football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
league covering
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs.
Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams in four divisions: the Premier Division above its three feeder divisions, the North, South Central and South East divisions.
Together with the Southern League and the
Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...
, it forms the seventh and eighth levels of the
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...
. It has various regional feeder leagues and the league as a whole is a feeder league mainly to the
National League South
The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...
.
History
Before the Isthmian League was formed, there were no leagues in which amateur football clubs could compete, only knock-out cup competitions. Therefore, a meeting took place between representatives of Casuals,
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
London Caledonians
London Caledonians F.C. was an amateur football club based in London, primarily for Scottish players. They were founder members of the Isthmian League, which they won in its inaugural season. They remained in the league until 1939 when the club f ...
to discuss the creation of a strong amateur league. All the clubs supported the idea and the Isthmian League was born on 7 March 1905. Membership to the league was through invitation only. The league was very strongly dedicated to the cause of
amateurism
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist.
History
Hist ...
in sport; consequently, the champions of the league did not even receive a trophy or medals; the league's Latin motto was ''honor sufficit'' ('honour is sufficient').
Thus, those clubs less able to compete financially gravitated to it rather than to the Southern League, which attracted clubs with ambition and money. Although the Isthmian League established itself as one of the strongest amateur leagues in the country, routinely providing the winners of the
FA Amateur Cup
The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status.
History
Following the legalisation of professionalism within footba ...
, it was still regarded as being at a lower level than the Southern League, which had developed into the top regional
semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
league. By 1922 the Isthmian League had fourteen clubs and over the next five decades, only a few new members were admitted, mainly to fill vacancies left by clubs leaving the league. Most new Isthmian League members joined from the Athenian League, which was similarly dedicated to amateurism.
The Isthmian League was most likely named after the ancient Isthmian Games, with the later Athenian League,
Corinthian League
The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League (from Greek Ἑλληνικός ''Hellenikos'', "pertaining to Greece and Greeks"), was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II in 338–337 BC. The League was created ...
Parthenon League
The Parthenon League was a football league covering Greater London and the surrounding area.
History
The league was formed in 1951 with 11 clubs, nine of which had come from the Middlesex Senior League.Aetolian League all adding a Classical Greek flavour to amateur football competition. In 1962 an 'all-star' team from the Isthmian League entered the
1962 Ugandan Independence Tournament
The Ugandan Independence Tournament was an association football event taking place in 1962 to celebrate Ugandan Independence held at the Nakivubo Stadium in Kampala. Three visiting teams played each other for the
right to face Uganda in the final ...
, drawing both their games versus Kenya and Ghana.
The league finally began to permit professionalism in the mid 1970s when the
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
abolished the long-standing distinction between amateur and professional status with effect from the 1974–75 season. A second division of sixteen clubs was formed in 1973 and a third division followed in 1977. However, the league still remained officious and refused to participate in the formation of the Alliance Premier League in 1979 and whilst two Isthmian clubs, Enfield and
Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...
, defected to the APL in 1981, it was not until 1985 that the Isthmian League champions were given a promotion place to the newly renamed Football Conference. The reward of promotion into the Conference means that, since 1985, no team has won the league champions title two seasons in succession (as had happened on 22 occasions previously). The Athenian League disbanded in 1984 when the Isthmian League Second Division split into North and South Divisions. These were restructured yet again to Second and Third Divisions in 1991.
In 2002, the league was restructured once more, with the First and Second Divisions merging to become Division One North and Division One South (later renamed simply the North and South divisions), and the Third Division being renamed as Division Two. In addition, the league's three feeder leagues—the Combined Counties League,
Essex Senior League
The Essex Senior Football League is an English men's football league. It contains clubs from the Essex FA, Hertfordshire FA, London FA, Middlesex FA and the Amateur Football Alliance. It is a feeder league to Division One North of the Isthm ...
and
Spartan South Midlands League
The Spartan South Midlands Football League is an English football league covering Hertfordshire, northwest Greater London, central Buckinghamshire and southern Bedfordshire. It is a feeder to the Southern Football League or the Isthmian League, ...
—ran in parallel with Division Two, and were able to feed directly into the regional Division Ones.
In 2004, The Football Association pushed through a major restructuring of the entire national non-league
National League System
The National League System comprises the six levels of the English football league system immediately below the level of the English Football League. It comes under the jurisdiction of The Football Association. The National League System has a h ...
, creating new regional divisions of the Football Conference feeding into the top, national, level. As a consequence of this restructuring, the Isthmian League was reduced back down to three divisions, and its boundaries were changed to remove the overlap with the Southern League.
In 2006, further reorganisation saw a reversion to two regional Division Ones and the disbandment of Division Two. This current plan calls for clubs based on the edges of the Isthmian League's territory to transfer to and from the Southern League as necessary to maintain numerical balance between the leagues. One team, Clapton, who were ever present in the Isthmian League since its foundation, were moved to the Essex Senior League for the 2006–07 season.
Dulwich Hamlet
Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill.
History
The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. T ...
, who had joined the league in 1907, became its longest serving member until their promotion to the National League South for the 2018–19 season.
In May 2017, The Football Association chose the Isthmian League to add a third regional division at Step 4 as part of further restructuring in the National League System, reducing all divisions at Step 4 to 20 teams. The new division started play in the 2018–19 season.
Billericay Town
Billericay Town Football Club is a football club based in Billericay, Essex, England. The club are currently members of and play at New Lodge. They are the second most successful club in FA Vase history, having won the competition on three o ...
*
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...
Carshalton Athletic
Carshalton Athletic Football Club is an English football club based in Carshalton in the London Borough of Sutton. They currently play in the and are based at the War Memorial Sports Ground. The club also field a women's team playing in the Lo ...
*
Corinthian-Casuals
Corinthian-Casuals Football Club is a football club based in Tolworth in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, England. Affiliated to the London Football Association, they are currently members of the and play at King George's Field.
His ...
*
Cray Wanderers
Cray Wanderers Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in Sidcup, London. Based on later reports, the club has a claim to have been established some time in 1860 in the twin villages of St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cr ...
*
Enfield Town
Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 156,858 in 2018. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield Highway ...
*
Folkestone Invicta
Folkestone Invicta Football Club is a association football, football club based in Folkestone, Kent, England. They are currently members of the and play at Cheriton Road.
History
The club was established in 1936 and joined the East Kent Wedne ...
Herne Bay
Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...
*
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed ...
*
Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...
*
Kingstonian
Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division.
The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...
*
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
Potters Bar Town
Potters Bar Town Football Club is an English football club based in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England. They were formed in 1960 as Mount Grace Old Scholars, and, after dropping 'Old Scholars' from the name in 1984, changed to their present na ...
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Wingate & Finchley
Wingate & Finchley Football Club is an English football club based in Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet. The club are currently members of the and play at The Maurice Rebak Stadium in North London.
History
The club was established in ...
North Division
*
AFC Sudbury
Amalgamated Football Club Sudbury is a football club based in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The club was formed in 1999 by the merger of Sudbury Town and Sudbury Wanderers, the process giving rise to the name Amalgamated Football Club Sudbury. ...
Brentwood Town
Brentwood Town Football Club is a football club based in Brentwood, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Brentwood Centre Arena.
History
A Brentwood Football Club was established in the 19th century, and played ...
*
Bury Town
Bury Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club, based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The club are currently members of the and play at Ram Meadow.
History Early history
The club was established by William Lake at a meetin ...
East Thurrock United
East Thurrock United Football Club is a football club based in Corringham, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Rookery Hill.
History
The club was founded on 27 April 1969 by a group of fans who felt that the area around ...
Grays Athletic
Grays Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Grays, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Parkside in nearby Aveley.
History
The club was established as Grays Juniors in 1890, before merging with former S ...
Hashtag United
Hashtag United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Len Salmon Stadium.
Founded in 2016 by YouTube personality Spencer Carmichael-Brown, the club original ...
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Heybridge Swifts
Heybridge Swifts Football Club is a football club based in Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Scraley Road.
History
The club was established in 1880 as Heybridge Football Club. After joining t ...
Lowestoft Town
Lowestoft Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. They are currently members of the and play at Crown Meadow.
History
The club was established in 1887 as Lowestoft F.C. by a merger of East Suf ...
Chertsey Town
Chertsey Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chertsey, Surrey, England. The club currently competes in the Isthmian League South Central Division.
The home of Football
The club was established as Chertsey Football ...
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
Tooting & Mitcham United
Tooting & Mitcham United Football Club is an association football club based in the London Borough of Merton. They are currently members of the and play at Imperial Fields in Morden. Their nickname is "the Terrors" or "the Stripes".
History
...
Chatham Town
Chatham Town Football Club is an English association football club based in Chatham, Kent. It currently plays in the and is nicknamed "The Chats”.
Former Premier League club Portsmouth and current Premier League club West Ham United played ...
East Grinstead Town
East Grinstead Town Football Club is a association football, football club based in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. They are currently members of the and play at East Court.
History
The club was established on 8 May 1890 as East Grinstea ...
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
Three Bridges Three Bridges may refer to:
England
*Three Bridges, West Sussex, a neighbourhood within the town of Crawley
**Three Bridges F.C., an association football team
**Three Bridges railway station
**Three Bridges depot, a rail depot
* Three Bridges, Linc ...
*
VCD Athletic
VCD Athletic Football Club (short for Vickers, Crayford & Dartford Athletic Football Club) is a semi-professional football club based in Crayford in south-east London, England. The club was founded in 1916, during the First World War, as a compa ...
''For the 1973–74 season, Division Two was added.''
''For the 1977–78 season, Division One was renamed the Premier Division, Division Two was renamed Division One and new Division Two was added.''
''For the 1984–85 season, Division Two was reorganised into North and South regions.''
''For the 1991–92 season, regional divisions Two were merged and Division Three was added.''
''At the end of the 1994–95 season, Enfield were denied promotion to the Conference. Their place was taken by Slough Town who finished as runners-up.''
''For the 2002–03 season, Division One was reorganised into North and South regions and Division Three was disbanded.''
''For the 2004–05 season Division Ones North and South were merged.''
''For the 2006–07 season, Division One was reorganised into North and South regions and Division Two was disbanded.''
''For the 2018–19 season, the South Division was reorganised into South Central and South East divisions.''
Promoted
Since the league's formation in 1905, the following clubs have won promotion to higher levels of the
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...
-
Asterisk indicates club was promoted via play-offs
Sponsorship
The Isthmian League was the first league to have sponsorship, having been selected by
Rothmans Rothmans may refer to:
* Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company
* Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman
See also
* Rothman, a surname
* Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car ra ...
, who sponsored the league from 1973 to 1977. The company offered prize money for position in the league but money was deducted for bookings. Thus the money encouraged both more goals and fair play. The sponsors after Rothmans to the present day have been: Michael Lawrie (1977–78), Berger (1978–82), Servowarm (1982–85),
Vauxhall
Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
-
Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
(1985–90),
Vauxhall
Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
(1990–91),
Diadora
Diadora is an Italian sportswear and footwear manufacturing company based in Caerano di San Marco (Veneto), subsidiary of Geox, founded in 1948. Diadora produces football boots and athletic shoes, as well as a range of apparel that includes ...
(1991–95), ICIS (1995–97), Ryman (1997–2017), Bostik (2017–19) and BetVictor (2019–20).
Entain
Entain plc, formerly GVC Holdings, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It owns brands such as bwin, Coral, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker, and Spo ...
's Pitching In was announced as the next sponsor for 2020–21. At the time of announcement, Entain went by its former name GVC Holdings. Under this partnership, Isthmian is marketed as one of the three Trident Leagues, alongside the Northern Premier and Southern leagues.
Ryman also sponsored the Isthmian Youth League and Isthmian Development League upon their creations in 2007 and 2013 respectively. Ryman chairman Theo Paphitis added to his league sponsorship through his flagship companies. Robert Dyas became sponsors of the Isthmian League Cup, Isthmian Veterans Cup, Isthmian Disability Cup and Isthmian Youth Play-off Cup in 2014, and Boux Avenue sponsored the Isthmian Women's Cup from 2014 to 2017.
Becoming the longest running sports sponsorship in UK football, Ryman stepped down as sponsors at the end of the 2016–17 season after 20 years.
League Cup
The
Alan Turvey Trophy
The Alan Turvey Trophy, formerly the Isthmian League Cup is a football knock-out cup competition organised by the Isthmian League in England.
History
Isthmian League Chairman and President Alan Turvey was among the FA's "150 Grassroots Heroes" ...
, formerly the Isthmian League Cup, has run since 1975 and involves all Isthmian League teams.
Former members
Several previous members of the Isthmian League have reached the English Football League. In its earlier years, the Football League didn't directly promote teams from the Non-League system on merit; instead, holding regular elections, for which any Non-League side could apply to enter. In practice, only the most ambitious non-League sides put themselves forward for election, and success was uncommon (outside of divisional expansions, from 1945 to its abolition in 1987, only seven clubs were successful in vying for admission to the League). No Isthmian League member ever put themselves forward for election to the Football League, but
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
were elected as a Southern League member, having left the Isthmian League in 1964.
The first ex-Isthmian League team to reach the Football League was Wimbledon in 1977, followed subsequently by
Maidstone United
Maidstone United Football Club is a professional football club based in Maidstone, Kent, England. The team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The current club filled the void left by the ol ...
Dagenham & Redbridge
Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...
Stevenage
Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...
(2010), and
AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...
(2011). Sutton United, who had been in the Isthmian League as recently as 2011, became the most recent former member to be promoted to the Football League, winning promotion in 2021.
See also
*
Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...
*
Southern Football League
The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...