Scottish Universities Sport - Active, Competitive, Innovative

Football

Introduction: Football is one of the longest established and most popular sports in the SUS programme. 15 Scottish Universities enter over 50 teams in 11 Men’s and Women’s Leagues, with fixtures played on Wednesday afternoons from October to the end of March. Many Universities field three or four teams, showing the strength and depth of the SUS programme.

History: 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 National and Regional Academies being based in the sector.

Structure: After a review of the league structures it was decided to move to leagues of five, where possible, to schedule fixtures around University semesters. This also allowed SUS and BUCS to provide a higher standard of competition including more fixtures for the majority of teams. For those competing in tier 1A there are opportunities to progress, post January, into the BUCS knockouts, where they can compete against other successful teams from across the United Kingdom in a knockout competition. The top two teams in tier 1A will join the BUCS championship tournament and the three teams below these two compete in the BUCS trophy competition. SUS and BUCS also run three conference cups (two in the men’s competition and one in the women’s competition) which provides additional fixtures for teams below tier 1A and the chance to compete against teams from other leagues. Initially teams are drawn into mini leagues with the winners, and some times runners up, progressing into the knockout competitions. The three finals are then played, at a neutral venue, late in March to establish the winners of each cup.

Representative: Following a trials process held pre Christmas, SUS selects both a men’s and women’s (biennial) representative squad to play annual fixtures against the Scottish Amateur Select (men only), and against English, Northern Irish and Welsh Universities sides. SUS has a strong tradition of its men’s players moving from the SUS representative team onto the lower professional leagues of the Scottish Game. Whilst many of the women’s team are currently playing in the women’s premier league already.

Other: 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.

Action Plan: Finally, in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, SUS has developed a plan to progress all areas and levels of the game in the coming years. The main areas of focus are:

· Coach Education

· Match Official Education

· Competitions and Events

· Women’s Football

· Club Development

· Governance

0910 Information:

Team line: CLICK HERE

Suspensions: CLICK HERE

Discipline Guidelines: CLICK HERE

SFA Coaching Courses: CLICK HERE