Southern Premier League (New Zealand) Explained

ODT Southern Football Premier League
Pixels:200px
Country: New Zealand
Confed:OFC (Oceania)
Teams:10
Promotion:Southern League
Levels:3
Domest Cup:Chatham Cup
Champions:Mosgiel (2nd title)
Season:2023
Most Successful Club:Caversham (15 titles)
Website:Southern Football

The Southern Premier League (known as the ODT Southern Men's Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand association football league competition administered by Southern Football involving clubs from the lower half of the South Island of New Zealand. Five of the clubs are from Dunedin and one each are from Wānaka, Queenstown, Mosgiel, Timaru, and Invercargill.

The league has also previously included an Otago youth development team. There is currently a U-15 Development League that runs alongside the competition.

Until 2009, the league was known as the SoccerSouth Premier League. Since the inception of the competition, it has been dominated by Dunedin City Royals and the two predecessor teams which merged to form that club, Caversham AFC and Dunedin Technical.

The league was expanded from eight to ten clubs at the start of the 2022 season, with the addition of teams from Timaru and Invercargill.

As of 2022 the winner of the southern premier league enters to a promotion match against the winner of the Canterbury Premier League. The winner of this match gains a spot in the Southern League.

The team placed last in the Southern Premier League is automatically relegated to its appropriate regional league. The winners of Fletcher Cup (Otago), Donald Gray Memorial Cup (Southland) and South Canterbury Division 1 (South Canterbury) play in a play off for promotion into the Southern Premier League.

ODT Southern Men's Premier League clubs

Teams due to contest the 2024 season[1]

ClubLocationHome Ground(s)2023 season
Dunedin City Royals (2)Dunedin North, Dunedin8th
Green IslandGreen Island, DunedinSunnyvale Park6th
MosgielMemorial Park Ground1st
NorthernNorth East Valley, DunedinCaledonian Ground3rd
Northern HeartsTimaruAorangi Park10th
Otago UniversityDunedin North, DunedinDunedin Artificial Turf7th
Queens ParkInvercargillTurnbull Thomson Park5th
QueenstownQueenstownQueenstown Events Centre Stadium9th
Roslyn-WakariKaikorai Valley, DunedinEllis Park2nd
WanakaWānakaWānaka Recreation Centre4th

(2) — Denotes club's second team, ineligible for promotion to the Southern League

Champions

[2]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Southern Football . www.footballsouth.co.nz . 5 July 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230226154531/https://www.footballsouth.co.nz/comps-hide/federation-premierships . Feb 26, 2023 . . en . live.
  2. Web site: FootballSouth Honours Board . The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website . 3 May 2021.