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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
league in the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which existe ...
,
Grand Duchy of Baden, the
Province of Hohenzollern
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
and
Alsace-Lorraine from 1908 to 1918. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the
Kreisliga Südwest
The Kreisliga Südwest (English: ''District league Southwest'') was the highest association football league in the German state of Baden from 1919 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezirksliga Württemberg-Baden in 1923 ...
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 Württember ...
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
The Southern German football championship (German: ''Süddeutsche Meisterschaft'') was the highest association football competition in the southern Germany, established in 1898. The competition was disbanded in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis to p ...
, four regional leagues were gradually established from 1908, these being:
* ''
Ostkreis-Liga
The Kreisliga Bayern (English: ''District league Bavaria'') was the highest association football league in the German Kingdom of Bavaria and, later, the state of Bavaria from 1909 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezi ...
'', ''covering Bavaria''
* ''
Nordkreis-Liga
The Nordkreis-Liga (English: ''Northern district league'') was the highest association football league in the German Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau from 1909 to 1918. The league was disbanded with the introduction ...
'', ''covering Hesse''
* ''Südkreis-Liga'', ''covering Württemberg, Baden and Alsace''
* ''
Westkreis-Liga
The Westkreis-Liga (English: ''Western district league'') was the highest association football league in the Bavarian region of Palatinate, the northern parts of the Grand Duchy of Baden, the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province and par ...
'', ''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
*
Kickers Stuttgart
*
1. FC Pforzheim
1. FC Pforzheim was a German association football club playing in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. The club was established on 5 May 1896 and was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. In 2010 it merged with V ...
*
Karlsruher FV
Karlsruher FV is a German association football club that plays in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Established on 17 November 1891, KFV was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) in 1900 and is the oldest ...
*
Mannheimer FC Viktoria
*
FC Alemannia Karlsruhe
*
Sportfreunde Stuttgart
The Sportfreunde Stuttgart is a German association football club from the city of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.
History 1874 to 1945
The club was formed, as a gymnastics club, on 18 April 1874, under the name of Turnverein Heslach. In June 1 ...
*
Freiburger FC
Freiburger FC () is a German association football club based in Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg. Freiburger FC were one of the founding clubs of the DFB ( German Football Association) in 1900.
History
Founded in 1897, for many decades FFC were t ...
*
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
Berliner Fußball-Club Viktoria 1889 was a German sports club based in the Tempelhof district of Berlin. Football, rugby, and cricket came to continental Europe in the late 19th century, and these "English games" became immediately popular in m ...
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: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
. 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