Amateur football leagues to join forces

The Central Scottish AFL and the Scottish Amateur FL are to amalgamate and form a new association in Scottish amateur football for season 23/24 - as mentioned by Red Star’s Colin Weir a couple of weeks ago.

The Covid pandemic has not helped amateur football with teams folding all over the country so it made sense for the Central and Scottish leagues to join forces.

This will mean Lochgilphead Red Star and Dunoon will join Oban Saints in the new association.

Saints joined the Scottish Amateur FL in 1976 when it comprised of seven divisions and three reserve divisions, with over 100 teams in membership, but now there is only one division in the SAFL with 14 teams so the decline in Saturday afternoon amateur football over the years has been dramatic. Saints decided to leave the Scottish AFL in 2019 to join the Central Scottish FL, reckoned to be the best amateur league in the country.

Red Star’s Colin Weir previously told the Advertiser that he was excited to take his team into the new association. He said he felt it was an important step and one that would hopefully prevent match cancellations, such has been seen in recent months.

Chris Sanderson, match secretary of the SAFL, said: “We had had preliminary talks with the Central league last summer but clubs were not keen to merge at the time. However, this time we agreed it was good for the clubs of both leagues and SAFL member clubs were unanimously behind the move.

“Part of the plan is to keep one of the SAFL’s league cups - the Jimmy Marshall Trophy - within the joint league framework.”