Arucian Football Association

Arucian Football Association

Most recent season or competition: 2023 Arucian Cup
Formerly	National Football Association (1940-1956)
Sport	Arucian football
Founded	May 11, 1940 (1940-05-11)
Inaugural season	1947
President	Henri Richard
Competitors	8 leagues Sainte-Chloé Football Union Carucerean Football League Bonaventuran Federation of Arucian Football Imaguan Football Association All Satucin Imperial Football Association - Arucian Île d'Émeraude Ardesia Eldmark
Most recent champion(s)	AFF Vaxholmen (2022)
Most titles	FC Sainte-Chloé (7 Championships)

The Arucian Football Association (Gaullican: Association Arucien de Football), commonly abbreviated as the AAF, is the nonprofit corporation that operates the preeminent international professional men's competition of Arucian football. Through the AAF Commission, the AAF also serves as the sport's governing body overseeing all member leagues and is responsible for controlling the laws of the game. Founded in 1940 as the National Football Association, after five Arucian football clubs from Sainte-Chloé and Carucere jointly founded the organization in order to codify the rules of the game and organize professional competitions. The association's inaugural tournament began the same year. Under the United Provinces, in 1945 the association adopted its current name and added the leagues from Bonaventure and Imagua and the Assimas the following tournament. Leagues representing Eldmark, Satucin, Île d'Émeraude, and Ardesia would be added in the ensuing decades. The Association consists of 8 member leagues, consisting of XX teams which are eligible to participate in the competition.

The Association hosts the Arucian Cup, popularly known as the Coconut League, an annual arucian football competition. After the conclusion of each member league's final playoff game, each winner proceeds to play three games with other teams in their division to determine seeding. Then all teams play in a single elimination series, culminating in the Arucian Final; the winner is awarded the Champions Trophy. Since the Association's founding in 1940, there has been a total of 82 Arucian Cups. Of these games, FC Sainte-Chloé from the Sainte-Chloé Football Union has won a record seven Championships. The most recent champion is the AFF Vaxholmen from the XXX League, defeating the Canicule Suns from the XXX League in the 2022 Championship.

The Arucian Football Association is one of the two main sport leagues in the Arucian, the other being the Arucian Baseball League. Although the league, along with the sport, is confined to the Arucian and the surrounding countries, it is widely popular across the region. The sport and the association is strongly associated with the Arucian and the AAF is considered to be one of the region's defining cultural institutions. It is the most popular sport in Carucere and Île d'Émeraude and has a significant presence in Sainte-Chloé, Ardesia, Bonaventure, and Imagua and the Assimas. In addition the league also has a presence in the Arucian islands of Aucuria, Satucin, and Eldmark. The Association is governed by the AAF Commission, which is responsible for the administration of AAF competitions and for controlling the rules of Arucian football. The Association is officially a publicly held nonprofit corporation whose shares are held by over a million people across the Arucian and it is governed by its member clubs' fans.

Name

The league was originally founded as the National Football Association in 1940, before it was renamed as the Arucian Football Association following the collapse of the United Provinces in 1956. Officially the operating language of the league is Gaullican, which is widely used by upper management and leadership. However since the 1980s, the lower levels of the league effectively operates on a multilingual basis based upon their club's host country. The Arucian Cup and Coconut League are often used to differentiate the competition from the organisation itself.

Due to the international nature of the organization, it is known by several different names such as the Association Arucien de Football in Gaullican, Associação de Futebol de Araucária in Luzelese, Federcalcio arucian in Etrurian, Aruska Fotbollsförbundet in Geatish and Asosyasyon Foutbòl Aruchen in Papotement.

Organisation

Governance

The Arucian Football Association is collectively owned by all clubs in the member leagues of the AAF who each own a share of the organization. A share of AAF stock does not include an equity interest, does not pay dividends, cannot be traded, and has no protection under securities law. However they are given voting rights, an invitation to the corporation's annual congress, ticket purchasing privileges, and an opportunity to purchase exclusive merchandise. Shareholders elect delegates, based upon club affiliation, to the AAF Congress, the supreme legislative body of the organization. Originally the Congress solely consisted of indirectly elected members appointed by its member clubs, but reforms in the 1980s expanded the franchise to all shareholders. The Congress has the authority to elect the members of the AAF Commission and its President as well as remove them from office as it sees fit.

The AAF Commission is the main decision-making body of the organization between the sessions of the AAF Congress. The Commission simultaneously functions as a board of directors by supervising the the activities of the Association, as the governing body of the game by regulating the competitions it oversees, and as the governing body that oversees the rules of the sport. In addition to its regular members appointed by the Congress, the Commission also includes representatives from several affiliated associations such as the AAF Players Association, AAF Coaches Association, and the AAF Owners Association. The Commission is lead by the President, who is also the official head of the organization. The Commission consists of various departments that oversees all aspects of the organization.

History

Founding Era (1940-1956)

The National Football Association was founded in 1940 by the commissioners of one Carucere and three Sainte-Chloé football leagues. The goal of the organization was to officially codify the rules of Arucian football in order to establish a tournament for Arucian football clubs to participate in. The inaugural National Cup tournament kicked off in November 1940 with a match between FC Sainte-Chloé and FC Carrefour, where the former emerged victorious. Initially the National Cup tournament failed to gain much recognition due to the dominance of teams from Sainte-Chloé, until an unanticipated upset win by FC Carrefour over FC Sainte-Chloe in 1943. Soon with the founding of the United Provinces in 1945, it became the preeminent competition for the sport in the Arucian and began cultivating an elite status. That year the organization added two member leagues, the Bonaventuran Federation of Arucian Football from Bonaventura and Imaguan Football Association from the Imagua and the Assimas, adding additional eligible teams. In 1946, the Ligue Impériale de Football (LIF), the Ligue de Football de Sainte-Geneviève (LFSG), and the Association de Football de la Trinité (AFT) merged to form the Sainte-Chloé Football Union after pressure from Pierre Voloix to decrease the number of Sainte-Chloé teams in the tournament. To incorporate the additional teams, the Association instituted a single-elimination round to determine finalists for the National Cup. Gameplay during this era, was characterized as medium-paced with many turnovers, but low-scoring as opportunities were rare; matches were commonly decided by behinds as tiebreaker.

Expansion Era (1954-1981)

The political chaos caused by the collapse of the United Provinces between 1954 to 1956 brought significant delay to the 1956 tournament as the NFA was now spread across multiple independent countries. It took several months for Association officials to negotiate with their respective countries to allow players to reside, play, and travel between the former members of the United Provinces. Prior to the start of the delayed 1956 tournament, the National Football Association rebranded itself as the Arucian Football Association and renamed the tournament the Arucian Cup.

Despite the expansion of its member leagues starting in 1945, the game continued to be dominated by the oldest five teams. The first team not from this group to win the Arucian Cup was the Cuanstad Dockworkers from Imagua and the Assimas in 1962. Over the following decade, the association quickly achieved parity as teams in Boneventura and Imagua and the Assimas acquired proficient players and coaching. This period also saw further alterations to the rules of the sport. In 1964 substitutes were allowed for the first time, but only for players injured before half-time. In 1966 the concept of soloing was adopted as a legal tactic by the AAF Commission to some controversy; while soloing had been part of the game for more than a decade, it was never formally allowed. It was hoped that this would encourage more attacking plays and longer possession, leading to higher scoring. Nevertheless, it remained a specialized skill that a few players could master and dribbling on the ground continued to be the main way to advance the ball.

The 1969 addition of Île d'Émeraude and the addition of the Ardesia marked a new era, as the Île d'Émeraude is the first league from outside the former United Provinces to join the Association. That year also saw the rise of the first modern "super team" under the management of coach XXX, who lead the CF Toucans from the XXXX to three consecutive Arucian Cup appearances from 1969 to 1971 and a victory in the 1972 Cup . His coaching style and creation of new player tactics that were especially designed around soloing and marks revolutionized the sport and signaled a new era in gameplay. At his insistence, the AAF Commission adopted a significant rule change; instead of allowing players to crowd around the goal after a successful mark near the goal, it would now result in a one on one matchup between the goalie and the marker. This change would prove to be one of the most important rule changes in the establishment of the modern game, as it would make the "mark-at-goal" the most successful and most popular method of scoring.

Several coaches emerged took advantage of these sweeping changes, creating new strategies that emphasized keeping the ball off the ground to maintain possession and creating scoring opportunities by trying to take a mark in front of the goal. These changes turned Arucian football into a fast paced, high-scoring sport with spectacular catches and dramatic goals. Interest in the sport and the Association increased dramatically across the region. Combined with the implementation of a salary cap, the Association's member leagues and their clubs achieved a high level of parity. Between 1973 and 1981, for the first time no team in any league made consecutive appearances to the Arucian Cup.

Crises and Reform (1981-1988)

Throughout the 1980s, the Association and its members was hit with a series of successive crises. The Recession of 1980, sparked by the Sugar Crash immediately affected ticket sales and threatened solvency of teams across the Arucian. On 14 August 1981, La Croix revealed that several high ranking officials from the Sainte-Chloé Football Union and the the Association were implicated in giving and taking bribes ahead of the Association commissioners meeting that month. The newspaper reported that it was part of an elaborate scheme to ensure that the Association would approve splitting the Union into two separate leagues. An investigation would lead to the arrests of those involved in the scheme which further implicated officials from other member leagues. A report from the investigation published a year after founded a "pervasive" culture of corruption in parts of the organization. In response, several major officials resigned and their successors launched anti-corruption programs and fired guilty officials.

At the 1983 Arucian Cup host at Cuanstad in Imagua and the Assimas, a riot after a semi-finals game left several people dead and notable damage to the area around the stadium. The event was suspended after the incident was linked to ultras affiliated with the Ardesian club Porto Sotiri FC, which was defeated at that game. An investigation by the Imaguan Constabulary accused several players from the Ardesian team of provoking violence by encouraging them to appear at the game to be disruptive. In response the Association moved to suspend the club from future events and demanded that the players accused pay a significant fine. Porto Sotiri refused to comply, claiming that that Association had no authority to discipline its players. The dispute centered around the unclear relationship between the Association and its member leagues. After the Ardesian league and its member clubs, the Association relented but banned the club from participating in the Cup for a decade.

In the spring of 1984, five football clubs in Carucere announced that they were unable to compete due to impending bankruptcy, throwing the Carucerean Football League into significant turmoil. Soon after, several Chloesian businessmen approached the clubs close to bankruptcy and offered to bail them out by purchasing them. It emerged that they intended to form their own league or migrate the teams into the Football Union. There was widespread outrage in Carucere and the national government publicly protested against the proposed deal. After public lobbying by the Carucerean government, the Association proposed a bailout package to the teams, supported by the AAF and the Carucerean government.

Following the crises of the early 1980s, Commissioner Jen Fournier, appointed after the corruption scandal, pushed for a broad reform of the Association beginning in 1986. A internal report published the same year described a dysfunctional system of governance that encouraged a culture of elitism and corruption in the leadership that would conflict with its member leagues. Based upon recommendations of the report, Fournier announced a constitutional convention

Reconstruction Era (1989-2007)

In 1990, the Association adopted a qualifying rounds using a round-robin system. The new system greatly expanded the number of games in the tournament and represented a fundamental shift.

Member leagues

Conference	Logo	League	Country	No. of Teams	Founded	Joined	Notes
National		Sainte-Chloé Football Union	Sainte-Chloé	32	1882	1940	Originally comprised of 3 leagues, all of which were founding members of the AAF. The three leagues were merged into the Union in 1946 due to pressure from Pierre Voloix.
		Carucerean Football League	Carucere	10	1888	1940	A founding member of the AAF.
		Bonaventuran Federation of Arucian Football	Bonaventura	20	1903	1946
	File:Imaguan Football Association logo.png	Imaguan Football Association	Imagua and the Assimas	9	1945	1946
Arucian		All Satucin Imperial Football Association - Arucian	Satucin	25	1895	1971	Originally comprised 2 leagues. The two leagues were merged in 1941 after Parane and Îles Émeraude united with Satucin.
		Emeraudian League of Arucian Football	Île d'Émeraude	14	1955	1962	Originally established in 1951 as the National League before being reorganized into the modern LÉFA in 1955. It was the first league from outside the former United Provinces to join the AAF
			Ardesia
			Eldmark