APFSCIL HISTORY
In the Beginning | The Early Years | Travel | Publicity | General Meetings | Social | Sport | Discipline and Arbitration | Relationship with other Bodies | The Future | In Remembrance

THE FUTURE

There has probably never been a period in the history of association football in which so many changes have taken place so quickly and at which there are so many alternative views on what will happen to the structure of the game in the next decade. Whilst these changes themselves are often the motivation for the game's customers - us - to react and make our views known, there are welcome signs that the football authorities, at least domestically, have never been more prepared to listen and have accepted the need for greater transparency in their actions.

The Government's Football Task Force, in both its "Investing in the Community" and "Commercial" Reports has recommended that greater notice be taken of the views of representative groups of supporters. The door is therefore ajar for organisations such as APFSCIL to gather opinion and to reflect it in its actions. By its nature, the Association will always be likely to afford greater priority than other organisations to its original principles of collaboration on travel and inter-club social and sporting contact but it should not shirk from adopting a campaigning stance when the occasion demands. Unity of purpose on national issues by all supporter groups will be important to relative success in the future influence they can achieve.

The number of affiliated clubs in APFSCIL and the strong support for its long-established activities provide a security that the foundations which have been built on that original meeting in 1975 will be able to sustain, and hopefully develop, the Association through the next 25 years.

Ian Todd

In the Beginning | The Early Years | Travel | Publicity | General Meetings | Social | Sport | Discipline and Arbitration | Relationship with other Bodies | The Future | In Remembrance