Scottish Amateur Football Association - 1950 - 1959 Out of The Darkness

1959 Out of The Darkness

Despite the Second World War being over, there was the threat of the new atomic weapon, and peace still eluded the world with war in Korea and the French war in Vietnam. It was the decade of Suez, the Hungarian Uprising, Burgess & MacLean, trouble with the Mau Mau in Kenya, EOKA in Cyprus and Civil Rights in the United States. Dick McTaggart won a boxing gold medal at the 16th Olympics in Melbourne.

The 1950 AGM saw membership rise to fifty eight Associations/ Leagues with eight hundred and twenty two clubs and two hundred and forty two Youth teams and the following season a total of twenty Appeals were lodged. In 1951 the Edinburgh Evening News presented a trophy for annual competition between teams in the South of Scotland, and the SAFA changed the name of the Midland Cup to the North of Tay Cup to avoid confusion as many teams thought this was a cup for Midlands AFA teams only. 1952 saw the City & District AL permitted to change its name to the Central AL, and

early the next year the SFA turned down a request from the SAFA to permit the televising of the amateur international v England. Later in 1953, NCR Afc (Midlands AFA) were given permission to play the company factory team in Augsburg, Germany provided the SFA agreed.

In 1953 the Committee structure within the SAFA was composed of eleven committees; Executive, Finance, Appeals, Selection, Youth, West, East, North of Tay, Fife, North of Scotland and South of Scotland. In 1957 the Executive and Finance Committees combined. This structure remained unaltered until 1984 when a West District Sub Committee was set up to handle the increased business due to Sunday football. A General Purposes Committee was set up in 1997 and in the 2003 the West District Executive Sub Committee changed its name to the West District Executive Sunday Committee. The first international match v Eire was arranged for Dublin in May with a return at Celtic Park Glasgow the following year.

In 1954 the SFA again resumed responsibility for amateur internationals. Later that year the SAFA donated a cup to the Glasgow & District Secondary Schools League to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They were of course very much part of the formation of the SAFA back in 1909. With the cooperation of Glasgow Education Committee, the SAFA set up Coaching Commission with a full complement of 16 students taking part. The SFA were astonished at this foresight and asked if they could send delegates as observers.

The society we lived in was much reflected by the membership of the SAFA, and in 1955 for example, Dunfermline & District Wednesday AFA, Edinburgh & District Mid Week AFA, Edinburgh Tuesday AFA, Glasgow Shopkeeper Tuesday AFA and Scottish Industrial Estates AFA were all members.

The 1955 AGM was held in Perth and the poor attendance was put down to a rail strike. Cars were of course very much a luxury and rail travel was easy and effective with expense awards all calculated on the third class rail fares.

1957 saw the SFA give permission for games to be played under floodlights. A Jubilee Committee was set up by the SAFA in early 1959 to make arrangements to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Association and after an extensive search it was reported that the early Minute Books of the Association could not be traced. A Dinner with entertainment was to be organised and held within Burlington House, Glasgow in 1960. With an official guest list of one hundred and thirty, only sixty tickets were available for club members. To commemorate the Jubilee the SFA presented the SAFA with a President’s Chain of Office.