From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kent League
Country	England
Founded	1966
No. of teams	17 (plus 25 reserve teams)
Feeder to	Southern Football League and/or Isthmian League
Level(s) on pyramid	Level 9
Website	Link

The Kent League is an English football league for teams based in Kent and south east London, which was established in 1966. It was also the name of a similar league which existed from 1894 until 1959.

The first Kent League was formed in 1894 and folded in 1959. Despite many of the same clubs having spells in membership, there is no direct connection between the two competitions.

The current incarnation of the league was formed in 1966 as the Kent Premier League (changing to the current title in 1968), and in its early years many of its members were reserve sides of Southern League teams. Gradually, the reserve sides were all shifted down into the lower divisions.

In 2006 The Football Association asked the Kent League and the Essex Senior Football League to consider a possible future merger.

For the 2005-06 season the league was sponsored by the Kentish Observer newspaper, but in June 2006 it was announced that this sponsorship deal had ended. As yet no new sponsor has been found for the league. Previous sponsors included electrical wholesalers Winstonlead. ^[1]

The league has three divisions: the Premier Division, First Division and Second Division. Only the Premier Division features first teams; the First and Second Divisions are for the reserve teams of Premier Division clubs and a number of other clubs in Kent. The Premier Division is now at Step 5 of the National League System (which equates to Level 9 of the overall English football league system), with clubs able to move upwards to the Step 4 divisions of the Isthmian League and/or the Southern League. Conversely, clubs can get relegated to the Kent County League, although in practice this has not happened in recent years.

The champions during this era were as follows:^[2]

• Kent League

Kent League Premier Division 2007/08 v • d • e
Beckenham Town | Croydon | Deal Town | Erith & Belvedere | Erith Town | Faversham Town | Greenwich Borough | Herne Bay | Holmesdale | Hythe Town | Lordswood | Sevenoaks Town | Slade Green | Sporting Bengal United | Thamesmead Town | Tunbridge Wells | VCD Athletic
Kent League First Division 2007/08 v • d • e
Chatham Town | Cray Wanderers | Dartford | Erith & Belvedere | Erith Town | Folkestone Invicta | Maidstone United | Margate | Ramsgate | Sevenoaks Town | Thamesmead Town | Whitstable Town (all reserve teams)
Kent League Second Division 2007/08 v • d • e
Croydon | Deal Town | Dover Athletic | Faversham Town | Greenwich Borough | Herne Bay | Holmesdale | Hythe Town | Lordswood | Sittingbourne | Tunbridge Wells | VCD Athletic (all reserve teams)
English football league system - Level 9
Promotion to: Southern League and/or Isthmian League
Relegation to: Kent County League
Football in England v • d • e
League competitions The FA Cup competitions Premier League England (B) (C) FA Cup The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) (U-21) (U-20) (U-19) Football League Cup Football Conference (Nat, N, S) (U-18) (U-17) (U-16) FA Community Shield Northern Premier (Prem, 1N, 1S) List of clubs Football League Trophy Southern League (Prem, 1Mid, 1S&W) List of venues FA Trophy Isthmian League (Prem, 1N, 1S) (by capacity) Conference League Cup English football league system List of leagues FA Vase Records FA NLS Cup Foreign players