Scottish Universities Sport - Active, Competitive, Innovative

Football

Association Football is one of the longest established and most popular sports in the SUS programme. 14 Scottish Universities enter over 50 teams in 9 Men’s and Women’s Leagues, with fixtures played on Wednesday afternoons from October to early February. Many Universities field three or four teams, showing the strength and depth of the SUS programme.

Football in Scottish Universities began with the foundation of a team from Glasgow University (in 1877), followed a year later by Edinburgh University, and later by the Universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen (1887 and 1889 respectively). These early teams were very successful and boasted a number of full internationals, before the advent of professionalism forced university sides out of the top sphere of Scottish Football. As university status was granted to more institutions in the 1960s and the 1990s, so more teams were admitted to what had become a Scottish Universities League, competing for the magnificent Queen's Park Shield on an annual basis. Simultaneously, the development of Women's Football in the late 20th century has created a popular and keenly contested Women's League, with the SFA Women's Football Centre of Excellence based at Abertay University, Dundee.

The leading first teams compete for the title of Scottish Universities Champions. Beyond this the league structure places teams in leagues on merit, with promotion and relegation occurring at the end of each season. Leading teams at the conclusion of the leagues progress to the final stages of the BUSA knock out competitions, which run from late February to early May and involve Universities from across the United Kingdom.

Following a trials process in February, SUS selects both a men’s and women’s representative squad to play annual fixtures against the Scottish Amateur Select (men only), and against English, Irish and Welsh Universities sides.

In addition to the inter University competitions, the great majority of Scottish Universities' Football Clubs play weekend football with teams participating in regional, area and local leagues.