Argentine Association Football League

The Argentine Association Football League was the first football association of Argentina and predecessor of current Argentine Football Association.[1] The association has a historic importance in football for having organised the first official championship outside the United Kingdom (which has the oldest football competition, the FA Cup established in 1871).[2]

Argentine Association Football League
Argentina
Founded7 March, 1891
Foldedc. September 1891 (1891-09)
HeadquartersBuenos Aires
PresidentF.L. Wooley

History

By the 1890s, more than 20,000 inhabitants of Argentina were British, most of them employees of railway companies. They had introduced several sports to the country, with football among them.[3]

On March 7, 1891, the act of foundation of the "Argentine Association Football League" was signed.[4] Board members were F.L. Wooley (president),[1] Rovenscraf, Arcels, Mc Ewen, Hughes, Mc Intoch and Alec Lamont.[5][6]

Meeting to form a football league in Argentina, as chronicled by The Standard, 14 February 1891

The recently formed Association set three objectives:

  • The organisation of a championship played regularly
  • The establishment of an institution to rule the championship created
  • A code of regulations

The first Argentine football championship began on April 12, 1891, with five teams contesting the competition, they were, Old Caledonians, Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway, Buenos Aires Football Club, Belgrano Football Club and St. Andrews.

The "alma mater" of the League was Alec Lamont, who was employee of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway and also player of St. Andrew's. Almost all of Old Caledonians players were workers of the company that was doing the sewerage in Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires and Rosario Railways players were also workers, who traveled from Campana to play the championship.

— Charles Douglas Moffatt, the MVP of the 1891 final, in an interview with Félix Frascara published on El Gráfico, 1934[3]

After organising the first championship (won by Old Caledonian and St. Andrew's), the Association was dissolved. Therefore no championship would be held in 1892 until a new association with the same name (currently Argentine Football Association) was established in 1893.

See also

References
  1. Historia de la AFA on AFA website
  2. FA Cup: World soccer's oldest cup competition not aging well, USA Today, 22 Feb 2016
  3. "Hace 120 años, el fútbol tenía su primer torneo local" by Oscar Barnade, Clarín, 12 Apr 2011
  4. Historia de fútbol de AFA: orígenes 1891/1899, by Carlos Yametti – Edición del Autor (2011) – ISBN 978-987-05-9773-5
  5. Argentina 1891 by Osvaldo Gorgazzi on RSSSF
  6. Historia del Fútbol Amateur en la Argentina, by Jorge Iwanczuk – Autores Editores (1992) – ISBN 9504343848
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