Kreisliga Odenwald
 |
|
| Country |
 Germany
|
|---|---|
| State | |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Folded | 1923 |
| Replaced by | Bezirksliga Rhein |
| Level on pyramid | Level 1 |
| Last champions |
Phönix Mannheim (1922–23) |
The Kreisliga Odenwald (English: District league Odenwald) was the highest association football league in the northern part of the German state of Baden and the southern part of the state of Hesse from 1919 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezirksliga Rhein in 1923.
The league was named after the Odenwald, a forest in the border region of Hesse and Baden.
From 1907, four regional leagues were formed within the structure of the Southern German football championship, in a move to improve the organisation of football in Southern Germany, these being:
In 1908, a first Westkreis-Liga (English: Western District League) was established. With the outbreak of the First World War, league football came to a halt and, during the war, games were only played on a limited level.
With the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, no Westkreis championship was played in 1918-19 but football returned to a more organised system in 1919.
Southern Germany, now without the Alsace and Lorraine regions, the later having been part of the Westkreis and had to be returned to France, was sub-divided into ten Kreisligas, these being:
The new Kreisliga Odenwald was made up from ten clubs from the Westkreis region. The league winners of the Kreisligas advanced to the Southern championship. This system applied for the 1919-20 and 1920-21 season.
In 1921-22, the Kreisliga Odenwald was split into two groups of eight, increasing the number of tier-one clubs in the region to 16. The two league winners then played a final to determine the Odenwald champion, which in turn advanced to a Rhein championship final against the Pfalz champion. This "watering down" of football in the region lasted for only one season, in 1922-23, the number of top clubs was reduced to eight clubs in a single division, with a Rhein final against the Pfalz champion once more.
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