Minutes from the Cardiff Maccabi Football Club meeting, Cardiff, 4 November 1969

Description

Minute book entry from the Cardiff Maccabi Football meeting held at the Cathedral Road Youth Centre on November 4th, Cardiff, 1969 - 'Maccabi' referring to a Jewish Organisation with its mission to "Promote Jewish Identity through Sport" [source: http://www.maccabi.com.au/NSW/Page/335/About-Maccabi-NSW/Maccabi-History.cfm].

The individual entries in the book primarily follow the formula of: date, members present, agenda, minutes, correspondence, the treasurer's' report, matches and elections. However, there are variations as the entries continue over the years, with more pressing matters taking priority. For this entry, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the criticism which members of the club had voiced earlier over the conduct of the Club Manager, Mr Leslie Felman. Felman was prepared to voice all points which would be raised but felt disappointed that he had not been asked to attend the previous week’s meeting, when the heated discussion on this topic had originally taken place. The floor suggested that because the manager had been unable to attend the matches, he was in no position to give a qualified opinion on the present merits of certain players. Ralph Cantor said that he did not expect the Manager to attend every game. Mention was then made of the reserve teams’ grievance that no members of the election committee attended their games, and it was virtually impossible for players to be considered fairly for a first team place. A significant lack of praise was also mentioned; the Manager appeared to always congratulate the opposition, yet rarely praised his own team. Felman then addressed the members that his resignation would be in the club’s best interest but felt compelled to listen to the club’s opinion. The Manager was asked at the end of the meeting to reconsider his decision to resign, and that all members from then on should accept the decisions of the election committee.

The Maccabi Union Great Britain is the more commonly used shorter name of the Union of Maccabi Associations in Great Britain. Similarly to its counterparts across the globe, it exists to promote the active participation in sports and education of young Jewish men and women, in order to enhance their Jewish identity, values and commitment to the community [source: https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail coll_id=14836&inst_id=118&nv1=search&nv2=].

In 1969, Stanley Soffa and Adrian Freedman travelled to London to submit an application, so their Cardiff Football Club would be allowed to join the Maccabi Southern Football League - it was accepted. The team finished 3rd in the 1970/71 season and were promoted, but at the annual general meeting there was discussion about joining the Cardiff Sunday League, which had been founded by a group of individuals (not Jewish) who got together in late August 1970. After a hard struggle with the City Council and the South Wales Football Association, they were later given permission to commence matches in early October 1970 [source: Cardiff Maccabi Football Club. Doc].

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.