The Scottish War Emergency League was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

league competition set up in the 1939–40 season of Scottish football, after the usual official competitions were suspended due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Emergency competition 1939–40
Scottish Football Historical Archive (archived version, 2009) The

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

officially suspended its competition on 13 September 1939 and set up a committee to investigate the possibility of regional league competitions. These were rubber-stamped on 26 September after the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

had granted permission, they commenced a month later. There were two divisions; eastern and western; each consisting of 16 clubs. This left out six of the previous league clubs; Montrose, Brechin City, Forfar Athletic, Leith Athletic, Edinburgh City and East Stirlingshire.

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

resigned halfway through the season, they had played all the other clubs once and so their record was allowed to stand. The competition was completed by a play-off between the two divisional winners, who were Rangers and

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

; Rangers won 2–1 at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

. For the following season, competitions were organised separately in different parts of the country: the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven a ...

and the North Eastern Football League, which lasted until the resumption of official competitions in 1946 (although the Southern League 'absorbed' the North Eastern League in the 1945–46 season).

Western division

Eastern division

Play-off

Teams

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1939-40 Scottish Emergency League Wartime football in Scotland 1939–40 in Scottish football Defunct football leagues in Scotland Sports leagues established in 1939 Sports leagues disestablished in 1940 1939 establishments in Scotland 1940 disestablishments in Scotland