 | |
| Country |  New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Confederation | OFC (Oceania) |
| Number of teams | 10 |
| Level on pyramid | 3 |
| Promotion to | Southern League |
| Relegation to | Donald Gray Memorial Cup South Canterbury Division One Fletcher Cup |
| Domestic cup(s) | Chatham Cup |
| Current champions | Mosgiel (3rd title) (2024) |
| Most championships | Caversham (15 titles) |
| Website | Southern Football |
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 and one each are from Wānaka, Queenstown, Mosgiel, Timaru, and Invercargill.
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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.
