The I Zingari League was an amateur

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 ...

competition based in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

which existed from 1895. Its name means 'the gypsies' in dialecticised Italian, and

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the ' ...

was the name of an English amateur cricket club formed in 1845, and an Australian one formed 40 years later. The Liverpool football league’s name invokes their spirit of amateur competition. The league ran until 2006, when it merged with the

Liverpool County Combination The Liverpool County Football Combination was a association football, football league based in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1908 and had its first season in 1909–10. A second division was quickly formed, and the league ran with two divi ...

to form the new

Liverpool County Premier League The Liverpool County Premier League is a football competition based in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 2006 as a merger of the Liverpool County Football Combination and the I Zingari League. The league has three divisions, the Premier D ...

. It was at one time a feeder to the

North West Counties League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern ...

. Geographically, the League's member clubs spanned an area administered by the

Liverpool County Football Association The Liverpool County Football Association, simply known as the Liverpool FA, is the County Football Association in the city of Liverpool, England. It runs several league and cup competitions in the city. Organisation The aim of the Liverpool ...

Cheshire Football Association The Cheshire Football Association, also simply known as Cheshire FA, is the governing body of football in the county of Cheshire, England. They are responsible for the governance and development of football at all levels in the county. About ...

and

Lancashire County Football Association The Lancashire County Football Association, also known simply as the Lancashire FA, is the governing body of football within the historical county boundaries of Lancashire, England. They are responsible for the governance and development of foot ...

and players from the League's clubs have played in the representative teams of all three associations. Two players gained a cap for the

England national amateur football team The England national amateur football team was the amateur representative team for England at football. It was formed in 1901, due to the growth of the professional game which meant that amateur players could no longer easily find places in the ...

whilst playing for clubs in the I Zingari League, J B Healey (Old Xaverians) in 1908 and A E Millington (Liverpool Police) in 1930, despite the longstanding bias of the selection process in favour of players from clubs in London and the South East. Notable local non-league clubs Marine and

Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "Fo ...

competed in this league in the past. A representative fixture against the Lancashire Amateur League was played annually between 1919 and the league's discontinuation.

Member clubs

The final season's Premier Division featured 14 teams. The final champions were Old Xaverians.

I Zingari Combination

The I Zingari Combination was founded in 1904 to serve as a competition primarily for the reserve sides of I Zingari League clubs. Despite the discontinuation of the League, the Combination continues to run, hosting 39 teams across a single open-age and three veterans' divisions. Whilst no formal arrangement exists, the open-age competition frequently serves as a provider of clubs to the

. It can therefore be said to occupy a position at level 14 of the English football league system.

References

External links

Final Premier Division table
Sports competitions in Liverpool Defunct football leagues in England Football in Merseyside {{england-footy-competition-stub