The Southern League is an amateur status league competition run by FootballSouth and Mainland Football for

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 ...

clubs located in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is at the second level of

New Zealand Football New Zealand Football is the governing body for the sport of association football in New Zealand. It oversees the seven New Zealand Football federations, as well as the New Zealand national football team (nicknamed the "All Whites"), the nationa ...

behind the national association based

New Zealand National League The New Zealand Men's National League is a men's football league at the top of the New Zealand football league system. Founded in 2021, the New Zealand National League is the successor to the New Zealand Football Championship. The league will be ...

, and the highest level of club based football available to teams within the region.

Renaming and restructuring of leagues in the country

In March 2021,

announced a change to the structure of both the premiership and the top regional leagues around the country. The four top regional leagues (

NRFL Premier The Northern League is a semi-professional New Zealand association football competition. It is a top-tier competition during the winter season, and sits at step two overall. The Northern League includes football clubs located in the northern pa ...

Central Premier League The Central League is an amateur status league competition run by Capital Football for Association football clubs located in the southern and central parts of the North Island, New Zealand. From 2021 it is at the second level of New Zealand Footb ...

Mainland Premier League The Mainland Premier League is a league competition run by Mainland Football for association football clubs located in the northern half of the South Island, New Zealand. It is currently regarded by the New Zealand footballing community as the s ...

and the

FootballSouth Premier League The Southern Football Premier League (known as the ODT Southern Men's Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand association football league competition administered bSouthern Footballinvolving clubs from the lower half of the Sout ...

) would be formed into the Northern League, Central League, and the Southern League. These leagues would allow local clubs to qualify for the premiership season (now known as the National League Championship), with the top 4 teams from the Northern League, the top 3 teams from the Central League, and the top 2 teams from the Southern League making up the competition, alongside the Wellington Phoenix Reserve side. All teams that qualify plus the Phoenix Reserves, would then play a single round-robin competition between September and December. For the Southern League, the two existing competitions run in the South Island (Mainland Premier League and FootballSouth Premier League) play their original league seasons for the teams to then qualify for a place in the newly formed competition. Five teams from Mainland Premiership, which covers the top of the South Island to Christchurch and three teams from FootballSouth Premier League, covering from below Christchurch to the bottom of the South Island, will qualify. The competition will start on the 17 July 2021.

Current clubs

''As of 2022 season''

Top scorers

The following list is from the 2021 season onwards after

changed the football league system in New Zealand. From 2021, the Southern League has acted as a qualifier league to the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

Records

The following records are from the 2021 season onwards after

changed the football league system in New Zealand. From 2021, the Southern League has acted as a qualifier league to the

. The records are up to date as of the end of the 2022 season. * Most wins in a season: 16 –

Cashmere Technical Cashmere Technical is an association football club based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was formed in early 2012 from the merger of two of the city's premier teams, Cashmere Wanderers and Woolston Technical. The two clubs had agreed to work t ...

and

Christchurch United Christchurch United is an amateur association football club in Christchurch, New Zealand. They compete in various Mainland Football competitions at Junior and Senior level. The club has won six National League titles and six Chatham Cup trophi ...

(

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

) * Fewest defeats in a season: 1 –

(

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

);

and

(

) * Most goals scored in a season: 79 –

(

) * Fewest goals conceded in a season: 7 –

(

) * Most points in a season: 49 –

and

(

) * Fewest points in a season: 4 –

Nelson Suburbs Nelson Suburbs FC is a football club in Nelson, New Zealand. They compete in the Mainland Premier League. They have won the Mainland Premier League three times. Nelson Suburbs FC has strong ties with the region's most successful football scho ...

, Green Island (both

) * Highest goal difference: +62 –

(

) * Biggest home win: –

11–2

Mosgiel Mosgiel (Māori: ''Te Konika o te Matamata'') is an urban satellite of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand, fifteen kilometres west of the city's centre. Since the re-organisation of New Zealand local government in 1989 it has been inside the Dunedin ...

(7 May

) * Biggest away win: –

Nomads United Nomads United is an association football club based in Casebrook, Christchurch, New Zealand. The club competes in the Southern League, the second tier of New Zealand football. Club history Nomads were a prominent team in early New Zealand footb ...

0–8

(23 April

) and

0–8

(7 May

) * Highest scoring match: 13 goals – Cashmere Technical 11–2 Mosgiel (7 May

) * Biggest title-winning margin: – 5 points,

, Cashmere Technical (18 points) over Selwyn United (13 points) * Smallest title-winning margin: – 0 points and +3 goal difference,

, Christchurch United (+62) over Cashmere Technical (+59). Both finished on 49 points.

MVP Winners

Past Champions

–

References

External links

National League official website

FootballSouth official website

Mainland official website
{{NZ fb general 2 Sports leagues established in 2021 2021 establishments in New Zealand