SAFCSA

Branch Lines: calling all SAFCSA branches. Don’t miss your connection

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Well said, Jake

For those Sunderland supporters who take the trouble to visit these pages regularly, it will come as no surprise that we are currently running a series called Branch Lines.

Its purpose is to introduce readers to the many branches of the Sunderland AFC Supporters’ Association (SAFCSA) that have been created, but also – where applicable – to the more informal groups of SAFC fans that may also exist.

And our chosen way of approaching the task has been to ask individuals concerned with those branches to do the introductions rather than just have them written about by Monsieur Salut or his colleagues at Salut! Sunderland.

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Branch Lines: sharing the ‘ecstasy and misery’ of Sunderland fans down south

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Ian Todd

In the second item in our new series of SAFC Supporters’ Association branches, this is an introduction – for those who need it; Monsieur Salut is aware that many readers, himself included, are members – to an essential part of the Sunderland-supporting family that clocked up 50 years of existence last year. It should be read in conjunction with the piece about that anniversary, reproduced below, and written by Ian Todd, co-founder of the branch …

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George Forster: ‘if only football’s powers had a shred of Mr Sunderland’s loyalty and integrity’

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George Forster

Pete Sixsmith pays tribute to an early mentor of his football writing, George Forster, a man who exemplifies all that is good about the Sunderland AFC family of supporters and has just collected an appropriate accolade …


In a season of deepest gloom, there was one bright spot – two if you count the reduction in Jolly Jack Rodwell’s salary.

The positive one was the award of EFL Championship Supporter of the Year, won by 91-year-old George Forster, a man who can rightly be called “Mr Sunderland AFC”.

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‘All my fault’: the man behind a golden milestone for Sunderland supporters

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From Feb 6 1967: Ian’s letter to fellow SAFC fans announcing plans to establish a formal branch of the Supporters’ Association

Monsieur Salut writes: the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association has just reached 50 years of age. In common with many who leave Sunderland-supporting parts of the North East to ply their trades in and around the Smoke, I eventually got round to joining the branch after seeing numerous mentions in the matchday programmes of various London clubs where I had attended away games. I’d put my membership at around 30 years, but I could and should have joined sooner, since I moved south a few months before the 1973 FA Cup Final. Plenty have done much longer stretches. Step forward Ian Todd, who was largely instrumental in creating the branch 50 years ago and has been a tireless mainstay of its activities.

Special events are planned, with a get-together and buffet at the Stadium of Light on the evening we play West Ham on April 15 – open to members, past members and their guests – and, on the eve of the final game at Chelsea, at the Knights Templar near Chancery Lane, London (all-comers welcome; many will recall the splendid pre-League Cup final gathering there in 2014). Check out details at weardownsouth.com and now read what Ian had to say in a piece headlined ‘It’s all my fault’ in the new edition of the excellent branch newsletter, Wear Down South …

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George Foster, heroic example to football supporters, honoured at Wear-Tyne derby

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Every football club needs a George Foster.

For 46 years, that is to say six years longer than the period that has elapsed since Sunderland last won serious silverware, George has been chairman of the Sunderland AFC Supporters’ Association. You can tell the era from which he comes from the correct use of the apostrophe in the association’s title; even secondary headteachers don’t bother with such things these days.

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Ha’way the lasses. And not for the first time

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Photo courtesy of the Sunderland Women's Football Club*

As one whose younger daughter is a far better player than her dad ever was, Monsieur Salut enthusiastically welcomes the announcement from the London and Southern England branch of the Sunderland AFC Supporters’ Association that it has joined the list of sponsors of the Sunderland Women’s football team.

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A year in Sunderland’s life: things we may never know

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Jake as Tony Roffe's caption writer

Something I had no reason to expect plopped on the doormat during my fleeting visit to London to visit my brother Phil (much, much better; even out of hospital since the weekend). It was a copy of that lesser spotted creature Wear Down South, newsletter of the London and SE branch of the SAFC Supporters’ Association. Ian Todd’s review of events during the many months that had passed since the last edition made the wait worthwhile. Ian, co-founder and mainstay of the branch, tells the story of an important year in SAFC’s recent history with exemplary attention to detail …

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