The Midland Football Combination was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

league covering parts of the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. It comprised five divisions, a Premier Division, Divisions One and Two and two Reserves Divisions. The league was one of three official feeder leagues to the

Midland Football Alliance The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and Not ...

. Prior to 2006, the Premier Division was defined as step 7 in the National League System, even though it fed into the step 5 Midland Alliance. In 2006, it was re-graded as step 6, making teams in the top two divisions eligible to take part in the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

and teams in the top division eligible to enter the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. The league merged with the

in 2014 to form the new

Midland Football League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

History

The league was founded in 1927 as the Worcestershire Combination. The ten founder members were Oldbury Town,

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

Reserves,

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

Reserves,

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

, Blackheath Town, Halesowen Labour, Highley Colliers, Old Carolians, Stewart & Lloyds (Bilston) and Cookley St Peters. By the 1929–30 season four of the founding clubs had dropped out and the league had been reduced to just six teams, with the result that it held two separate competitions within the one season to bulk out the fixture list, but it then gained eight new teams and has continued to expand. The league changed its name to the Midland Combination in 1968 to reflect the drawing of clubs from a wider area. In the 2007–08 season, the league's representative team, drawn from clubs in Division One, reached the final of the

FA National League System Cup The FA Inter-League Cup (formerly known as the FA National League System Cup or FA NLS Cup) is a football competition run by The Football Association. It was created in the 2003–04 season to provide an English representative in the UEFA Regi ...

.The FA
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League champions

Worcestershire Combination

''Initially the league consisted of a single division'' ''Due to the number of teams having dropped dramatically, the 1929–30 season consisted of two separate "half-season" leagues.'' ''For the 1930–31 the league reverted to its standard format.'' ''The league closed down in 1939 due to the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and did not begin again until 1948.'' ''For the 1960–61 season the league added a second division, with the existing division renamed Division One.''

Midland Combination

''For the 1979–80 season a third division was added.'' ''For the 1983–84 season the divisions were renamed to Premier, One and Two.'' ''For the 1993–94 season Division Three was added.'' ''For the 2011–12 season Division Three was disbanded.''

Final members

The teams that competed in the Combination's first team divisions in the 2013–14 season were as follows:

Premier Division

* Alvis Sporting Club * Atherstone Town * Blackwood * Bolehall Swifts * Brocton * Bromsgrove Sporting *'' Castle Vale JKS'' – record expunged * Coventry Copsewood * Earlswood Town * Lichfield City * Littleton * Nuneaton Griff * Pelsall Villa * Pershore Town * Pilkington XXX * Racing Club Warwick * Southam United * Stafford Town * Studley

Division One

*Aston * Barnt Green Spartak * Cadbury Athletic * Chelmsley Town *Coton Green *Droitwich Spa *Fairfield Villa *

Feckenham Feckenham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Redditch in Worcestershire, England. It lies some south-west of the town of Redditch and some east of the city of Worcester. It had a population of 670 in the 2001 census and its immed ...

*FC Glades Sporting *Hampton * Knowle *Phoenix United *Shirley Town *Sutton United * West Midlands Police

Division Two

* Alcester Town *Austrey Rangers *Badsey Rangers *Barton United *Burntwood Town *Coventry United *Enville Athletic *FC Stratford *Inkberrow *Kenilworth Town *Leamington Hibernian * Northfield Town * Paget Rangers *Perrywood *Polesworth *Rostance Edwards *''Rugeley Rangers'' – record expunged

Cup competitions

Each division other than the Premier had its own knockout competition, Division One competing for the President's Cup, Division Two for the Challenge Vase, Division Three for the Challenge Urn, and the Reserve Division for the Challenge Trophy. There were also other cup competitions run by the Midland Football Combination for its members including the Jack Mould Trophy and the Challenge Bowl.

References

{{Midland Football Combination 1927 establishments in England Football in the West Midlands (county) Defunct football leagues in England Sports leagues established in 1927