The Südkreis-Liga (English: ''Southern district league'') was the highest
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
league in the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806.
Geogr ...
,
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918.
The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...
, the
Province of Hohenzollern and
Alsace-Lorraine from 1908 to 1918. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the
Kreisliga Südwest and
Kreisliga Württemberg
The Kreisliga Württemberg (English: ''District league Württemberg'') was the highest association football league in the German state of Württemberg from 1919 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezirksliga Württemberg ...
in 1919.
History
The league was formed in a move to improve the organisation of football in Southern Germany in the early 1900s. Within the structure of the
Southern German football championship, four regional leagues were gradually established from 1908, these being:
* ''
Ostkreis-Liga'', ''covering Bavaria''
* ''
Nordkreis-Liga'', ''covering Hesse''
* ''Südkreis-Liga'', ''covering Württemberg, Baden and Alsace''
* ''
Westkreis-Liga'', ''covering the Palatinate, Lorraine and the southern Rhine Province''
Until then, regional leagues had existed which send their champions to the ''Kreis'' finals and, from there, the winners went on to the Southern and German championships.
In 1908, the ''Südkreis-Liga'' was established, consisting of ten clubs and playing a home-and-away season, these clubs being:
*
Phönix Karlsruhe
Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...
*
Kickers Stuttgart
*
1. FC Pforzheim
*
Karlsruher FV
*
Mannheimer FC Viktoria
*
FC Alemannia Karlsruhe
*
Sportfreunde Stuttgart
*
Freiburger FC
*
Union VfB 97 Mannheim
*
FG 96 Mannheim
An eleventh club, the
FV Straßburg, withdrew before the start of the season. Phönix Karlsruhe, the first league champion, qualified thereby for the Southern German championship, which it won, finishing ahead of
1. FC Nürnberg. From there, the club moved on to the German finals, where
BFC Viktoria 89 could be beaten, making the club German champions.
In its second year, the league operated with only nine clubs, with the Karlsruher FV bringing home another Southern and German title to
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
. In 1909-10, the league played with ten clubs again and Karlsruher FV once more took out the league title as well as the Southern German one. In the national title round, it failed in the semi-finals, being beaten by