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35-708: The Southern Amateur League ( SAL ) is an association football league in England affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance (AFA). It is based in and around Greater London and caters for 11–a–side men's adult teams. A feature of the league is 'multi-team football', common in AFA leagues, with clubs fielding an average of 3.5 teams each. For season 2023–24 the league has over 40 open aged member clubs and several veterans-only clubs running around 190 teams in 17 divisions. All clubs are strictly amateur. As in other AFA leagues it

70-740: A clubhouse or public house . 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 . In September 1906, the AFDC warned the London FA that its clubs would be boycotting

105-401: A negative and positive light. Since amateurs often lack formal training and are self-taught, some amateur work may be considered sub-par. For example, amateur athletes in sports such as basketball , baseball , or football are regarded as possessing a lower level of ability than professional athletes. On the other hand, an amateur may be in a position to approach a subject with an open mind (as

140-454: A result of the lack of formal training) and in a financially disinterested manner. An amateur who dabbles in a field out of interest rather than as a profession, or possesses a general but superficial interest in any art or a branch of knowledge, is often referred to as a dilettante . Through most of the 20th century the Olympics allowed only amateur athletes to participate and this amateur code

175-632: 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 FA required all county associations to admit professional clubs. Its aim was, as

210-432: Is common for clubs to run several teams with some SAL clubs running up to 10 teams. This allows players of all abilities to play against teams from other clubs of a similar standard. The best players will be picked for the 1st team, the best of the remainder going into the 2nd team and so on down the club. The SAL places emphasis on sportsmanship and hospitality, with all players expected to socialise with their opponents and

245-741: The 1984 Winter Olympics , a dispute formed over what made a player a professional. The IOC had adopted a rule that made any player who had signed an NHL contract but played less than ten games in the league eligible. However, the United States Olympic Committee maintained that any player contracted with an NHL team was a professional and therefore not eligible to play. The IOC held an emergency meeting that ruled NHL-contracted players were eligible, as long as they had not played in any NHL games. This made five players on Olympic rosters—one Austrian, two Italians and two Canadians—ineligible. Players who had played in other professional leagues—such as

280-989: The Arthurian League in which the three league representative teams play a round-robin tournament. Since 2007 the team has played in the FA Inter-League Cup which it won at the first attempt in 2008. This earned the team the chance to represent England at the 2008 UEFA Regions Cup. Ealing Association* Lensbury & Britannic House* Eastbourne* Winchmore Hill* Alexandra Park* indicates team also won SAL Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Essex Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Middlesex Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Surrey Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Middlesex/Essex Senior Cup indicates team also won AFA Surrey/Kent Senior Cup indicates team also won Old Boys Senior Cup Amateur Football Alliance The Amateur Football Alliance

315-578: The Arthurian League . Past members of the AFA include Ipswich Town , Barnet , Cambridge City , the Casuals and the Corinthians . 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 three AFA-affiliated Saturday leagues,

350-755: The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive against the Soviet team's full-time athletes and the other constantly improving European teams. They pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues but met opposition from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). At the IIHF Congress in 1969,

385-666: The London Senior Cup the following season. Later that month, the organisation was renamed the Amateur Football Defence Federation. 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

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420-692: The Southern Amateur League , Amateur Football Combination 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 AFA's heartland is in London and the Home Counties . The organisation changed its name to the Amateur Football Alliance in April 1934. Amateurism Historically, the amateur was considered to be

455-733: The World Hockey Association —were allowed to play. Canadian hockey official Alan Eagleson stated that the rule was only applied to the NHL and that professionally contracted players in European leagues were still considered amateurs. Murray Costello of the CAHA suggested that a Canadian withdrawal was possible. In 1986, the IOC voted to allow all athletes to compete in Olympic Games starting in 1988, but let

490-721: The AFA (either the Middlesex/Essex Cup or the Surrey/Kent Cup, depending on location). The veterans competitions began in 2018. Three of the current members (Alleyn Old Boys, Civil Service and Crouch End Vampires) are founder members of the League while 19 have been in membership since before World War II. The League representative team has played a programme of friendly fixtures since 1907 against other AFA affiliated leagues and universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Two matches are played each season in memory of past servants to

525-562: The FA agreed to allow the AFA to retain its amateur policy. The AFA, Oxford, Cambridge, and the public schools would each nominate one member of the FA Council , with the AFA also represented on the national team selection committee and Amateur Cup committee. A maximum of twelve clubs per year (four from one county) could join the AFA. Two current AFA clubs are former FA Cup winners: Old Etonians and Old Carthusians , who both currently play in

560-509: The FA refused to provide a professional team for the match, and barred all its members from either playing or providing facilities. 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. Furthermore, the FA asked the Scottish , Welsh and Irish Football Association not to recognise

595-642: The Football Association against the AFA. Meanwhile, both the Army and Royal Navy Football Associations 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. The AFA tried to join FIFA , but it was not admitted, so it founded UIAFA along with French USFSA and Bohemian ČSF in March 1909. The schism lasted until 1914, when

630-635: The IIHF decided to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional hockey players at the 1970 World Championships in Montreal and Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada. The decision was reversed in January 1970 after IOC President Avery Brundage said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made. In response, Canada withdrew from all international ice hockey competitions and officials stated that they would not return until "open competition"

665-660: The Intermediate and Junior Sections but 1st teams wishing to move up to the Senior Section must do by application the League Management Committee (only 1st teams may play in the Senior Section). In 2018 a Veterans Section was added, divided into north and south sections for league competitions. Clubs do not have to enter the open-age competitions in order to enter the veterans competition and do not have to play in

700-712: The League. The Champion Club plays against the Senior Cup winners at the beginning of each season for the Stuart Hyde Trophy, named for the former SAL and Southgate Olympic team manager. The League also plays the Amateur Football Combination for the Steve Langley Cup in honour of the former SAL, AFA and Crouch End Vampires captain. This match is part of the Argonaut Trophy competition which also involves

735-447: The activities of amateurs. Gregor Mendel was an amateur scientist who never held a position in his field of study. Radio astronomy was founded by Grote Reber , an amateur radio operator . Radio itself was greatly advanced by Guglielmo Marconi , a young Italian man who started out by tinkering with a coherer and a spark coil as an amateur electrician. Pierre de Fermat was a highly influential mathematician whose primary vocation

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770-615: The breakup of the Amateur Athletic Union as a wholesale sports governing body at the Olympic level). Olympic regulations regarding amateur status of athletes were eventually abandoned in the 1990s with the exception of wrestling, where the amateur fight rules are used due to the fact that professional wrestling is largely staged with predetermined outcomes. Starting from the 2016 Summer Olympics , professionals were allowed to compete in boxing, though amateur fight rules are still used for

805-407: 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

840-460: The formation of the AFA. A number of teams were forced to choose between one association or the other. Cambridge University pledged their allegiance to the Amateur Football Association and in response, so did Oxford University although they would have preferred to remain neutral between the two. Both the Leicestershire and Essex Football Association were early supporters of the actions of

875-466: The ideal balance between pure intent, open mind, and the interest or passion for a subject. That ideology spanned many different fields of interest. It may have its roots in the ancient Greek philosophy of amateur athletes competing in the Olympics . The ancient Greek citizens spent most of their time in other pursuits, but competed according to their natural talents and abilities. The "gentleman amateur"

910-632: The individual sport federations decide if they wanted to allow professionals. After the 1972 retirement of IOC President Brundage, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed, amounting only to technicalities and lip service, until being completely abandoned in the 1990s (in the United States , the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 prohibits national governing bodies from having more stringent standards of amateur status than required by international governing bodies of respective sports. The act caused

945-538: The machinery of football management". Lord Alverstone was elected as the first president of the new society, and the Corinthians offered to provide a trophy for a new cup competition. The existing Federation committee was elected to the new organisation. The Football Association responded by banning amateur players from playing for professional clubs, and resulted in the end of the Sheriff of London Charity Shield after

980-422: The match officials after the game. Disciplinary problems and cases of violent conduct are generally perceived to be experienced less in SAL football – and AFA football in general – than in other types of football. The League is divided into four sections: Senior (restricted to 1st teams, 3 divisions), Intermediate (4 divisions), Junior North (5 divisions) and Junior South (6 divisions). Teams can be promoted between

1015-430: The tournament. Many amateurs make valuable contributions in the field of computer programming through the open source movement. Amateur dramatics is the performance of plays or musical theater , often to high standards, but lacking the budgets of professional West End or Broadway performances. Astronomy , chemistry, history, linguistics, and the natural sciences are among the fields that have benefited from

1050-407: The veterans league competition in order to enter the cup and shield competitions. As well as league competitions the SAL runs ten cup competitions. These are: The Junior Cup and below were inaugurated for the 1995–96. The Senior and Intermediate Cups were introduced for season 2015–16. They were not previously considered necessary as 1st and 2nd teams were offered an extra 'county divisional' cup by

1085-495: Was a phenomenon among the gentry of Great Britain from the 17th century until the 20th century. With the start of the Age of Reason , with people thinking more about how the world works around them, (see science in the Age of Enlightenment ), things like the cabinets of curiosities , and the writing of the book The Christian Virtuoso , started to shape the idea of the gentleman amateur. He

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1120-570: Was held in the Crown Room of the Holborn Restaurant on 7 July 1907. They were addressed by Alfred Lyttelton MP , before B.A. Glanville of 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

1155-466: Was instituted. Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. In 1976, the IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" between all players in the World Championships. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's amateur-only policy. Before

1190-455: Was strictly enforced, Jim Thorpe was stripped of track and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912. Later on, the nations of the Communist Bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally students , soldiers , or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. Near the end of the 1960s,

1225-505: Was vastly interested in a particular topic, and studied, observed, and collected things and information on his topic of choice. The Royal Society in Great Britain was generally composed of these "gentleman amateurs", and is one of the reasons science today exists the way it does. A few examples of these gentleman amateurs are Francis Bacon , Isaac Newton , and Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington . Amateurism can be seen in both

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