Southern Amateur Football League

Infobox sports league

pixels =180
sport=Football
founded=1907
teams=222 "(21 divisions)"
"(3 senior divisions)"
country=ENG
champion=(Division 1) West Wickham(Division 2) Old Esthameians(Division 3) Old ParkoniansThe Southern Amateur League (SAL) is an association football league affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance (AFA). It is based in and around Greater London and was formed in 1907. The league admits only fully amateur clubs which are a mixture of 'old boys' associations from schools and colleges, business house sports clubs as well as private clubs. For the 2007-08 centenary season the league consisted of 33 clubs and a well over 200 teams.

Club set-up, sportsmanship and hospitality

As in many other AFA affiliated leagues, it is common for clubs to run multiple teams with the minimum in the SAL being four while the biggest clubs run up to 10 teams. The idea with this is that players of all abilities can play against teams from other clubs of a similar standard. The best players will be picked for the "1st XI" (the first team), the best of the remainder going into the 2nd XI and so on down the club.

One of the main trademarks of the league is that it expects players to socialise with their opposition and match officials after games. One league rule insists that the home team provide a hot meal for their opponents. The levels of foul play and gamesmanship more and more often witnessed at higher levels of the game are relatively low in the lower XI's where team captains are known to substitute players who abuse opponents or referees, but are just as prevalent in the upper echelons of the League (1st - 3rd XI's)

League set up and Challenge Cups

The league is divided into four sections: Senior (1st XIs only), Intermediate (2nd XIs only), Junior (3rd XIs) only and Minor (4th XIs and lower). In the Senior, Intermediate and Junior sections there are three divisions (Divisions 1, 2 and 3) each containing 11 teams. The Minor section has a London-wide Division 1 fed by North and South sections.

As well as league competitions the SAL runs five cup competitions. These are:

the Junior Cup (3rd XIs only),
Minor Cup (4th XIs only),
Senior Novets Cup (5th XIs only),
Intermediate Novets Cup (6th XIs only),
Junior Novets Cup (7th XIs and lower).

These were inaugurated for the 1995-96 season and were named after their corresponding AFA Cup competitions. There are no Cups for the 1st and 2nd XIs in the league as these teams are offered an extra 'county divisional' cup by the AFA (either the Middlesex/Essex Cup or the Surrey/Kent Cup, depending on location). Because of this it is thought that interest in an extra competition would not be high enough to justify its introduction at 1st or 2nd XI level.

AL clubs in other competitions

Teams in the Southern Amateur League also compete in non-SAL run competitions starting with the cup competitions run by the Amateur Football Alliance. The AFA Senior Cup - which has been running since 1907 - is the AFA's flagship competition and the premier prize on offer for all AFA affiliated clubs. SAL sides have an excellent record in the competition with most editions having been won by SAL clubs.

SAL clubs also enter the Old Boys, London Old Boys and London Financial FA Cup competitions while a number of clubs - Carshalton, Civil Service, Merton and West Wickham - also enter cups run by their parent counties (Surrey, London, Surrey and Kent respectively).

Representative team

The League representative has played a programme of friendly fixtures since the 1920s against other AFA affiliated leagues and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In recent seasons the biggest annual fixture has been the Steve Langley Trophy game against the Amateur Football Combination in memory of the former SAL and Crouch End Vampires captain who died tragically young of cancer in 2003.

For the 2007-2008 season the team entered the FA National League System Cup for the first time, winning the competition on penalties against the Midland Combination in the final at Coventry City F.C. after a 1-1 draw with the Midland Football Combination (Division 1). The southern semi-final saw an AFA 'derby' win over the Amateur Football Combination at Dulwich Hamlet.

The team will now travel to Turin in October 2008 to compete in the Intermediary Round of the UEFA Regions Cup.

History, highlights and the future

The Southern Amateur League was founded in 1907 and has been affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance ever since. It is proud to retain the membership to this day of three founder members - Alleyn Old Boys, Civil Service and Crouch End Vampires - and has been graced in the past by the likes of Ipswich Town (former Football League champions), Cambridge City (Conference South)and Hastings United (Isthmian League Division One South).

After the Great War a Reserve Team Section was added and the league grew steadily after World War II as 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and even - for just 2 years - 9th team sections were added to meet the demand of member clubs. After the 9th team retreated into the 8th team section after the 1993-94 season the 7th team section was then swallowed-up in 1996 to form the Minor Teams Section for 7th teams and lower.

After the 2002-03 season the league made the biggest change to its constitution in its 96 years history when it regionalised its lower divisions. The 4th, 5th, 6th and Minor Teams sections were merged into one new Minor section with North and South divisions feeding a London-wide Division 1. The move is intended to make it more practical for players - especially younger players who do not have private transport - to play in the league. The indications so far are that the change has worked as, after 15 years of steady decline, numbers of teams have begun to increase once again.

Recent divisional champions, Senior Section

External links

* [http://www.SouthernAmateurLeague.co.uk Southern Amateur League]
* [http://www.Amateur-FA.com Amateur Football Alliance]
* [http://www.AmateurFootballCombination.com Amateur Football Combination]
* [http://www.OldBoysCup.co.uk Old Boys Cup]