BYE BYE PROFESSIONALS

Big day tomorrow. As it is Cup Final time, I'm watching a game tonight when Hepworth Utd seniors take on Golcar-who? what? Well its Yorkshire. Tomorrow I shall be heading south, if you excuse the phrase, to watch the Old Carthusians take on the Old Hamptonians in the London Old Boys' Senior final at the Old Paulinians ground somewhere in north London.

The OCs are currently champions of the Arthurian League, a truly amateur league for casual old boys' football from the what were known as the public schools. The OHs founded in 1905 and old boys of Hampton GS (once a state Grammar School) now one of the top soccer playing independent schools in Surrey, are presently top of their league, The Amateur Football Combination.
The Amateur Football Combination has affiliated to it the London FA, Middlesex FA and the Amateur Football Association (AFA).

In 1907 the Amateur clubs objected to the instruction by the Football Association that they must allow professionals to play for their clubs should the matter arise. The true amateurs said not on your nelly and formed their own County FA with no geographical boundary. It was originally known as the Amateur Football "Defense" Foundation which soon became the Amateur Football Association. This is still nation wide.
 The "Parting of the Ways". The amateur player who looks like the famed Old Carthusian and England centre-forward G.O.Smith is waving bye-bye to the monster of professionalism. In 1914 the FA eventually allowed the AFA to maintain its independence.

The LOB Competitions includes a Senior competition, nine other cup competitions at various levels.

The AF Combination formed in 2002 when two leagues merged (Old Boys' league founded in 1907 and the Southern Olympian League 1911).
By 2006 three more leagues joined up-the London Financial League (clubs formed by the financial businesses in the city), the London Banks League and the London Insurance League. These were first formed in 1908. This makes the AFC huge with around 15 divisions played for by over 100 clubs and over 350 teams. So it is a big deal, though not on the "pyramid".