Football in the south of England Professional football (and, indeed,
professional sports in general) developed more slowly in
Southern England than in
Northern England. Professionalism was first sanctioned by
The Football Association as early as 1885, but when
The Football League was founded in 1888, its member clubs were based entirely in the North and
Midlands, as the
county football associations in the South were firmly opposed to professionalism.
Woolwich Arsenal (nowadays simply Arsenal) were the first club in London to turn professional in 1891 and were one of the prime motivators behind an attempt to set up a Southern League to mirror the existing Northern and Midlands based Football League. However, this venture failed in the face of opposition from the
London Football Association, and Woolwich Arsenal instead joined the Football League as its only representative south of Birmingham in 1893. Additionally, an amateur league, the
Southern Alliance, was founded in 1892, with seven clubs from the region, but that folded after one incomplete season.
Formation of the Southern League Nonetheless, another attempt was made to form the Southern League, and this time it was successful. A competition for both professional and amateur clubs was founded in 1894 under the initiative of
Millwall Athletic (now simply Millwall). Initially only one division was envisaged, but such was the enthusiasm for the idea, that eventually two divisions were formed. The sixteen original founder members were: 2nd Scots Guards withdrew before the first season started and were replaced by
Southampton St Mary's. Woolwich Arsenal attempted to add their reserve side to the second division but this application was refused due to the club's existing membership of The Football League.
Success of the Southern League The Southern League soon became the dominant competition below The Football League in Southern and Central England, and by the turn of the century a few of the Southern League sides began to seriously rival the Football League in the FA Cup. A preview of the
1900–01 season in the
Daily News described the league as "now, without a doubt, second only in importance and the strength of its clubs to the Football League itself. With the exception of Woolwich Arsenal, who prefer to remain members of the Second Division of the Football League, all the best professional teams in the South are now enrolled in the ranks of the Southern League". Two Southern League clubs,
Southampton (in
1900 and
1902) and
Tottenham Hotspur (in
1901) reached the final of the FA Cup around the turn of the twentieth century. Tottenham Hotspur remain the only club from outside the Football League (and since its inception, also the Premier League) to have won the FA Cup. Several of the best players in England moved from the Football League to the Southern League around this time, due to the
restrictions on their freedom of movement and wages implemented by the Football League between 1893 and 1901, and the failed efforts of the
Association Footballers' Union (the AFU) to relax the restrictions. This ended in 1910 when the League came to a
reciprocal agreement with the Football League. The champions of the two leagues during this period met in the annual
Charity Shield. Out of the six meetings the respective league champions had in the Shield, however, only one was won by the Southern League champions –
Brighton & Hove Albion, in
1910, and this remains their only top level national honour. Up until
World War I, the league also organised several representative 'inter-league' matches, against the
Football League XI and the
Scottish Football League XI. They won the inaugural inter-league equivalent of the
British Home Championship in 1910, defeating the Football League 3–2, Scottish League 1–0 and the
Irish League 4–0. In 1907, it accepted newly converted-to-Association and future Football League club
Bradford, a northern club, as a member, reflecting its senior position at the time.
Stalybridge Celtic and
Stoke also joined before the First World War.
Sponsorship The first sponsor of the Southern League was
Beazer Homes who sponsored the league from 1987 to 1996. The sponsors after Beazer Homes to the present day are:
Dr Martens (1996–2004),
British Gas (2006–2009), Zamaretto (2009–2011), Evo-Stik (2011–2013),
Calor Gas (2013–2014), Evo-Stik (2014–2019) and
BetVictor (2019–2020). From the 2020–21 season the league has been sponsored by Pitching In,
Entain's grassroots sports investment programme. At the time of announcement, Entain went by its former name GVC Holdings. Under this partnership, the Southern League is marketed as one of the three Trident Leagues, alongside its Isthmian and Northern Premier counterparts. ==Current members==