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34-489: The first version was a Southern League team founded in 1956 as "Bletchley & WIPAC football club" before changing their name a year later to Bletchley Town . The club changed name again in 1974 to become "Milton Keynes City F.C.". The club was poorly supported and was relatively unsuccessful, never reaching the top half of their league. The club's only major achievement was victory in the 1979–80 Berks & Bucks Senior Cup . In 1979, after yet another poor season which saw

68-582: A 'B' section, with the winners of each section contesting a play-off for the Division Two championship. For the 1910–11 season, the league again reverted to the previous format. At the end of the 1919–20 season, the majority of the clubs in the First Division moved into the new Third Division of the Football League. The Southern League was therefore split into two sections for England and Wales, with

102-609: A Southern League to mirror the existing Northern and Midlands based Football League. However, this venture failed in the face of opposition from the London Football Association , and Woolwich Arsenal instead joined the Football League as its only representative south of Birmingham in 1893. Additionally, an amateur league, the Southern Alliance , was founded in 1892, with seven clubs from the region, but that folded after one incomplete season. Nonetheless, another attempt

136-537: A few seasons from the late 1990s, playing in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division. The 1990s club began as a Sunday league football club known as "Mercedes-Benz Football Club", after the factory where many of the players worked. The team changed their name to "Milton Keynes City F.C." in 1998, and moved into Wolverton Park, which had been the home of Wolverton A.F.C. until their demise six years earlier. As with Bletchley in

170-568: Is particularly strong in female football and have almost equal number of male and female players and teams. They are strong proponents of the women's game and are often featured in the media, especially during the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 tournament win. 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

204-652: The Football League XI and the Scottish Football League XI . They won the inaugural inter-league equivalent of the British Home Championship in 1910, defeating the Football League 3–2, Scottish League 1–0 and the Irish League 4–0. In 1907, it accepted newly converted-to-Association and future Football League club Bradford , a northern club, as a member, reflecting its senior position at

238-710: The Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system . The structure of the Southern League has changed several times since its formation in 1894 , and currently there are 87 clubs which are divided into four divisions. The Central and South Divisions are at step 3 of the National League System (NLS), and are feeder divisions, mainly to

272-908: The National League South but also to the National League North . Feeding the Premier Divisions are two regional divisions, Division One Central and Division One South, which are at step 4 of the NLS. These divisions are in turn fed by various regional leagues. The league has its administrative head office at Eastgate House in Gloucester. Professional football (and, indeed, professional sports in general) developed more slowly in Southern England than in Northern England . Professionalism

306-597: The Northern Premier League , and the top Southern clubs of the day joined the new league. In turn, the APL (renamed Football Conference in 1986 and National League in 2015) would eventually succeed in becoming a feeder to the Football League. The league lost more of its top clubs in 2004 when the Conference added two regional divisions below the existing National League , the Conference South and Conference North . In May 2017,

340-464: The Third Division North . Of the original founder members, six – Gillingham (formerly New Brompton), Luton Town, Millwall, Reading, Southampton and Swindon Town – went on to be Football League clubs. For the next six decades, the Football League and Southern League would occasionally exchange a limited number of clubs as a result of the older league's re-election process . From 1920 onward,

374-435: The 1958–59 season the Southern League was again divided into two sections: North-Western and South-Eastern. The winners of each section contested a playoff for the Southern League championship. The following season saw the two sections merged to form a Premier Division, and a new Division One introduced. For the 1971–72 season Division One was regionalised. For the 1979–80 season, thirteen Premier Division clubs joined

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408-526: The 1970s, City's directors believed that they could build their club up to be accepted as representing Milton Keynes as a whole, but a severe lack of local interest in this plan meant that they never achieved it. Following the resignation of the directors in June 2003, the team folded in July, unable to secure the investment needed to continue. The club's chairman, Bob Flight, cited both a lack of any local football interest in

442-591: The 2009–10 season, Division One Midlands was renamed Division One Central. For the 2017–18 season, the Central and South & West divisions were renamed back into East and West respectively. For the following season, the Premier Division was regionalised, becoming the South Division, and a Central Division was added. The East and West divisions were realigned into Central and South again. The 2019–20 season

476-414: The 2020–21 season the league has been sponsored by Pitching In, Entain 's grassroots sports investment programme. At the time of announcement, Entain went by its former name GVC Holdings. Under this partnership, the Southern League is marketed as one of the three Trident Leagues, alongside its Isthmian and Northern Premier counterparts. This section lists

510-621: The FA chose the Southern League to add an additional division at step 3 as part of another restructuring in the NLS; the two Premier Divisions were set at 22 clubs each. The new Central Division started playing in the 2018–19 season. The first sponsor of the Southern League was Beazer Homes who sponsored the league from 1987 to 1996. The sponsors after Beazer Homes to the present day are: Dr Martens (1996–2004), British Gas (2006–2009), Zamaretto (2009–2011), Evo-Stik (2011–2013), Calor Gas (2013–2014), Evo-Stik (2014–2019) and BetVictor (2019–2020). From

544-555: The South are now enrolled in the ranks of the Southern League". Two Southern League clubs, Southampton (in 1900 and 1902 ) and Tottenham Hotspur (in 1901 ) reached the final of the FA Cup around the turn of the twentieth century. Tottenham Hotspur remain the only club from outside the Football League (and since its inception, also the Premier League) to have won the FA Cup. Several of

578-536: The Southern League sides began to seriously rival the Football League in the FA Cup. A preview of the 1900–01 season in the Daily News described the league as "now, without a doubt, second only in importance and the strength of its clubs to the Football League itself. With the exception of Woolwich Arsenal, who prefer to remain members of the Second Division of the Football League, all the best professional teams in

612-401: The Southern League's status as a semi-professional league was firmly established. In 1977, Wimbledon became the last Southern League club to successfully achieve election into the Football League. With its clubs seeking a more regular means of advancing to the Football League, in 1979 the Southern League became a feeder to the new Alliance Premier League along with the Isthmian League and

646-427: The area and "the confused situation" surrounding Wimbledon F.C. 's proposed move to Milton Keynes, which happened two months later. (Wimbledon were renamed Milton Keynes Dons the following year, in July 2004). The former Milton Keynes City Youth FC, an amateur youth football club, renamed itself as Milton Keynes City FC in 2005 and says that it is amongst the larger youth clubs in the locality. The club says that it

680-646: The best players in England moved from the Football League to the Southern League around this time, due to the restrictions on their freedom of movement and wages implemented by the Football League between 1893 and 1901, and the failed efforts of the Association Footballers' Union (the AFU) to relax the restrictions. This ended in 1910 when the League came to a reciprocal agreement with the Football League. The champions of

714-656: The club finish second from bottom, Ron Noades , then chairman of Wimbledon , claimed to have entered talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, although this was denied by the corporation, about the possibility of moving the south London club to Milton Keynes . Noades purchased a controlling interest in Milton Keynes City and installed fellow Wimbledon directors including Sam Hammam , Bernie Coleman and Jimmy Rose as directors on top of their identical roles at Wimbledon , which at that time

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748-569: The end of the 1984–85 season. During their existence, Milton Keynes City were known as 'the Gladiators' and played their home games at the City Ground, Manor Field in Bletchley ;– a stadium with a 4,000 capacity. Colours were tangerine and black. Under their original identity the team twice reached the 4th Qualifying round of the FA Cup in the mid-sixties. The second version only existed for

782-450: The first season started and were replaced by Southampton St Mary's . Woolwich Arsenal attempted to add their reserve side to the second division but this application was refused due to the club's existing membership of The Football League. The Southern League soon became the dominant competition below The Football League in Southern and Central England, and by the turn of the century a few of

816-573: The league's formation in 1894, the following clubs have won promotion to higher levels of the English football league system - 1894 in English football The 1894–95 season was the 24th season of competitive football in England . Following the collapse of Middlesbrough Ironopolis and the resignation of Northwich Victoria , three new teams were admitted to the Second Division, bringing it to 16 teams. These new teams were Bury , Leicester Fosse and Burton Wanderers . The Southern League ,

850-522: The newly formed Alliance Premier League. The Premier Division and Division One were subsequently merged, and two regional divisions formed. For the 1982–83 season, the Premier Division was re-introduced, above the regional divisions. For the 1999–2000 season, the regional divisions were renamed the Eastern and Western divisions. For the 2006–07 season, the two regional divisions were renamed Division One Midlands and Division One South & West. For

884-464: The other two sections and did not contribute to the overall championship. For the 1936–37 season, the Eastern and Western sections were merged into a single division. Additional fixtures were obtained through the Midweek Section which did not contribute to the overall championship. For the 1945–46 season, the Midweek Section was not played due to power restrictions after World War II . For

918-473: The past winners of the Southern League. Winners to 1993 source: For the 1898–99 season, Division Two was divided into London and South-West sections, with a playoff contested between the winners of each section. For the 1899–1900 season, the league reverted to the old format, after all the members of the South-West section resigned. For the 1909–10 season, Division Two was split into an 'A' section and

952-579: The time. Stalybridge Celtic and Stoke also joined before the First World War. In 1920, virtually the entire top division of the Southern League was absorbed by the Football League to become that league's new Third Division . A year later the Third Division was expanded and regionalised. The Third Division clubs from the previous season became the Third Division South , with the addition of

986-457: The two leagues during this period met in the annual Charity Shield . Out of the six meetings the respective league champions had in the Shield, however, only one was won by the Southern League champions – Brighton & Hove Albion , in 1910 , and this remains their only top level national honour. Up until World War I , the league also organised several representative 'inter-league' matches, against

1020-457: The winners of each section contesting a playoff for the Southern League championship. For the 1923–24 season, the league was split into two regional sections, with the winners of each section contesting a playoff for the Southern League championship. For the 1933–34 season an extra section, the Central Section was introduced to provide additional fixtures. The Central included clubs from

1054-544: Was first sanctioned by The Football Association as early as 1885, but when The Football League was founded in 1888 its member clubs were based entirely in the North and Midlands , as the county football associations in the South were firmly opposed to professionalism. Woolwich Arsenal (nowadays simply Arsenal) were the first club in London to turn professional in 1891 and were one of the prime motivators behind an attempt to set up

Milton Keynes City F.C. - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-418: Was made to form the Southern League, and this time it was successful. A competition for both professional and amateur clubs was founded in 1894 under the initiative of Millwall Athletic (now simply Millwall). Initially only one division was envisaged, but such was the enthusiasm for the idea, that eventually two divisions were formed. The sixteen original founder members were: 2nd Scots Guards withdrew before

1122-545: Was still legal under the Football Association's rules. His intention was to merge the two clubs to produce a club based in Milton Keynes using Wimbledon's place in the Football League . This idea was never seriously developed and was abandoned when he sold his interest in Milton Keynes City the following year. Further poor seasons followed with no financial backing and eventually the club was wound up five years later at

1156-429: Was terminated on 26 March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic ; the teams listed here were in first place in the standings at the time of the termination, but were not recognised as champions. The 2020–21 season was also terminated on 24 February 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic; the teams listed here were in first place in the standings at the time of the termination, but were not recognised as champions. Since

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