The Scottish Football Combination was a football league football structure set up in Scotland for clubs outside the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

and the reserves (or A sides) of some of the League members.

History

1896–1911

The competition was formed on 7 July 1896, by sides from various other competitions, including the

Scottish Football Alliance The Scottish Football Alliance was a league football structure set up in Scotland in competition with the Scottish Football League. Its success in the early years of professional football in both England and Scotland made the Alliance the basis for ...

and the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

. A handful of reserve clubs also expressed a wish to join, and these were accepted; indeed, the competition was over-subscribed,

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

being accepted as members over Albion Rovers by 9 votes to 7, and Third Lanark's A side being preferred to that of Clyde. Nutt of Wishaw Thistle was the inaugural president, with

Willie Maley William Patrick Maley (25 April 1868 – 2 April 1958) was an Irish-born Scottish international football player and manager. He was the first manager of Celtic Football Club, and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football histo ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

as vice-president. Reserve sides won the first four titles; the prestige of the competition was such that on six occasions before 1906 member clubs were elected to the Scottish League. In 1906, another competition, the Scottish Football Union, was formed, and six clubs left the Combination for the Union. Although new clubs were recruited, the status of the Combination took a blow, and the competition petered out during the 1910–11 season.

1935–37

A second Football Combination was formed with a similar mix of A teams and first XIs in 1935; the A teams were those ineligible to join the regular reserve league as their parent clubs were not in the Scottish First Division. The first President of the revived league was A. A. Jackson of Ayr United and the competition was initially made up of seven clubs, although one of them (

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation i ...

) withdrew before the season started. Clubs agreed to pay 15 third-class railway fares to visiting clubs, and admission was capped at 6d. This only lasted one full season; the second season saw two clubs stop playing partway through and the Combination disbanded before the 1937–38 season.

Membership

* 5th K.O.S.B.: 1908–10 * Albion Rovers: 1897–1903 *

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

: 1903–06 *

Annbank Annbank is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is around five miles east of Ayr. Originally a mining settlement, it once had a rail link to Ayr via the Auchincruive Waggonway. Amenities The village has a village hall, bakery, shop, bo ...

: 1909–10 *

Arthurlie Arthurlie is an area of the town of Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. History of Arthurlie The lands of Arthurlie were held in medieval times by the Stewart family, a branch of the noble Stewarts of Darnley. Later the lands became the prop ...

: 1897–1901 * Ayr Parkhouse: 1904–06 * Ayr United A: 1935–37 *

Bathgate Bathgate ( or , ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston, Scotland, Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Linlithgow, Livingston, and West Calder. A number of villages fall under ...

: 1905–06 *

Beith Beith (locally ) is a small town in the Garnock Valley, North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill and was known originally as the "''Hill o' Beith''" (hill of the birches) afte ...

: 1903–09 *

Bo'ness Borrowstounness, commonly known as Bo'ness ( ), is a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically part of the county of West Lothian (historic), ...

: 1935–37 * Broxburn Athletic: 1906–08 *

Camelon Camelon (; , ) is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road which links th ...

: 1903–05 * Celtic A: 1896–97 * Cowdenbeath A: 1906–07 * Dalbeattie Star: 1935–37 *

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

: 1905–06 *

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

: 1906–11 * Dykehead: 1905–09 * East Stirlingshire: 1896–97 * Edinburgh City A: 1935–37 *

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

: 1896–97 * Galston: 1904–09 * Girvan Athletic: 1908–11, 1935–37 *

: 1896–98 * Heart of Midlothian A: 1896–97, 1898–99 *

Hurlford Hurlford is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, situated on the outskirts of Kilmarnock, the largest and administrative centre of East Ayrshire and East Ayrshire Council. It has a population of 4,968. Hurlford's former names include Whirlfor ...

: 1898–1905, 1806–08 *

Johnstone Johnstone (,
) is a town in the

Kilbarchan Kilbarchan (; ) is a village and civil parish in central Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is almost contiguous with Johnstone, about 5 miles or 8 km west of the centre of Paisley. The village's name means "cell (chape ...

: 1899–1904 * Lanemark: 1907–11 *

Lanark Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...

: 1902–03 * Maxwelltown Volunteers: 1907–08 *

Maybole Maybole (, ) is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is ...

: 1906–11 *

Morton A Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., one of the Koopalings in the ''Mario'' franchise * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film ''Horton H ...

: 1903–05 * Nithsdale Wanderers: 1909–11, 1935–37 * Queen's Park Strollers/Victoria XI: 1892–1902, 1903–11, 1935–37 *

Rangers A A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

: 1896–1899 * Renton: 1902–06 * Royal Albert: 1896–1906 * St Mirren A: 1899–1904 *

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nearest rail access is located ...

: 1896–97, 1905–06 *

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

: 1935–37 *

Third Lanark A Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

: 1897–1903, 1935–36 *

Thornliebank Thornliebank ( Scots: ''Thonliebank'', Scottish Gaelic: ''Bruach nan Dealgan'') is a suburban area in East Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, it is located on the Auldhouse Burn about ...

: 1897–1901, 1902–06 * Vale OCOBA: 1935–37 *

Vale of Leven The Vale of Leven () is an area of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, in the valley of the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven. Historically, it was part of The Lennox, the name of which derives from the Gaelic term ''Leamhnach'', meaning ''fie ...

History

1896–1911

1935–37

Membership

Champions

References

External links

See also