Southern League: General Information
The Southern League was formed in 1893 as a competition for clubs in the
south of England who did not wish to be restricted by the amateur
regulations. The Football League, started in 1888 for professional teams,
was initially restricted to Northern and Midland clubs, and the Southern
League was a reaction to this. Southern League teams did well against
Football League opposition when they met in the F.A. Cup: Tottenham
Hotspur won the F.A. Cup when in the Southern League in 1901.
In 1920 Division 1 of the Southern League was renamed Football League
Division 3 South. The remaining Southern League clubs were joined by
the reserve teams of many Football League sides and the competition
went into a decline in terms of both quality and numbers.
In the 1950s the Southern League expanded again, dropping the reserve teams
and undergoing the first of many reorganisations. From 1958/59 there were
two divisions, initially Southern and Northern, later Premier and First,
until in 1971 the present configuration of Premier division, Division 1 South
and Division 1 Midland was achieved. In 1979 13 Premier division teams were
lost to the newly-formed Alliance Premier League and the Southern League
was reduced to two divisions for a short time, but soon reverted to
three.
The champions of the Southern (now Beazer Homes) League are normally accepted
into the Alliance Premier League {APL} (now called the GM Vauxhall Conference),
assuming their stadium and facilities are adequate. The Southern League
also accepts about three applications for membership each year from
lower leagues which belong to the Southern branch of the Pyramid, though the
number of lower leagues on this branch means that no champions are
accepted automatically.
Since 1983/84 the numbers of acceptances are:
- 10 to M from the West Midlands (Regional) League {WMP}
- 8 to M from the Midland Football Combination {MC1, later MCP}
- 5 (4 to M, 1 to S) from the United Counties League {UCP}
- 5 to S from the Kent League {KL1}
- 3 to S from the Eastern Counties League {ECL, later ECP}
- 3 to S from the Wessex League {Wx, later Wx1} (formed 1984)
- 2 to M from the Western League {WLP}
- 2 to M from the Hellenic League {HLP}
- 1 to S from the Sussex County League {Sx1}
- 1 to S from the London Spartan League {SpP}
- 1 to S from the Middlesex County League {Mx}.
The Welsh League {wLN} (which covers South Wales, unlike the new national
competition, the League of Wales) has also supplied new members to the
Southern League in the past, but this relationship no longer holds.
The status of the Southern League is equal to that of the Isthmian League
{IL} (also Vauxhall-Opel League, Diadora League, ICIS League) and the
Northern Premier League {NP} (also Multipart League, HFS Loans League,
Unibond League).
There is more history in the
archive index.
Maintained by Russell Gerrard:
r.j.gerrard@city.ac.uk