The 2007-8 season would have marked the centenary of the Old Boys’ Football League, one of the founder leagues of the Amateur Football Combination.

The OBFL was formed in 1907 to foster amateur football among the past pupils of some of the London Grammar Schools, and originally consisted of only a handful of clubs. Some of the clubs from the early years are still with us, although others have disappeared. Travel does not seem to have a been a problem in earlier years, with even the lower divisions having no regionalisation! The league prospered, and in 1949 merged with the Secondary Schools Old Boys’ League.

The next few decades saw the OBFL increase in strength, with many of the constituent clubs increasing their number of sides. Amateur football was alive and well under the overall umbrella of the Amateur Football Alliance, and a number of leagues enjoyed healthy independence. However, this was not to last, and in the mid-eighties the OBFL absorbed some of the clubs of the Nemean League, increasing the numbers playing Old Boys football.

In 2002, the OBFL and the Southern Olympian League agreed that the two leagues should merge, to form the Amateur Football Combination. This signalled the end of the OBFL as we knew it, although its spirit lives on in the new league.

This is an appropriate time to acknowledge with thanks the contributions of the league and club officers of the OBFL over all those years, which enabled the league to become one of the largest in Europe. Congratulations to all those who were involved with the Old Boys’ Football League!