Kreisliga Bayern
 |
|
| Country |
 German Empire
 Germany
|
|---|---|
| State |
 Kingdom of Bavaria
 Bavaria
|
| Founded | 1909 |
| Folded | 1923 |
| Replaced by | Gauliga Bayern |
| Level on pyramid | Level 1 |
| Last champions |
SpVgg Fürth (1922–23) |
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 Bezirksliga Bayern in 1923.
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, four regional leagues were gradually established from 1907, these being:
In 1909, a first Ostkreis-Liga (English: Eastern District League) was established, consisting of only four clubs and playing a home-and-away season, these clubs being:
The winner of this competition, Bayern Munich, advanced to the Southern German championship, which in turn was a qualifying competition for the German championship. The Bavarian clubs from the Palatinate never played in the same league as the clubs from the "mainland", instead, they were part of the Westkreis-Liga. Previous to the new Ostkreis-Liga, regional competitions with a finals round were played but this was not truly an all-Bavarian competition as only clubs from the major cities took part.
The following season, 1910–11, a proper league with ten clubs was established, the teams again playing a home-and-away season. Parallel, the other three Southern Kreisligas were organised in a similar fashion with the four regional winners playing for the southern title. In the following season, the league was expanded to eleven teams but the modus remained the same.
For the 1912-13 season, the league was reduced to eight teams. It remained unchanged for its last pre-First World War season in 1913-14.
The outbreak of war in August 1914 lead to a suspension of all football competitions. Initially it was thought that the war would not last long but when it became evident that this was not so, competitions were restarted with players too young or too old to be drafted to the military. In any case, a 1914-15 championship was not held. A 1915-16 championship was held on regional level with a Bavarian final rather than a league, a system in place for 1916-17 and 1917-18 as well.
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