CUPS

  

Introduction
 

The County Cups of the London Football Association enjoy a rich and storied history unparalleled in almost all of Football.

 

Today the LFA run eight different Adult Cup Competitions: The Senior, Intermediate, Junior, Womens, Veterans, Sunday Intermediate, Sunday Junior, and Sunday Challenge Cup. 
 
The London Charity Cup, the original trophy of which was donated by the Rt. Hon. Reginald Harrison, (pictured at left) was discontinued in 1975.
  
 
 
 

Brief History of

the London FA Cup Competitions
 
Having been founded in 1882 one of the first decisions the newly formed Association made was to purchase a cup to be competed for annually. 
 

The first cup competition instituted on was the Amateur Senior Cup in season 1882-83, the first winners being Upton Park F.C. The cup was described in ‘The Football Annual’ as “this handsome trophy, value £80,” and it is a truly magnificent trophy and is still presented to this day - needless to say it is worth considerably more than £80 now!

 

Following the success of this competition the London Junior Cup, pictured right, began in 1886 and is still going strong.

The Junior Cup

 

Another splendid trophy is the London Charity Cup (pictured top of page) presented to the Association by the Right Hon. Sir Reginald Hanson, Lord Mayor of London , in 1887. Each year eight teams specially selected by the Council played for this prestigious trophy which was engraved with the full line-up of each winning team. Swifts F.C. were the first winners. Many thousands of pounds were raised for very worthy causes before the competition was discontinued in 1975. 
 
It is interesting to note today how clubs circumstances and standings have changed since the late nineteenth century. For example, in 1893 the Council elected Casuals, Clapton, Crusaders, Crouch End, London Caledonians, Millwall Athletic, Old Carthusians, and Old Westminsters into the Charity Cup ahead of Tottenham Hotspur - and with over twice as many votes!
 
Midweek football was very popular with workers and therefore a London Midweek Cup began in 1907 and lasted until 2001 when the constantly shrinking pool of clubs rendered the competition unviable.
 

The Senior Cup

The prestige of the London Senior Cup (left) meant that more and more clubs were entering and, therefore, more and more rounds were required. 

 

This caused a problem for London ’s professional clubs who simply could not commit to several rounds of competition. To solve this problem the London FA created the London Challenge Cup which included the professional clubs and a small number of selected senior clubs, thereby ensuring a shorter competition. 
 
This proved a very popular move and while the professional clubs were able to provide teams it was a very successful competition. However pressure on playing resources caused a major rethink and in 1975 a meeting involving the professional clubs and the LFA Cup Committee reached an agreement whereby they would pay an ‘opt-out fee’ so that they would no longer compete in county cups. The opt-out fee still applies to this day. 
 
In 2000 the London FA Cup Committee made the sensible decision to discontinue the Challenge Cup as it was effectively competing with the Senior Cup. Since 2000 the London Senior Cup has once again been the flagship cup competition.
 
In 1914 the London Intermediate Cup (right)  started. Just one year later it was temporarily suspended due to the First World War, however it restarted when peace was declared and is still going.

The Intermediate Cup
 

The Sunday Challenge Cup

The recognition of Sunday football (long overdue) led to the creation of three new cup competitions: the Sunday Challenge (1969) Sunday Intermediate (1962), and the Sunday Junior Cup (1963). These are hugely popular and are a real prize to win. The Sunday Junior Cup competition today is by far the largest in terms of number of entrants.
 

Women’s football, while having been played for very many years, became the next new competition, starting in 1994. There is a huge range of abilities across women’s football and the same teams tend to feature in finals however the standard of football remains very high.

The Womens Cup

 

Another feature of the modern game is the increase in veterans football. To recognise this the London Veterans Cup began in 2001 and is an important addition to the cup competition portfolio.
 

There was a short lived attempt to embrace small sided (5-a-side) football. Our excellent colleagues at the ELMS 5-a-side organisation partnered the LFA and launched a Men’s competition in 2001 and a Women’s competition in 2002. Unfortunately both competitions were discontinued. Small-sided football is primarily commercial and these competitions proved to be financially unviable.

The London FA was delighted to open its competitions to sponsorship and through the good work of John Langford, a Council member of the LFA, we secured the first ever sponsorship of the Senior Cup from Hillman Contractors Ltd. Gary Hillman has been a tremendous supporter of the competition for three years and he is very important to the Association.

In 2007 John Langford also secured sponsorship of the Intermediate Cup from Coventry Scaffolding Ltd, through Paul and Perry Hannifan. Again this is vitally important to this particular competition.

Elizabeth Aldridge of Aldridge Glass has provided the Man of the Match trophy for the Senior Cup final for the last five years and while continuing that support will be sponsoring the Women’s Cup this season. This is also a big step forward and Elizabeth is always very welcome to our finals.

Umbro have supported the Women’s final for two years and we are very grateful for their support.