Forfarshire Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Forfarshire Cup is a football competition in Scotland competed for by teams in the Forfarshire Football Association from Angus and Dundee. The name of the competition is often baffling to some, as "Forfarshire" is an archaic and anglicised name for Angus which became official in the late 19th century around the time of Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 which restructured and renamed many of Scotland's counties, however the name quickly fell into disuse and was very rarely used in everyday conversation and non existent today.
The Forfarshire Football Association was founded in 1883 and was comprised of 18 clubs. Twelve from Dundee, two from Arbroath and one each from Broughty Ferry and Lochee (both independent of Dundee at the time), Coupar Angus and Montrose. The association immediately put up a trophy for competition between its member clubs. At that time, cup competitions were the only form of organised football in Scotland. In the early days Scottish football the county cups were regarded as just as prestigious than the Scottish Cup, especially outwith Western Scotland and the Central belt whose teams were best represented in the Scottish Cup, with the result that they often attracted substantial crowds. Even by the 1911 final, several special trains ran to convey supporters of Arbroath to Dens Park and they contributed to a crowd of more than 7,000.
The competition has continued to be played every season as of 2006 although the two larger Dundee clubs left in the 1980s when Dundee United asked the Forfarshire FA for permission to field their reserve team when had become virtually impossible for United to find suitable dates for their ties due to their regular participation in European competition, but when this was refused the club withdrew from the competition as well as from the FFA. Shortly afterwards, Dundee followed suit. United re-entered the competition in the 2001-02 season.
Forfarshire FA remains an Affiliated Association of the Scottish Football Association.
