team. Sochaux played its first match on 2 September 1928 against the reserve team of local club "AS Montbéliard". The club was inserted into the lowest level of league football in the Franche-Comté region and played its first league match three weeks later winning 12–1.