Competitions

The South Wales and Monmouthshire Football Association was established in 1890 under the presidency of Captain Morgan Lindsey, with Mr Charles Axtell as the first secretary. Although it was answerable to the Football Association of Wales, it was the governing body of soccer in South Wales and was responsible for the development of the game in the region. At this stage, the boundary of ‘South Wales’ was deemed to be everything in the southern half of the Principality from Pembroke to Chepstow – perusal of the lists of winners of competitions in the early years of the Association will illustrate this.

A central part of the Association was the competitions that it sanctioned, in particular the South Wales Senior Cup. Also, the Association ran two senior leagues in their early days, the South Wales League which was formed in 1890, and the Rhymney Valley League formed in 1903. The game of football in Wales had previously been dominated by the North, and the South Wales and Monmouthshire Football Association did much to broaden the appeal of the sport in South Wales. The game grew quickly in the area and by 1929 there were over 800 clubs, with a total of nearly 20,000 players registered with the Association.

The South Wales and Monmouthshire Football Association came to an end following the 1967-1968 season. The Football Association of Wales decided to restructure the local football associations in Wales and proposed to set up new ‘Area Football Associations’ throughout the country. As a result of this restructuring, the Association was split into three separate associations by the beginning of the 1968-1969 season: The South Wales Football Association; The Monmouthshire County Football Association (which developed into the Gwent County Football Association); and The West Wales Football Association.

In this section you will find details of previous winners of our Cups along with details of the current season’s competition. As was stated above, in its’ early years, the boundaries of the Association covered the entire southern half of Wales, hence some of the names of winners may seem to stretch the definition of ‘South’ Wales in its’ current format.

The structure of the various competitions has altered over the years to reflect the chnaging nature of local football.