Conference president Jim Thompson looks back on the league¹s first 25 momentous years:

SALUTE OUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE HELPED US REACH SO FAR

Twenty-six years ago, 22 club chairmen sat down at the Cafe Royal for the inaugural dinner of the new Alliance Premier Football League on June 1, 1979. It was the birth of what was to become the Conference. Of those clubs, only four are still in membership today: Scarborough, Northwich Victoria, Gravesend & Northfleet and Barnet. Of these, only Northwich have been in continuous membership for the whole 25 years.

Of the chairmen, only two remain on the board of the League myself and Derek Nuttall, of Northwich Victoria. The formation of the league was pre-dated by two years of hard work and fighting. It made the courage of the clubs concerned facing an uncertain future by competing for the first time on a national basis even more remarkable.

To understand why they should take this huge step into the unknown, one has to appreciate the chaos that existed until that point with regards to promotion and relegation between the Football League and Non-League.

There was no control whatsoever over who applied for membership, with four major leagues the Southern, Northern Premier, Isthmian and Northern Leagues all providing candidate clubs, and with the freedom to nominate held by each individual club. This at times led to seven or eight clubs applying in a single year. The result was self-defeating because it split the votes, thus always favouring the incumbent bottom Football League club. Only on rare occasions, when an outstanding club such as Wimbledon or Hereford came forward, was the prospective member successful.

Solution

Numerous meetings had been held, but no solution agreed until, one night in the old Bedford Town clubhouse, Ken Marsden, chairman of the Northern PL, came to me and said: "There is only one solution we have all to amalgamate, so that only one league can put a club forward and we stop this self-destructive fighting. You, as chairman of the Southern League, the oldest of the semi-pro leagues, should do it and we will commit to supporting you."

The Football League, in the form of chief executive Alan Hardaker and vice president Bob Lord, agreed to support the idea, if for no other reason, I suspect, than to save their clubs from the constant badgering they were being subjected to by Non-League clubs at the end of each season.Unfortunately, this support stopped there, as the Football Association, in the form of their formidable secretary Ted Croker and both the Isthmian and Northern Leagues, were adamantly opposed to the idea.

So the first of the battles, which have marked the formation and the life of the Conference, commenced. In the end, only a threat to take legal action forced the hand of the FA to recognise the new structure.

Throughout these battles, we have found friends to help us. Not surprisingly, a good number are no longer with us but our indebtedness to them is no less real. First to Ken Marsden, who had the courage to make the first move, and to Gordon Graham, the Northern Premier League director, appointed to work with me on the formation. Then, of course, to Alan Hardaker, through whose influence the Football League provided our secretarial services from Lytham St Anne¹s and Bob Lord, our first president, who marked his appointment by informing us that, in 1939 a replacement cup had been purchased for the FA Cup but had never been used and had been consigned to a vault in a jewellers in Accrington. He purchased it and presented it to the League as our first League Cup.

Without the support of the Isthmian and Northern League, the task was even more formidable and meant that, if we were to proceed with only two leagues, the Southern in particular would have to give up far more of its senior members than envisaged. To the everlasting credit of the Southern League, they accepted this sacrifice and, although the two leagues outside refused to recognise the new league as having sole rights of relegation and promotion, our support from the Football League and another friend at the FA, chairman Sir Harold Thomson, ensured we were able to nominate the sole club for advancement at the end of 1979-80. To our horror, our candidate, Altrincham, failed to gain promotion by one vote and knees began to knock.

The battle with the Isthmian and Northern, continued for two years, until broken by two clubs, Enfield and Dagenham, whose dynamic chairmen, Ton Unwin and Vic Sparrow respectively, realised there was no future in being outside the system. They broke ranks and were accepted into membership of the Alliance. At this stage, Peter Malloy of Sutton, another far-thinking chairman, at last persuaded his league to join the Pyramid. We were now able to attract major sponsorship and, in 1985, thanks to the support of their chairman Stuart Lamb, we became the GOLA League.

At this time also, a new body appeared, in the form of the Chester Committee on the restructuring of the Football League. Thanks to the enthusiastic support for our cause given by Sir Norman Chester, who became our president following the death of Bob Lord, we were able to have a massive input into this report. It highlighted a further first for our competition in the introduction of ground grading and club financial profiling as an essential part of the promotion and relegation package.

Another friend appeared on the scene, in the form of Malcolm Davidson, Chief Executive of Littlewoods pools, who incorporated our fixtures and results into the Pools Promoters¹ Association framework, thus ensuring not only a lucrative revenue stream but also providing invaluable exposure on the Pools lists.

By now we were backed by Vauxhall, a sponsorship which went on to become the longest-running major sports sponsorship on record. Our results and fixture presentation received a substantial boost when The Mail on Sunday became the first paper to feature us in an equal size as the Football League.

Back in the higher echelons of the FA, other battles were being fought, for seeded entry into the FA Trophy long resisted by the Northern League and the FA Cup, resisted by the Football League. In the end, both battles have been won.

Today, we come to a momentous landmark in our development: the expansion of the Conference to incorporate all 66 clubs at the top of football outside the Football League. These new clubs will find a league sponsored by Nationwide and extensive television coverage, including match transmission from Sky TV, a play-off final that could attract 20,000 spectators as well as a huge television audience and the breakthrough to over 1,000,000 supporters watching our teams in a single season.

The new 66-club league must use its strength to continue the battle for the vast sector of football which they represent and which has shown its ability to feed the Football League with new and vibrant blood while giving relegated clubs the ability to regroup and re-enter in strength rather than suffering the fate of the past.


The shopping list is there:

1. Full membership of the FA automatically for all clubs in the Conference.

2. Representation of the Conference on the FA Council by right.

3. Increased and fairer share of the grants from the Football Foundation.

4. A level playing field for the operation of Centres of Excellence by Conference clubs

The challenge is there, the strength to deliver is there.