Hampshire League

Hampshire League is a name used for two distinct football competitions based in Hampshire, England. There are two leagues; Hampshire Premier Football League named 'Puma Engineering Hampshire Premier Football League' for sponsor purposes and the division below which is the Hampshire League 2004 or 'Magnata Care Hampshire 2004 League' for sponsor purposes.

1 History
2 References
3 External links

History

Original Hampshire League

The original Hampshire League was formed in 1896, and ran until 2004 when it was incorporated into an expanded Wessex League.

With transport limited, the early years of the competition were split into regional divisions. The Twenties saw the formation of a main County Division which soon became known as Division 1 with a second and third tier soon following.

For many years the competition had four divisions with teams from the top flight able to join the Southern League. It is from here that established clubs such as Andover, Waterlooville, Basingstoke Town, Fareham Town and Gosport Borough all won promotion. During its heyday large crowds were common place and before the days of football academies, the competition also consisted of the Youth sides from Southampton, Portsmouth, AFC Bournemouth, Aldershot and Reading along with the reserve sides of top non-league clubs such as Poole Town, Salisbury City and Guildford City. In more recent times the likes of Newport IOW, Eastleigh, Havant Town, Bashley, Winchester City, Alton Town, Fleet Town, New Milton and AFC Totton were all long serving members. Also during this time many well known professionals played in the competition before moving on to greater things.

In 1986 the more ambitious clubs with the required facilities (mostly from Division 1) departed for the newly formed Wessex League. This saw the Hampshire League reduced to two main divisions with a new look Division 1 feeding into the Wessex League, whilst all the Reserve teams were consequently placed in a newly formed Combination Division. The third division was re-introduced in 1991 along with a League Cup. In 1999 Division 1 was renamed as the Premier Division, only for clubs with floodlights.

After much debate, the league was absorbed into the expanded Wessex League in 2004, forming its second and third divisions.