The First Football Association
The Indian Reform League was the first to form an association to organise football in Fiji. The league was made up educated Fiji Indians and many of its members had links to the Christian churches in Fiji. In addition to football, it also organised cricket, hockey and lawn-tennis. In December 1927, the league organised a schools football competition at Albert Park. Schools that took part in it were Methodist Mission School, Marist Brothers School, Munivatu Indian School and Islamia School. Buoyed by the success of this tournament, the league met on 22 January 1928 and formed a Football Association committee. The editor of the monthly Hindi/English magazine, Vriddhi, Dr I.H. Beattie donated a trophy and the first competition was organised on 26 May 1928 at the Marist Brothers School ground. The teams that took part were Indian Reform League Football Club, Toorak Service Club, Dilkusha Excelsior Football Club, Rewa Football Club and the Union Club. Dilkusha Excelsior won the competition for the first three years. In 1936, the association was renamed, the Suva Football Association. The number of teams grew to 8 in 1936, 16 in 1945 and 41 in 1958 with competition being organised in senior, reserve, intermediate and junior grades.
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Famous quotes containing the words football and/or association:
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