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Scottish Amateur Football Association

governing body for amateur football in Scotland

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ7437617 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA) is the organising body for amateur football across Scotland. An affiliate of the Scottish Football Association, the SAFA has in turn 50 regional associations affiliated to it and some 67 different league competitions organised by these associations. There is estimated to be over 35,000 amateur footballers in Scotland, and all of their competitions are co-ordinated at some level by the Scottish Amateur Football Association. The SAFA was formed in 1909 with the purpose of legislating for and fostering the amateur level of football in Scotland.

History

The Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA) was formed in 1909. After an initial meeting held in February, attended by 80 clubs from throughout Scotland, Queen's Park, Glasgow & District FP Football League and the Glasgow & District Secondary Schools League met and agreed on the Association's formation. James Allison, President of Queens Park FC, took the chair. The first office bearers were appointed in January 1910. On 28 May 1909, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) discussed a request for membership to the body from the SAFA. This was referred to the Special Committee who reported back in November of that year that a decision would be deferred until a full list of SAFA member clubs was submitted for approval. At this time five SAFA clubs had applied for direct membership of the SFA. It was not at all unusual to have joint membership as it permitted clubs to participate in competitions organised by the SFA. At a meeting on 14 December 1909, the SFA approved the membership of the SAFA.

The SAFA AGM in May 1914 reported three Associations and thirty two clubs in membership, and the Treasurer advised the Association was £21 in credit.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Scottish Amateur Football Association” as governing body for amateur football in Scotland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1910, 1914—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909. The account is most persuasive where Scottish, Amateur and Football can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as governing body for amateur football in Scotland. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7437617. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1910 and 1914.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Scottish Amateur Football Association”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Scottish Amateur Football Association primary sources, Scottish Amateur Football Association archive and Scottish research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Scottish Amateur Football Association”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Scottish Amateur Football Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.