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Birmingham & District League

West Midlands (Regional) League
LOGOWMRL.jpg
Country  England
Founded 1889
Divisions Premier Division
Division One
Division Two
Number of teams 50
Level on pyramid Levels 10, 11 & 12
Feeder to Midland League Premier Division
Domestic cup(s) Premier Division League Cup
Division One League Cup
Division Two League Cup
Current champions Shawbury United (Premier)
Shifnal Town (Division One)
Newport Town (Division Two)
(2015-16)
Website Official website
2016–17

The West Midlands (Regional) League is an English association football competition for semi-professional and amateur teams based in the West Midlands county, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and southern Staffordshire. It has three divisions, the highest of which is the Premier Division, which sits at step 6 of the National League System, or the tenth level of the overall English football league system.

The league was formed in 1889 as the Birmingham & District League to cater for teams in Birmingham and the surrounding area, but soon became established as one of the strongest leagues outside the Football League itself, with teams from as far afield as Bristol and Wales taking part. After the Second World War it absorbed the rival Birmingham Combination to become firmly established as the leading league in the area, but a gradual decline in its status began in the late 1950s and it now operates at a much lower level than in its heyday.

The league currently acts as a feeder to the Midland Football League Premier Division, to which one team is promoted to each season. Approximately fifty teams compete in the league each season, with new members regularly joining from a number of lower, more local leagues.

In the late 1880s, Birmingham and the surrounding region boasted many of the country's strongest football teams. Six of the region's leading clubs joined the first two national leagues set up in England, the Football League and the Football Alliance, but there were still many teams in the area keen to participate in league play. On 31 May 1889 a meeting took place at Birmingham's Grand Hotel with the view to forming a Birmingham & District League. A total of 17 clubs were invited but only 13 attended, of which 12 were selected to form the new league, to commence play in the 1889–90 season. The one club which sent a representative to the meeting but was not invited to take part in the league, for unknown reasons, was Worcester Rovers.


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