The Sussex County Football Association, also simply known as ''Sussex County FA'' or ''Sussex FA'', is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in the county of

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Sussex County FA was founded on 23 September 1882 and run a number of County Cup competitions at various levels for teams all across the county. It is affiliated to

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

History

Founded on 23 September 1882, the Sussex County FA was founded by several football clubs including

Burgess Hill Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish in West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town, Chichester. It ...

, Chichester City and

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

. The 1882/83 season saw the Sussex FA create the Sussex Senior Cup, which was won for the first time by Brighton Rangers. The competition continues to run and is the longest-running football competition administered by the Sussex County FA. Whilst the main aim of county football associations was to ensure clubs had many matches to play, a secondary aim was to help organise the recreation of schoolchildren. The Sussex County FA was formed at the time when parents in Sussex were pressing local schools to introduce games on Saturdays, with the intention of keeping children out of mischief. In July 1981 the Sussex County FA purchased

Lancing F.C. Lancing Football Club is a football club based in Lancing, West Sussex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Culver Road. History The club was established in 1941, initially as a multi-sport club under the name Lancing Ath ...

, to which it moved its operations, effectively making Lancing F.C.'s home of Culver Road the headquarters of the Sussex County FA. On 2 November 1999 the Sussex County FA became incorporated as a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the '' LLC'' in the United Sta ...

. At this time, a new board of directors was created, with a second tier of volunteers called 'the Council', which was replaced in 2017 with 'County Members' and a series of working committees, designed to run football matters more effectively and inclusively.

County leagues

The

Southern Combination Football League The Macron Southern Combination Football League is a football league broadly covering the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey and South West London, England. The league consists of eight divisions – three for first teams (Premier ...

, formerly known as the Sussex County League until 2015 is the highest level league in Sussex with the Premier Division winners being promoted to the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

or the Southern League. There are three divisions in the SCFL; Premier Division (level 9), Division One (level 10) and Division Two (level 11). Division Two being of intermediate level and a feeder league alongside the

Mid-Sussex Football League The Mid Sussex Football League is an association football league formed in 1900. The league is headed by the Premier Division which is at level eleven of the English football league system and member clubs are based in East Sussex, West Sussex a ...

. Other feeder leagues at level 12 and below include

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

and the. Brighton Worthing & District. In addition there are also Sunday leagues and Youth leagues.

Cup competitions

The Sussex County FA run several cup competitions: *

Sussex Senior Challenge Cup The Sussex Senior Cup is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for men's football clubs in the English county of Sussex and is the county senior cup of the Sussex FA. Its official name is the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup. F ...

Sussex RUR Cup The Sussex Royal Ulster Rifles Charity Cup is the original Cup which was presented to the Sussex County FA in 1897 by the Officers and men of the Royal Irish Rifles (subsequently Royal Ulster Rifles). The 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles won the ...

*Sussex Community Shield *Sussex Women's Challenge Cup *

Sussex Intermediate Challenge Cup Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

*Sussex Under-23 Challenge Cup *Sussex Junior Challenge Cup *Sussex Sunday Challenge Cup There are also various other cups and trophies for all levels of football in Sussex.

Sussex Community Shield

The champions of the

and the winners of the

play each other in this competition

Principals

References

External links

* {{Sussex County football associations Football in East Sussex Football in West Sussex 1881 establishments in England Sports organizations established in 1881