Description
The Alberta Soccer Association was established April 19th 1909 in Red Deer by various groups and cities from around the Province of Alberta. This gathering of representatives created the Albeta Association Football League (A.A.F.L.) which became Alberta Soccer Association in 1915. This meeting had representation from the following locations around Alberta: Edmonton, Red Deer, Crossfield, Pincher Creek, Lloydminster, Lethbridge, Innifail, Stettler and Ponoka. This newly established A.A.F.L. created competition districts for games between senior men teams and the scheduling of Provincial playoffs between district winners. Over the past 99 years the Alberta Soccer Association has grown to become the governing body for all soccer in Alberta at all levels and age groups, serving over 140,000 members across the province. The Alberta Soccer Association now consists of 18 Member Districts that span the Province. Alberta Soccer serves its members in many ways, including operating select teams and providing the training for provincial and national selections, coordinating over 100 separate provincial competitions, training referees and coaches to deal with this taxing sport, providing registration services complete with insurance to all members, as well as operating the largest grass-roots sport in history in this province. Soccer has experienced huge growth in the past few years. As an example, 1975 ASA membership was 10,000. By 1980, it had risen to 15,000 and to 35,000 by 1985. The meteric growth in the provincial association had membership approaching the 150,000 mark last year. Indeed, Alberta Soccer is the largest individual sports association in Alberta. Within these numbers, more than 45% of players are female. On a national level, 42% of registered players were female. Many of the members also compete in veteran football, as it is called, with high-level competition among players over 35 years of age. Alberta Soccer is actively involved in management of international matches held in the province, especially at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, which was named Canada's National Soccer Stadium after the immensely successful friendly game against Brazil in 1994 drew more than 50,000 fans. Since that time, Commonwealth has played host to numerous World Cup and Olympic qualification games, as well as several friendly matches. Most recently, Edmonton soccer fans have been host to the Women's Friendly of Canada vs Germany, been treated to the fantastically successful FIFA Under-19 Women's World Cup in 2002, Canada vs Mexico (Senior Women) in 2003, Canada vs Honduras (Senior Men) in 2004 and the U20 Canada vs Brazil game. CSA and FIFA recognized the success of these matches and awarded ASA and Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium to be one of the two main hosts for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2007.
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