The Southern Premier League (known as the ODT Southern Men's Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand association football league competition administered by Southern Football involving clubs from the lower half of the South Island of New Zealand. Five of the clubs are from Dunedin, two from Invercargill and one each are from Mosgiel and Timaru.
The league has also previously included an Otago youth development team. There is currently a U-15 Development League that runs alongside the competition.
Until 2009, the league was known as the SoccerSouth Premier League. Since the inception of the competition, it has been dominated by Dunedin City Royals and the two predecessor teams which merged to form that club, Caversham AFC and Dunedin Technical.
The league was expanded from eight to ten clubs at the start of the 2022 season, with the addition of teams from Timaru and Invercargill.
As of 2022, the winner of the southern premier league has the option to play in the Southern League Playoff, a two-leg home and away series against the Mainland Football Playoff winner, else Southern Football could nominate a club to participate in the playoff series. The winner of the Southern League Playoff will be promoted to the Southern League, assuming they will have the correct club licensing before the season starts.
The team placed last in the Southern Premier League is automatically relegated to its appropriate regional league. The winners of Fletcher Cup (Otago), Donald Gray Memorial Cup (Southland) and South Canterbury Division 1 (South Canterbury) play in a play off for promotion into the Southern Premier League.
Current clubs
Teams contesting the 2026 season Club Home ground Location 2026 season Dunedin City Royals (2) Tahuna Park Dunedin North, Dunedin 7th Green Island Sunnyvale Park Green Island, Dunedin 9th Mosgiel Memorial Park Ground Mosgiel 2nd Northern (2) Caledonian Ground Dunedin North, Dunedin 4th Northern Hearts Aorangi Park Timaru 1st Old Boys ILT Football Turf Invercargill 6th Otago University Dunedin Artificial Turf Dunedin North, Dunedin 3rd Queens Park ILT Football Turf Invercargill 5th Roslyn-Wakari Ellis Park Kaikorai Valley, Dunedin 8th
(2) — Denotes club's second team, ineligible for promotion to the Southern League
Past clubs Club First Season Last Season Best Finish Total Seasons Notes Waihopai 2000 2000 9th (2000) 1 South Canterbury United 2005 2007 5th (2007) 3 Temporary merger of Northern Hearts and Timaru City Otago Youth 2006 2009 8th (2008) 4 Formerly Soccersouth Youth Southland Spirit 2001 2011 2nd (2001) 11 Grants Braes 2004 2013 8th (2010) 10 Southland United 2000 2019 3rd (2018) 4 Caversham 2000 2020 1st (2017) 21Merged to form Dunedin City Royals Dunedin Technical 2000 2020 1st (2018) 21 South City Royals 2021 2021 1st (2021) 1 Now Dunedin City Royals Mosgiel (2) 2022 2022 7th (2022) 1 Green Island (2) 2022 2023 10th (2022) 2 Queenstown 2001 2024 2nd (2018) 22 Formerly Queenstown Rovers Wānaka 2019 2024 2nd (2024) 6 Northern 2000 2025 1st (2025) 26
(2) — Denotes club's second team
Champions
2000 – Caversham 2001 – Caversham 2002 – Caversham 2003 – Roslyn-Wakari 2004 – Caversham 2005 – Caversham 2006 – Caversham 2007 – Caversham 2008 – Caversham 2009 – Caversham 2010 – Caversham 2011 – Dunedin Technical 2012 – Caversham 2013 – Dunedin Technical 2014 – Caversham 2015 – Caversham 2016 – Caversham 2017 – Caversham 2018 – Dunedin Technical 2019 – Mosgiel 2020 – Green Island 2021 – South City Royals 2022 – Dunedin City Royals (2) 2023 – Mosgiel 2024 – Mosgiel 2025 – Northern 2026 – Northern Hearts (2) — Denotes club's second team Club Number of Titles Year(s) Won Caversham 15 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Dunedin Technical 3 2011, 2013, 2018 Mosgiel 3 2019, 2023, 2024 Dunedin City Royals 2 2021, 2022 Roslyn-Wakari 1 2003 Green Island 1 2020 Northern 1 2025 Northern Hearts 1 2026
Notes
References