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The South Australian Soccer Federation was the former governing body for soccer in South Australia. It was founded in 1902 as the South Australian British Football Association, and served as the governing body from South Australia's first competitive season in 1903, through to it's final season before going defunct in 2005. SASF ran South Australia's first, second and third division, as well as the Federation Cup and various other knockout competitions.
History
South Australian British Football Association (1903–1923)
The South Australian British Football Association was founded in October 1902, at the Frank Storr Tailor Shop on 94 Gawler Place in Adelaide. Frank Storr was named secretary, being one of the co-founders of the association,[2] the other being Tom Holford.[3] The first office bearers alongside the two founders were F Dobbie, and Jimmie Stewart. The executive council consisted of L Napier, E Salmon, H Brodie, T Angus, C Webb, J, Rhodda, F Meekin, Dunbar Poole, D Jeffries and G Noble. For the first season in 1903, three teams were founded, being North Adelaide, who played on the Adelaide Parklands, South Adelaide who played on Park 18 on the corner of Hutt Street and South Terrace, and Woodville, who played at an unknown location. A Port Adelaide team was organising to enter the competition as well. They advertised a meeting at the Railway Hotel in Port Adelaide at 8pm on 14 April, however the advertisement for the meeting was published in The Advertiser the following day, delaying the formation of the team until later that year. The first game under the South Australian British Football Association was on 25 April 1903, when South Adelaide hosted Woodville, a game that South Adelaide would win 4–1. At the end of the season, North Adelaide were champions, beating out South Adelaide on the final matchday on 19 September, winning 4–1 at home.[1][4]
Port Adelaide joined the association for the 1904 season along side an Adelaide team, founded by Jimmie Stewart, known as the Father of Soccer in South Australia.[5] The team's first elected president was SirFrank Moulden.[6] In 1905, Frank Storr relinquished the position of secretary and became the chairman, with Bob Holiday becoming secretary. Alongside the main competition, there were various cup competitions with advertisers wanting to be recognised in any way they could, one of the more extreme cases being in 1915, when there were four separate cup competitions.[1]
During the years of The Great War, the number of competitive games massively deteriorated. Many teams disbanded as they lost players to the war effort. In 1914, 18 clubs competed across three divisions, whereas in 1915, 7 clubs competed in one division, and by 1916, there weren't enough clubs to sustain a healthy competition. During a meeting on 29 September 1916, the association decided to suspend all operations. On 6 March 1919, a board meeting was held for the first time since operations were suspended, where the decision was made to reform the association, in addition to setting forth the motion that they would adopt the rules from the 1911 rulebook. The 1919 season consisted of only 5 teams, Hindmarsh, Sturt, Cheltenham, Tramways and North Adelaide, with Tramways disbanding midway through the season, despite efforts to keep it alive.[1][7]
Expansion (1924–1941)
During a meeting prior to the 1924 season, the council approved the name to be changed to South Australian Soccer Football Association, dropping British from the name. In October 1924, following the conclusion of the 1924 season, the Adelaide council instructed the association to enforce rules based on district football, which essentially means that players must play for the team based in the district that they currently live in. During the same AGM, it was also resolved that membership tickets could be purchased for 1 Australian pound. as well as introducing a levy on registered players, which earned the assocaition an estimated 20 pounds. Much controversy followed with the district system imposed for that season, with some players being granted special exemptions to continue to play outside of their home district. This continued into the 1926 season, with it ulimately culminating in 1927, with part of the association splitting off to form a breakaway competition, called the Adelaide and Suburban Soccer Football League, led by Bob Holiday. The league played without a district system. This competition was not recognised by SASFA, who following the breakaway, stated that all players and officials involved with the new league were suspended for life. The eight teams involved with the breakaway were Ascot Park, Kingswood, Lancashire Association, North Adelaide, Plympton, Port Colts, Pulteney Old Scholars and West United, although both North Adelaide and Plympton withdrew after two rounds, which caused the season to be annulled and restarted.[1][8]
The dispute between the two leagues continued through the 1928 season, but throughout an AGM that took three weeks to conclude, the dispute was resolved on 27 February 1929, with most of the teams from the breakaway league being allocated into Division Two. Following the reforming of the association, there was a lack of money, with many bills going unpaid. The 1929 season was the first season with three divisions, and also the first South Australian season with guaranteed promotion and relegation for the top two, and bottom two teams. The main cause for the new promotion and relegation system was to prevent teams from no-showing to their later games, once it was impossible for them to be champions. 1929 was also the first season for Northumberland & Durham, one of the most prominent early South Australian teams, who were founded by English migrants. In 1930, the number of teams competing in SASFA competitions increased from 24 to 32.[1]
In 1938, the association became the first sporting body in the Commonwealth to purchase it's own recreation ground. In order to do this, the association became an incorporated body. The land purchased was on Torrens Road in Brompton. Rowley Park was purchased for an unknown sum, and was rented out to other users for ₤26 a meeting and 1 penny per head. In addition to this, the association sought out a loan through the Australian Soccer Federation from The Football Association of ₤1,000 in order to improve Rowley Park and get them out of the debt they entered through purchasing the facility. With the purchase of Rowley Park however, the association lost their lease of Hindmarsh Oval. The Hindmarsh Corporation had the opportunity to purchase Rowley Park before the association bought it, and they offered the association a rent free period of 10 years at Hindmarsh Oval if they handed over Rowley Park. Since the period was only 10 years, the association rejected the offer, which led to Hindmarsh Oval being used by the SANFL. The next year Port Thistle would lease out Hindmarsh Oval, with the approval of the association.[1]
Near the conclusion of the 1939 season, World War II began with Australia once again joining the war effort alongside the United Kingdom. By the end of the 1940 season, many teams had entered recess due to loss of players to the war, however many continued on. The only season that was suspended was the 1942 season, due to a lack of teams, however different from the experience from the first war, the association opted not to go into recess, and continued competitions in 1943 with ten teams in one division, as opposed to 24 teams across three divisions in 1939. Following the war, the 1946 season had enough teams to recommence the second division, with the third division being re-established for the 1949 season.[1]
Post-war golden years (1943–1960)
The 1950s, through to the 1970s were known as The Golden Years of South Australian Soccer, with crowd numbers increasing, the skill level of players improving and with television arriving in Adelaide, and numerous newspapers partnering with the association. Following the end of World War II, numerous groups of immigrants arrived in South Australia and set up their own soccer teams, the most notable being Beograd, Croatia, Juventus, Napoli, Polonia and West Adelaide Hellas. Many top level teams had ethnic backgrounds such as Italian, Yugoslavian, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Lithuanian, Greek and Czech. In the early years of these ethnic clubs, many got into trouble with the association for not preventing ethnic racism towards their players. Since many grounds didn't have fences and allowed crowds to stand next to the pitch, heckling and pitch invasions were always a problem. These led many to the belief that ethnic clubs should not be allowed into the competitions. During a 1951 league game between Sturt and Juventus, an attack was made on the referee by supporters of Juventus. This caused many referees in the association to refuse to referee any games until sufficient protection was provided.A similar attack happened in the 1952 Pelaco Cup Final, where a Juventus player attacked the referee.[1]
In 1956, the association aquired their own meeting rooms at 305 North Terrace, the first time that the association had their own centralised meeting location, before moving to Floor 2, Room 10 in Martin Building on Rundle Street. The problems with referees continued as over the course of 1957 and 1958, four players were suspended for twelve months to life for striking match officials. Prior to 1958, players were free to move clubs between seasons as they pleased, however beginning in the 1958 season, they declared that a player must remain at a club indefinitely unless they are transferred out, a move that was met with mixed reception from teams and considerable backlash from players. The players attempted to get the association to alter the move, presenting multiple suggestions, such as introducing separate classifications for professional, semi-professional and amateur players. Another source of controversy was the excluding of Hungaria and Roma from the first division. SASFA held the right to "exclude or refuse a team if circumstances indicated they would not be an asset in that division." This caused both teams to resign from the association. The 1959 season saw the association partner with Ampol, a partnership that was very popular among the spectators, and would continue through to 1993. The first Ampol Cup Final was the first football game across all codes to be televised in South Australia, broadcast by ADS 7.[1]
Defection and reformation (1961–1966)
In 1960, successful negotiations led to a 20 year lease of Hindmarsh Oval, with construction on a new stand and floodlights to commence, increasing the capacity by 800. During a second division game between Olympic and Elizabeth Town at Hindmarsh Oval on 3 September 1960, a riot broke out as Olympic fans manhandled the match officials as they were leaving the pitch. Details are scarce on what happened, but following the incident, Olympic were suspended for life. Following this and the previous incidents over many years cause to rumours that the federation was going to split. There was much discontent among the clubs, with some being professional, and others being semi-professional, causing semi-professional clubs to get little funding. Following multiple disagreements over voting power, eight clubs walked out of a meeting, and didn't return to the follow-up, instead holding their own meeting to form a breakaway league, called the South Australian Soccer League (SASL). The clubs involved were Beograd, Budapest, Croatia, Cumberland, Juventus, Lion, Orange and Polonia. Defection from the association, as well as no-showing for various future meetings caused the association to suspend the clubs, players and officials involved with SASL. After the 1961 season, the chairman and secretary of the Australian Soccer Federation visited Adelaide and formed the South Australian Federation of Soccer Clubs (SAFSC). Following the SAFSC's formation, the association called a special meeting, backing down to the eight breakaway clubs, agreeing to compromise. They formed the Executive council, which had eight members. Four were independent of any club, and four were from the League Management Committee. The LMC consisted of six representatives from the first division, four from the second division and two from the third division. These changes were to ensure that the top level clubs had greater voting power, which solved the problem that caused the split, however the clubs initially didn't seek to re-enter the association.[1]
Prior to the beginning of the 1962 season, a steering committee, consisting of six members from the association, and six from SASL bring about the amalgamation of the two leagues. Following discussions, it was agreed that the eight SASL clubs would make enter at division one, with SASFA clubs being shifted down to divisions two and three. During the first matchweek of the "State League", Austria played away to Tailem Bend, defeating them 33–0, which is believed to be the biggest win in South Australia's history. The new amalgamated body was renamed into the South Australian Soccer Federation (SASF) ahead of the 1962 season. 1966 saw the biggest attendances at games, with the Ampol Cup drawing crowds of over 30,000.
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