South London Schools FA - District under 11 team

Many people are uninformed about where the very roots of football are found in England. The media has emphasised the contribution of the Professional football academies. These in turn have recognised the efforts of the junior clubs who normally play on Sundays. Unfortunately the efforts of schools are often ignored or dismissed. The truth, however, is that many children have their first experience of playing organised football at school.This is especially true in primary school. It is often through the efforts of those involved in primary schools football that both junior clubs and academies are able to recruit players to their teams.

From the South London team shown above there were six players who gained academy scholarships and one a YTS .Three of them have gone on to play for England at different levels. We as a primary section have a proud record of finding pupils who have gone on to play professionally. Here are some of our past players who have careers in football.

Julian Gray
Wayne Gray
Scott Parker
Billy Mehmet
Rohan Ricketts
Ben Watson
Anton Ferdinand
Cherno Samba
There are others who have either gained professional contracts or academy places. Many of these are today playing non league football.

There are many others like John Butterfield and John Maloney who have played or are playing non league football

Two players who went on to play for Inner London at secondary level took another direction. Mark Awanah took to the athletics track and represented England in the long jump at the Manchester Commonwealth Games. Leon Walters became the World Heavy Weight Karate Champion

In a season the primary representative team usually plays 8 to 10 games and takes part in a County 7 a side tournament. They also travel to France to play in an International 9 a side tournament. In recent years they have been very successful winning several times the Inner London Schools FA Finch and Kay Trophies and the international 7 a side tournament in France.

History of the Association

The South London Schools FA (SLSFA) was founded in 1885 making it one of the oldest schools football associations in the world. LPSFL is pleased to be affiliated to such an historic football association. The SLSFA runs representative schools teams from under 11 which is the LPSFL age group up to under 19s. In recent seasons at under 11 SLSFA has had success winning the Finch (twice) and Kay Trophies and an international 7 a side competition in France (twice) with the bulk of the team provided by LPSFL schools.

The Magazine Cup was inaugurated in the 1930s by the SLSFA and was so named because the silver cup awarded to the winners was provided by a local sports magazine. The original trophy is still awarded to the winning school and is currently held by Rosendale of Herne Hill who beat Goose Green of East Dulwich in the 2019 final.