Socialist Republic Football Alliance 2016 - 17 Season: Curtain Raiser (Matchday #1, part 1)

Championship

Torpedo Tranmere  2   Marine  1

As with the inaugural event last term, the Football Alliance league season's curtain-raiser resulted in a defeat for the reigning champions, with Marine going down by the odd goal at newly-promoted Torpedo Tranmere following their short trip across the Mersey to Birkenhead.
In a suitably pulsating encounter, Tranmere, not at all overawed by the occasion of making their Championship debut, established a 14th-minute lead and held on resolutely in the face of the Mariners' sustained response, restricting the free-scoring champions to relatively few clear-cut chances whilst maintaining an attacking threat themselves. Marine did level, however, in the 63rd minute, but, far from being deflated, Tranmere were spurred on to take the game to their opponents in the latter stages rather than consolidate what would have been a hard-earned point and were rewarded for their efforts with an 87th-minute winner.

Socialist Republic Football Alliance 2016 - 17 Season

The 2016-17 season of the Socialist Republic Football Alliance kicks off in less than three weeks now, on the evening of Friday 2nd September, with reigning champions Marine making the short trip across the Mersey to divisional newcomers Torpedo Tranmere in the curtain-raiser before the rest of the action gets under way on Saturday 3rd.

The Championship will retain its traditional format and comprise sixteen teams playing each other on a home and away basis in a 30-match competition , but below the top level a significant restructuring of the League has taken place.
A Third Division has been reinstated at national level after the previous two seasons' experiment with just two national sections. Both the Second and Third Divisions will comprise twelve teams who will play each other home and away during Phase One of the campaign (22 matches) before each of these two divisions split at the mid point of the respective tables to form two sections of six teams to compete in Phase Two, a Promotion group and a Relegation group, with each member playing each other home and away in a further 10 matches to decide the season's promotions and demotions - the top two clubs from each of the Promotion groups will achieve elevation to the division above, whilst the bottom two teams of each of the Alliance's three tiers will be relegated to the level below (the regional leagues in the case of those clubs finishing in the bottom two positions of the Third Division).

To accommodate this restructuring has necessitated a further two clubs being demoted from last season's Second Division in addition to the four who were relegated at the close of 2015-16: Manchester Newton Heath, who will join the new third tier and Inter-Italiano who have relocated across Manchester, subsequently re-branded  as Urmston Villa and have also been awarded a place at the third level.
Prescot Cables and the recently merged Wimbledon, Tooting & Mitcham have been promoted to the Second Division from the regions, as Northern and Southern champions, whilst a whole host of new names along with returning former twice champions Matlock Town and rebranded/reformed Gateshead (as Trinity), Nelson (Proletariat) and Sunderland (Automotive) will complete the Third Division.

The full list of member clubs, in divisional order and with first-choice colours, is as follows:

Championship

Blyth Spartans - green & white stripes/black/green

Dynamo Burnley -claret with sky blue trim/white/sky blue

Excelsior Marlow - blue and red quarters/white/blue, red tops

Gainsborough Trinity - dark blue and dark red hoops/white/socks as shirt

Hungaria - red with green chest band/white/green

Liverpool St Helens - red with blue sash/white/blue, red tops

Locomotive Crewe - red with white sleeves/white/red

Manchester Central - sky blue and white halves/white/dark blue, red tops

Marine - sky blue and dark blue hoops/white/socks as shirt

Marxist Polytechnic - red and white halves/white/dark blue, red tops

Northwich Victoria - green and white hoops/white/green and white hoops

Red Star Mossley - green with LH red and black checked stripe/black/red

Red Star Wrexham - red with LH green stripe/white/green, red tops

Spartak-Slavia - red and dark red halves/white/navy, red tops

Stalybridge Celtic - yellow with LH dark red stripe/dark red /dark red

Torpedo Tranmere - white with blue sash/white/dark blue, blue tops

Second Division

Audenshaw Ajax - green with white sash/white/green and white hoops

Bohemians - green and white halves/white/green, white tops

Bradford Comrades - claret and amber stripes/black/claret, amber tops

Crystal Palace - blue and red checks/white/blue and red hoops

Hartlepool Petrochemical - light blue and white halves/white/dark blue, red tops

Hendon Hotspur - purple with green sash/white/green

Merthyr Tydfil - green and black stripes/white/black, red tops

Newcastle Blue Star - blue and black halves/black/black, blue tops

Prescot Cables - gold and black halves/black/black, gold tops

Sheffield Wednesday - blue and white stripes/black/blue, white tops

South Liverpool - red with LH black checked band/black/black, red tops

Wimbledon Tooting & Mitcham - blue and red stripes/black/black, blue and red tops

Third Division

Everton Stanley - blue and salmon pink halves/white/blue, salmon pink tops
Gateshead Trinity - green and black halves, red trim/white/black, red tops

Liverpool Hibernian - green, white and orange thirds/green/green, orange tops
Manchester Newton Heath - dark blue and dark red halves/black/dark blue, dark red tops

Matlock Town - blue with amber chest band/blue/blue, amber tops

Nelson Proletariat - blue and black stripes/black/black, blue tops
Newcastle Caledonia Thistle - purple and pink halves/white/purple and pink hoops
Red Star Bootle - dark red with navy LH stripe with red star/navy/navy, dark red tops

Sunderland Automotive - red and white stripes/black/red, white tops

Tadcaster Albion - black and white halves,black/black, white tops

Urmston Villa - claret and amber halves/black/claret with amber tops
White Star Waterloo - royal blue and navy halves/white/navy, royal blue tops

European League Champions and Cup Winners/Finalists 2015 - 16

The season across Europe having come to a conclusion, we present an alphabetical listing of the continent's various domestic league champions, cup winners and beaten cup finalists.

Country	League Champions	Cup Winners	Cup Finalists	Score
Albania	FK Veleciku	Luftetari	Vllaznia Shkoder	6 - 2
Austria	Rapid Vienna	Austria Klagenfurt	Sturm Graz	1 - 1*R
Belgium	KRC Genk	Westerlo	La Louviere	2 - 0
Bosnia	Velez Mostar	Borac Banja Luka	HSK Zrinjski	2 - 0
Bulgaria	Slavia Sofia	Levski-Spartak Sofia	Lokomotiv Sofia	6 - 2
Croatia	Lokomotiv Zagreb	Hajduk Split	Tresnjevka Zagreb	3 - 2*
Czechoslovakia	Bohemians Prague	Slavia Prague	Dukla Prague	5 - 3
Denmark	Akademisk Kobenhavn	Bronshoj BK	FC Copenhagen	5 - 0 R
England	Marine	Red Star Mossley	Torpedo Tranmere	5 – 3*
Finland	Kuusysi Lahti	SePS Seinajoki	OTP Oulu	4 - 1
France	Red Star Paris	Saint-Etienne	Stade de Reims	5 - 0
Germany East	Dynamo Berlin	Dynamo Dresden	Lokomotive Leipzig	2 - 0
Germany West	Borussia Monchengladbach	Rot-Weiss Essen	Borussia Dortmund	5 - 1
Greece	Panathinaikos	Panachaiki Patras	AEK Athens	1 - 0
Holland	Ajax Amsterdam	Excelsior Rotterdam	Roda JC Kerkrade	2 - 1*
Hungary	Ferencvaros	Vasas Budapest	MTK Budapest	6 - 3
Ireland	Glentoran	Crusaders	Shamrock Rovers	3 - 2
Italy	Internazionale	Internazionale	AC Milan	3 - 2*
Luxembourg	Kischpelt Welwerwolz	US Hostert	Swift Hesperance	5 - 0
Norway	Bodo/Glimt	Stromsgodset Drammen	Tromso	4 - 1*
Poland	Wisla Krakow	Widzew Lodz	Slask Wroclaw	2 - 1*
Portugal	Sporting Lisbon	Vitoria Setubal	Boavista Porto	3 - 2
Rumania	Universitatea Craiova	Petrolul Ploiesti	Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt	1 - 0*
Russia	Torpedo Moscow	Spartak Moscow	Zenit Leningrad	3 - 2*
Scotland	St Johnstone	Hibernian	Partick Thistle	2 - 1
Soviet Union	Dinamo Minsk	Pakhtakor Tashkent	Dinamo Tblisi	2 - 2*R
Spain	Atletico Madrid	Barcelona	Atletico Madrid	3 - 2*
Sweden	Husqvarna FF	Oster Vaxjo	Boras Elfsborg	1 - 0
Switzerland	Grasshoppers Zurich	Servette Geneva	Neuchatel Xamax	3 - 1
Turkey	Trabzonspor	Galatasaray	Eskisehirspor	4 - 1
Ukraine	Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk	Karpaty Lvov	Tavriya Simferopol	2 - 1*
Yugoslavia	Dubocica Leskovac	Kristal Zajecar	Vojvodina Novi Sad	2 - 2*R