Amager Boldspil-Union

Amager Boldspil-Union, shortened to ABU, was a subregional governing body for men's association football on the island of Amager, Denmark. The Amager Football Association governed the league and cup tournaments for the official championship of Amager, known as ABUs Amager-Turnering (or Amagermesterskabsturneringen) and ABUs Pokalturnering (or Amagerpokalturneringen) since its inception in March 1912. In 1916, the association's clubs formed the regional Københavns Forstadsklubbers Boldspil-Union (KFBU). Representative teams, either composed of individual clubs and a selection of players from several teams, referred to as Amager, competed in KFBU tournaments (referred to as Bydelsturneringen) or in exhibition matches against other representative teams and clubs. The subregional football association published a member's magazine known as Unionsbladet, which evolved into the KFBU magazine known as Fodboldbladet.

History
With the intension of creating better a framework for the arrangements of private matches, BK Fremad Amager took the initiative of inviting all present clubs on the island of Amager to a first briefing in November 1911 – with the exception of B 1908 due to the club being considered a much stronger side than the Amager-based teams. The representatives went back to their individual clubs to discuss the formation of a local football association, which resulted in a new meeting in January 1912, in which B 1908 was now invited to. The association was founded on 13 March 1912 at a meeting held by four clubs, Dragør BK, BK Fremad Amager, B 1908 and IK 99 (the football department of IK 99 was also known as B 99). Each club would got two representatives on the first governing board, which had E. Ebertsen (BK Fremad Amager) as chairman, Hans Svane (Dragør BK) as vice-chairman, O. Andersen (IK 99) as cashier and Harry Osbæck (B 1908) as secretary. Each club had their own home grounds assigned by the local municipality. The formation of Amager Boldspil-Union happened in the wake of KBU's conflicts in 1911 regarding the constellation of power and the number of votes between the baneejende klubber and the fælledklubberne.

Shortly after its foundation, the association announced two league tournaments, one for first team seniors (1. Senior-Hold) and one for reserve players (2. Senior-Hold) each split into a spring and fall section with a silver trophy as the perpetual prize, including a cup tournament held at the end of the season. The first league trophy was given to B 1908 for winning the tournament for a second time in 1913, and the second trophy was also won by B 1908 in 1916 following three consecutive championships. The first league season under the auspices of the Amager Football Association began play the following month with its four founding members as participants in both the first team and reserve leagues, mirroring the tournament rules of Kjøbenhavns Boldspil-Union (KBU). Three of the clubs also featured a team in the youth football tournament, while some clubs, such as BK Fremad Amager, featured several younger players in the senior squad compared to many of the other league teams. The first league fixture was between BK Fremad Amager and B 1908 and took place on 14 April 1912 at BK Fremad Amager's home ground next to Cyklistpavillonen Alhambra on Amager Landevej (now Sundbyvester Plads next to Amagerbrogade). The league and cup tournaments would have the matches be refereed by a footballer or member of one of the other league clubs not involved in the fixture.

By mid-June 1912, Sundby KFUM and Kastrup BK (exited between 1908 and 1927) had joined the association and would soon take part in the tournament matches played on Sundays. BK Sylvia joined the Copenhagen FA for a short period (1908–1909) in a cooperation with neighbouring BK Tjalfe, before joining the Amager FA in 1913, participating with their own first team in the league tournaments until 1920. BK Herles and Sundby BK also joined the association ahead of the 1913 season. Dragør BK left the association after the second season, due to attempts from the association at refusing to give Dragør BK permission to play matches at their own home ground. BK Hafnia and BK Sport joined in the summer of 1915, taking part in the 1915–16 season. In 1915, Amager Boldspil Union asked if BK Standard wanted to become a member in 1915, which the club did in 1916, beginning play in the 1916–17 reserve league season. By 1920, the association had been reduced to five clubs (BK Sylvia, B 1908, BK Fremad Amager, Islands Brygges IF and BK Standard) totalling 400 footballers, a decrease from eight members at the end of the previous tournament.

On 1 October 1916, the Amager FA published its first edition of their member's magazine with Emanuel Johansen (BK Sylvia) as the editor-in-chief, named Unionsbladet, containing articles, related cases and discussions, historical information, match reviews and statistics. The magazine would later merge with the magazine published by Valby Boldspil-Union (VBU), known as Fodboldbladet, and evolve into the KFBU magazine known as Fodboldbladet. The association also arranged other sports events, such as running competitions.

Throughout the association's first eight years, they had several fruitless negotiations with different civilian and military authorities to have the conditions of their playing grounds improved, which caused the dissolution of at least two clubs in 1920. Due to a combination of the association being too narrow in its membership and the Copenhagen Football Association (KBU) refusing to accept new members, in April 1916 BK Fremad Amager via Amager Boldspil-Union took the initiative to form a larger football association, known as De københavnske Forstadsklubbers Boldspil Union (KFBU) in 1916. The KFBU would embrace association football clubs in the suburbs of Copenhagen; including Nørrebro, Frederiksberg, Valby, Nordre Birk and Amager, hence involving the associations Amager Boldspil-Union (ABU), Nørrebros Boldspil-Union (NBU, joined later on), Valby Boldspil-Union (VBU) and Nordre Birks Boldspil-Union (NBBU). The KFBU arranged larger tournaments and held matches between representative squads of each suburb, referred to as Bydelsturneringen, and later played matches with a selected squad with players from each of KFBU's member clubs against the representative team of Fælleden.

When the members of Amager Boldspil-Union started joining the Copenhagen FA in late summer of 1920, its league tournament ended, but its cup tournaments continued to be held annually in the summer months for several seasons. Amager Boldspil-Union ceased to exist sometime in the 1940s.

1912 ABUs Amager-Turnering
In the debut season for the association's league tournaments, B 1908 wins the competitions aimed at seniors 1 and 2 including youth (junior). The first competitive league match for the League Championship of Amager was a clash between B 1908 and BK Fremad Amager, which B 1908 won with the score 13–0, held on 14 April 1912, which was followed by a league match between B 1899 (IK 99) and Dragør BK at B 1899's home ground, won by B 99 with the score 3–2. The league standings at the end of the spring season had B 1908 in first place with 6 points, BK Fremad Amager in second place with 3 points and IK 99 in third place with 2 points. B 1908 also won the other two league tournaments.

League table

Results

1913 Amager-Turnering
BK Sylvia won the association's top-flight league in the 1913 season. Last season's four teams were joined by the three new members, BK Sylvia, BK Herles and Sundby BK.

League table

Results

1915 Amager-Turnering
In the spring of 1915, BK Fremad Amager won all three league tournaments.

1916 Amager-Turnering
In 1916, the first team and the reserve squad of B 1908 won their respective league tournaments, acquiring the perpetual trophy as the club's permanent procession.

1916–17 Amager-Turnering
League table

Results

1917–18 Amager-Turnering
BK Sylvia won the league in the 1917–18 season.

1919–20 Amager-Turnering
BK Sylvia won the league in the 1919–20 season.

Amagerpokalturneringen
The rules in 1912 stipulated, that 30 minutes of extra time was added to a cup match, if the teams were level after full time, while the rules in 1928 stipulated that a replay match would be scheduled, if a match was tied after full time.

1912 (spring) ABUs Pokalturnering
Semi-finals

Final

1912 (fall) ABUs Pokalturnering
Semi-finals

Final

1913 (spring) ABUs Pokalturnering
Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

1928 Amagerklubbernes Pokalturnering
...

Final

1929 Amagerklubbernes Pokalturnering
A total of six clubs participated in this edition of the cup, namely BK Fremad Amager, B 1908, BK Standard, BK Sylvia, BK Olympia 1921 and Christianshavns BK, that took place before the start of the regional league tournaments. Admissions were taken at the matches, that were all held at Sundby Idrætspark.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

1931 ABUs Pokalturnering
BK Fremad Amager did not participate in the cup tournament this season.

1935 ABUs Pokalturnering
On 20 August 1935 18:15 a semi-final match was played involving Amager Kammeraterne at Sundby Idrætspark