A brief history of the Junior game

Junior Football has been in existence in Scotland for over 100 years, its inception widely acknowledged as being during the early 1880's. The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is the national body under which the then numerous local Junior Associations existed and was formed in 1886. Until this point, the growing number of local associations that had begun to appear throughout Scotland had been responsible for themselves and their affiliate members. The formation of the SJFA meant a governing body for the Junior game at a national level (as opposed to the previous local levels) allowing for the inception of national competitions, including one of the oldest national cup competitions in the world - The Scottish Junior Cup.

To this day, the SJFA headquarters are within Scotlands National Stadium, Hampden Park.

A common misconception when people hear the term 'Junior Footballer' is that it is in reference to age. In fact, Junior football is merely another grade within the football ranks. The term was created in reference to the Senior game, where the Scottish league clubs played. If they were 'Senior Professionals' then the smaller teams were 'Junior Professionals'. This is a term which still holds true as most Junior players are registered professional with the SFA, just as the senior counterparts must be. The closest comparison to Junior football would be non-league football in England, though the Scottish Junior system is not part of the Senior pyramid style league structure as the English non-league sides are.

The local Junior associations continued to govern their own leagues under the guidance of the SJFA until 1968, when major reforms instituted by the SJFA saw them take control for the management of all Junior competitions and replacing the local associations with 6 district committees. The 6 regions - Central, Fife, East, Ayrshire, Tayside and North still exists within the current Junior setup as divisions within the new national league structure and still operate many cup competitions exclusively for their affiliate clubs.

In 2002 a further change was instituted within the Junior game, with the six districts re-structuring in order to create a three region setup, aimed at bringing together the bigger clubs and re-invigorating interest in the Junior game. The 3 regions - East, West and North, each contain several divisions of clubs with the East and West regions being split further (based on geographic location) in the lower leagues to ensure some level of financial stability for the smaller, less prosperous clubs. This 3 region setup has seen the Junior 'super league' setup flourish, with the best clubs from each region pitched together in the same league competing for silverware.

Perhaps the most significant change of recent times occurred in June 2006, when for the first time in their history the Scottish Football Association (SFA) invited four Junior sides (The winners of the 3 regional super leagues and the Scottish Junior Cup) to participate in the senior Scottish Cup. This unprecedented event saw 3 Junior sides (as Linlithgow Rose had won both the East Region Super League and the Scottish Cup) enter the Scottish Cup at the first round stage, all three winning to progress to the second round.

As well as the regional leagues, there are a number of local cup competitions. The biggest competition is the Scottish Junior Cup, held annually and entered by every Junior team. This cup is one of the oldest in the world, being some 120 years old. Generally the highlights of the later stages can be viewed on National Television and the final is broadcast live, while also pulling a large crowd to the game.

There are also International Junior fixtures, with the best players from across the regions being picked to play for the Scottish Junior International side. These tournaments take place every two years with non league select teams from England, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Recent seasons have produced further change, the most significant of which being the introduction of Junior sides into the Senior Scottish Cup in season 2008/2009. The winners of the respective regional Superleagues plus the winners of the Scottish Junior Cup from the 2007/2008 season were granted entry with all sides showing up reasonably well against their senior counterparts. This will be a feature of every season from now on.

For more information Visit:

www.west-region-sjfa.co.uk - West Region
ersjfa.com - East Region

Information gathered from various sources on the Internet.
To the best of our knowledge the above is accurate.