The Bezirksliga Main-Hessen was the highest

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

league in the

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state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

and the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

n province of

Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944. Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...

from 1923 to 1927, when the league was replaced by the '' Bezirksliga Main-Hessen''.

Overview

The league was formed in 1923, after a league reform which was decided upon in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse ...

.History of the Offenburger Fußballverein
(in German) Page 5, accessed: 23 July 2008 It replaced the ''

Kreisliga Nordmain The Kreisliga Nordmain (English: ''District league North Main'') was the highest association football league in parts of the German state of Hesse and the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau from 1919 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the intr ...

'' and the ''

Kreisliga Südmain The Kreisliga Südmain (English: ''District league South Main'') was the highest association football league in parts of the German state of Hesse from 1919 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezirksliga Main in 1923. ...

'' as the highest leagues in the region. Apart from clubs from Hesse, with the

Viktoria Aschaffenburg SV Viktoria 01 Aschaffenburg is a German football club based in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. Even though Aschaffenburg is located in Bavaria, Viktoria Aschaffenburg historically played its football in the Hessenliga (V) and the associated Hessian le ...

, the league also included one club from

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. The ''Bezirksliga Main'', named after the river

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

, started out with eight teams, playing each other in a home-and-away round with the league winner advancing to the

Southern German championship The Southern German football championship (German: ''Süddeutsche Meisterschaft'') was the highest association football competition in the southern Germany, established in 1898. The competition was disbanded in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis to p ...

, which in turn was a qualification tournament for the German championship. The league modus remained unchanged for its first three seasons, 1923–24, 1924–25 and 1925–26. For its last edition however, it expanded to ten clubs. Additionally, the leagues runners-up also qualified for a "consolidation" round with the other runners-up of the southern ''Bezirksligas''. The winner of this round was awarded the third entry spot for the south to the German finals. In an attempt to bring all Southern German leagues to a similar system, the ''Bezirksligas'' were reorganised in 1927. For the ''Bezirksliga Main'', this meant, it joined with the northern clubs of the ''

Bezirksliga Rheinhessen-Saar The Bezirksliga Rheinhessen-Saar was the highest association football league in the German state of Saarland, the ''Rheinhessen'' part of the state of Hesse and parts of the Bavarian region of Palatinate and the Prussian Rhine Province from 1923 ...

'' to form the new ''Bezirksliga Main-Hessen''. In practice, this meant little change for the league as the new ''Bezirksliga'' was immediately sub-divided into two independent, regional divisions. Out of the ten clubs in the league, nine went to the new ''Bezirksliga Main-Hessen - Main division'', only the

VfL Neu-Isenburg SpVgg 03 Neu-Isenburg is a Football in Germany, German association football club from the city of Neu-Isenburg, Hesse. The roots of the club are in the founding of Freispielclub Neu-Isenburg on 13 June 1903. Over the next three-and-a-half decade ...

found itself grouped into the ''Hessen division'' of the new league.

National success

Southern German championship

Qualified teams and their success: * 1924: ** FSV Frankfurt, ''5th place'' * 1925: ** FSV Frankfurt, ''3rd place'' * 1926: ** FSV Frankfurt, ''3rd place'' * 1927: ** Eintracht Frankfurt, ''3rd place Bezirksliga-runners-up round'' ** FSV Frankfurt, ''3rd place''

German championship

Qualified teams and their success: * 1924: ** ''none qualified'' * 1925: ** FSV Frankfurt, ''Final'' * 1926: ** FSV Frankfurt, ''Quarter final'' * 1927: ** ''none qualified''

Founding members of the league

The league was formed from eight teams: *

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successfu ...

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...

FC Hanau 93 FC Hanau 93 is a German association football club based in Hanau, Hesse. History Early history Founded in 1893, the club is Hesse's oldest. In its first year, the club was winless in a half dozen matches, but the next season emerged as south ...

Helvetia Frankfurt SG Rot-Weiss Frankfurt 01 is a German association football club from Frankfurt am Main. The association was founded on 11 November 1901 as FV Amicitia 1901 Bockenheim in what is today the city district of Bockenheim. History Early years The Fr ...

Kickers Offenbach Offenbacher Kickers, also known as Kickers Offenbach, is a German association football club in Offenbach am Main, Hesse. The club was founded on 27 May 1901 in the Rheinischer Hof restaurant by footballers who had left established local clubs in ...

* SC Bürgel *

* SpVgg Offenbach

Winners and runners-up of the Bezirksliga Main

Placings in the Bezirksliga Main 1923 to 1927

Source: * The ''Helvetia Frankfurt'' and ''VfR Frankfurt'' merged in 1926 to form ''Rot-Weiß Frankfurt''.

References

Sources

* ''Fussball-Jahrbuch Deutschland'' (8 vol.), Tables and results of the German tier-one leagues 1919–33, publisher: DSFS * ''Kicker Almanach'', The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine * ''Süddeutschlands Fussballgeschichte in Tabellenform 1897-1988'' History of Southern German football in tables, publisher & author: Ludolf Hyll

External links

The Gauligas
''Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv''
German league tables 1892-1933
''Hirschi's Fussball seiten''

at RSSSF.com {{Football in Hesse 1 1923 establishments in Germany 1927 disestablishments in Germany Football competitions in Hesse Southern German football championship