Asociación de Fútbol de Santiago

The Asociación de Fútbol de Santiago (also known as AFS) was the first organization in Chile to organize football tournament. It was formed in 1903 and organized non-professional football in Santiago. Later on, it was the organization responsible for holding the national professional football league in Chile.

In the early twentieth century, in Santiago there did not exist any organization for the various college football clubs that were emerging and therefore no any football tournament was contested, unlike what happened in Valparaiso, where competitions were held by the Football Association of Chile since 1895 and there was a championship each year. In the capital, matches were limited to football friendlies, and there was a lack of organization to unify the rules, and it was also very common for players to continually change their club.

Faced with the growing number of teams (around 50), it was "... essential to the formation of the Association in Santiago." The Asociación de Fútbol de Santiago (AFS) was founded on 15 May 1903, in the building of the Commodities Exchange (Bolsa de Comercio), where there came representatives of 14 football clubs in Santiago. The first Board of Directors of the AFS was formed by July Subercaseaux (Santiago National) as Honorary President, Jose A. Alfonso (Atlético Unión) as Chairman; Oscar Diener (Santiago National) as Treasurer; Jorge D. Ewing (Atlético Unión) as Secretary; and Luis de la Carrera (Thunder) as Pro-Secretary.

At its first ordinary meeting, the recent Board of Directors, in the presence of representatives from 16 clubs which agreed to restrict the enrollment of the tournament, divided the clubs into two categories owing to the large amount of teams. A First Division, including Thunder, Santiago National, Atlético Unión, Britania, Victoria and the Instituto Pedagógico, and a Second Division, comprising the Victoria Rangers, Brasil F.C., Chilean Star, Chile F.C., Cambridge, Bandera de Chile, Balmaceda F.C., Victorioso, Wilmington and the second team of Thunder, were set up.

The first football championship played in Santiago, called Copa Subercaseaux in honor of the Honorary Chairman of the AFS who donated the trophy, commenced on May 31, 1903, before a presence of "... no fewer than three thousand people." The first champions of this tournament were Atlético Unión, while the tournament champion of Second Division, called the Copa Junior, was the Victoria Rangers. In 1906 the Copa Subercaseaux was renamed Copa Unión.

In 1904, a team called Baquedano is accepted as a member of the tournament, who changed its name to Magallanes Atlético after a few months, moving quickly renamed Magallanes Football Club, and, in 1922, Club Social y Deportivo Magallanes. Later on it was one of the founders of professionalism in Chile, and was the first champion of the Primera División de Chile in 1933.

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