View source for Amateur Football Alliance

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox football association
| Logo			= Amateur Football Alliance logo.png
| Badge_size            = 200
| Founded		= May 1906 ''(as Amateur Football Defence Council)''<br>7 July 1907 ''(as Amateur Football Association)''
| Headquarters          = Unit 3, 7 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SL
| Region		=  
|Head title = [[Chief executive officer|CEO]]
| Head = Jason Kilby
| Website		= {{URL|http://www.amateur-fa.com/}}
}}
The '''Amateur FA (Football Alliance)''' is a [[county football association]] in England.  It is unusual among county FAs in not serving a particular geographical area. It was founded in 1906 as the '''Amateur Football Defence Council''', was briefly known as the '''Amateur Football Defence Federation''', and was reformed as the '''Amateur Football Association''' in 1907, when [[the Football Association|The FA]] required all county associations to admit professional clubs. Its aim was, as the decline of [[amateurism]] at the highest levels of football set in, to protect and preserve the original amateur spirit. It prides itself on the skill and competitiveness of its leagues, and on its traditions of fair play and respect for opponents and match officials. Many leagues still maintain rules that require clubs to provide food and drink to their opponents and match officials after the match in a clubhouse or [[public house]].

==History==
[[Image:Amateur Football Association.jpg|right|thumb|One view of the split.]]
With tension between amateur clubs and the [[Football Association]] mounting due to the rise of professionalism, the organisation was formed in May 1906 as the Amateur Football Defence Council, following unanimous agreement at a meeting of around 100 clubs from the [[London metropolitan area]].<ref>{{cite news| newspaper=The Nottingham Evening Post| date=25 May 1906| page=8| title=Sporting Paragraphs| url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19060525/105/0008| via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]| url-access=subscription| access-date=12 March 2023}}</ref> In September 1906, the AFDC warned the [[London FA]] that its clubs would be boycotting the [[London Senior Cup]] the following season.<ref>{{cite news| newspaper=The Athletic News| date=10 September 1906| page=1| title=Defying the Association| url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19060525/105/0008| via=British Newspaper Archive| url-access=subscription| access-date=12 March 2023}}</ref> Later that month, the organisation was renamed the Amateur Football Defence Federation.<ref>{{cite news| title=Amateur Football| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17293473/amateur_football_defence_council/| newspaper=The Times| date=27 September 1906| page=10| via=[[Newspapers.com]]| access-date=12 March 2023| archive-date=11 April 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411160132/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17293473/amateur_football_defence_council/| url-status=live}} {{free access}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=The Amateur Split|newspaper=The Standard| location = London| date = 6 November 1906 | page=12| url=https://newspaperarchive.com/nzd-wikipedia-sports-clipping-nov-06-1906-551872/}} {{free access}}</ref>

===Split from football association===

Following the general meeting of [[The Football Association]] on 31 May 1907, it was decided by the Federation that in the best interest of amateur football that a new and separate organisation must be created. The inaugural meeting of the Amateur Football Association was held in the Crown Room of the Holborn Restaurant on 7 July 1907.<ref name=nottsform>{{cite news|title=Amateur Football Association|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19070709/070/0007|work=Nottingham Evening Post|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=7|issue=9000|access-date=5 July 2014|date=9 July 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> They were addressed by [[Alfred Lyttelton]] [[Member of Parliament|MP]], before B.A. Glanville of [[Clapham Rovers F.C.|Clapham Rovers]] proposed the formation of the Association, which was seconded by N.C. Bailey. It was stated that the foundation of the Association wasn't in opposition to professionalism in sport but instead to the "fungus growth which had become attached to the machinery of football management".<ref name=formation>{{cite news|title=The Amateur Football Association|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000379/19070712/018/0002|work=The Lichfield Mercury|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=2|issue=1472|access-date=5 July 2014|date=12 July 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Richard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone|Lord Alverstone]] was elected as the first president of the new society,<ref name=formation/> and the [[Corinthian F.C.|Corinthians]] offered to provide a trophy for a new cup competition. The existing Federation committee was elected to the new organisation.<ref name=nottsform/>

===Football association ban on amateur players and clubs===

The Football Association responded by banning amateur players from playing for professional clubs,<ref>{{cite news|title=Action of Oxford University|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19071019/123/0003|work=Western Daily Press|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=2|volume=99|issue=15418|access-date=5 July 2014|date=19 October 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and resulted in the end of the [[Sheriff of London Charity Shield]] after the FA refused to provide a professional team for the match, and barred all its members from either playing or providing facilities.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sporting Paragraphs|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19080208/077/0008|work=Nottingham Evening Post|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=8|issue=9183|access-date=2 July 2014|date=8 February 1908|url-access=subscription}}</ref> However a later resolution by the FA meant that any player who had played for his school, college or university team which was a member of the Amateur Football Association was not banned from playing for a professional team.<ref>{{cite news|title=Public School Players and the Association|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19071210/202/0007|work=Western Daily Press|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=7|volume=99|issue=16461|access-date=5 July 2014|date=10 December 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Furthermore, the FA asked the [[Scottish Football Association|Scottish]], [[Welsh Football Association|Welsh]] and [[Irish Football Association]] not to recognise the formation of the AFA.<ref>{{cite news|title=Footballers and the Compensation Act|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19070920/077/0003|work=Evening Telegraph and Post|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=3|issue=9556|access-date=5 July 2014|date=20 September 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

A number of teams were forced to choose between one association or the other. [[Cambridge University A.F.C.|Cambridge University]] pledged their allegiance to the Amateur Football Association and in response, so did [[Oxford University A.F.C.|Oxford University]] although they would have preferred to remain neutral between the two.<ref>{{cite news|title=Oxford University Join the Amateur Association|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19071015/274/0012|work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=12|issue=18818|access-date=5 July 2014|date=15 October 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Both the [[Leicestershire and Rutland County Football Association|Leicestershire]] and [[Essex Football Association]] were early supporters of the actions of the Football Association against the AFA.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Football Association|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19070702/292/0014|work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=14|issue=18728|access-date=5 July 2014|date=2 July 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Meanwhile, both the [[Army Football Association|Army]] and [[Royal Navy Football Association]]s took the question of which Association to support by holding a vote of its member clubs; this resulting in both remaining with the Football Association.<ref>{{cite news|title=Army and Navy Loyal to FA|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000711/19070827/095/0004|work=The Lancashire Daily Post|via=British Newspaper Archive|page=4|issue=6482|access-date=5 July 2014|date=27 August 1907|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The AFA tried to join [[FIFA]], but it was not admitted, so it founded [[UIAFA]] along with French [[Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques|USFSA]] and Bohemian [[Football Association of the Czech Republic|ČSF]] in March 1909.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesx/xporoobeke1911.html |title=Grand Tournoi Européen (Roubaix) 1911 |website=Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) |accessdate=3 May 2023 }}</ref>

===Ban repealed===

The schism lasted until 1914, when the FA agreed to allow the AFA to retain its amateur policy. The AFA, Oxford, Cambridge, and the [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]]s would each nominate one member of the [[FA Council]], with the AFA also represented on the [[England national football team|national team]] selection committee and [[FA Amateur Cup|Amateur Cup]] committee.<ref name="porter81">Porter 2013, p.81</ref> A maximum of twelve clubs per year (four from one county) could join the AFA.<ref>Porter 2013, p.84 fn.81</ref>

Two current AFA clubs are former [[FA Cup]] winners: [[Old Etonians F.C.|Old Etonians]] and [[Old Carthusians F.C.|Old Carthusians]], who both currently play in the [[Arthurian League]].  Past members of the AFA include [[Ipswich Town F.C.|Ipswich Town]], [[Barnet F.C.|Barnet]], [[Cambridge City F.C.|Cambridge City]], the [[Casuals F.C.|Casuals]] and [[Corinthian F.C.|the Corinthians]]. [[Stanley Rous|Sir Stanley Rous]], who was president of [[FIFA]], was also the president of the AFA. The AFA's flagship competition is the [[AFA Senior Cup]] which is contested by AFA-affiliated clubs on Saturday afternoons. Most of these clubs enter one of the two AFA-affiliated Saturday leagues, the [[Southern Amateur Football League|Southern Amateur League]], [[Amateur Football Combination]] (now merged with the Southern Amateur League in July 2025) and the [[Arthurian League]], the SAL having been founded in the same year as the AFA (1907) by more or less the same group of people.

The Amateur FA's heartland is in [[London]] and the [[Home Counties]].

The organisation changed its name to the Amateur Football Alliance in April 1934.<ref>{{cite news| title=New Name| newspaper=Leeds Mercury| page=11| date=14 April 1934| url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19340414/348/0011| via=British Newspaper Archive| url-access=subscription| access-date=12 March 2023}}</ref>

==References==
===Sources===
* {{Cite book|last=Morris|first=Terry|title=In A Class of Their Own: A History of English Amateur Football|year=2015|publisher=Chequered Flag Publishing|isbn=978-0-9932152-4-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Porter|first=Dilwyn|editor-last1=Porter|editor-first1=Dilwyn|editor-last2=Wagg|editor-first2=Stephen|title=Amateurism in British Sport: It Matters Not Who Won Or Lost?|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7V3dAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|access-date=2017-05-31|date=2013-09-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136802911|pages=62–84|chapter=The AFA, the FA, and English Football's 'Great Split', 1907–14}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.amateur-fa.com/ Official website of the Amateur Football Alliance]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130814011532/http://afalonsar.co.uk/about_us.html History from The AFA and London Society of Association Referees]

{{County Football Association}}
[[Category:Amateur association football]]
[[Category:County football associations]]
[[Category:Sports organizations established in 1907]]
[[Category:1907 establishments in England]]