The Isthmian League (/ˈɪs(θ)miən/) is a regional football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs.

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Isthmian League

Founded	1905; 119 years ago (1905)
Country	England
Other club(s) from	Guernsey
Divisions	Premier Division North Division South Central Division South East Division
Number of teams	82 Premier Division: 22 North Division: 20 South Central Division: 20 South East Division: 20
Level on pyramid	7–8
Promotion to	National League South
Relegation to	Combined Counties League North or South Eastern Counties League Essex Senior League Southern Combination League Southern Counties East League Spartan South Midlands League Wessex League
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup FA Trophy Isthmian League Cup
Current champions	Bishop's Stortford (Premier Division) Hashtag United (North Division) Basingstoke Town (South Central Division) Chatham Town (South East Division)
Website	www.isthmian.co.uk
Current: 2023–24 Isthmian League

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Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams in four divisions: the Premier Division above its three feeder divisions, the North, South Central and South East divisions.

Together with the Southern League and the Northern Premier League, it forms the seventh and eighth levels of the English football league system. It has various regional feeder leagues and the league as a whole is a feeder league mainly to the National League South.

Before the Isthmian League was formed, there were no leagues in which amateur football clubs could compete, only knock-out cup competitions. Therefore, a meeting took place between representatives of Casuals, Civil Service, Clapton, Ealing Association, Ilford and London Caledonians to discuss the creation of a strong amateur league. All the clubs supported the idea and the Isthmian League was born on 7 March 1905. Membership of the league was through invitation only. The league was very strongly dedicated to the cause of amateurism in sport; consequently, the champions of the league did not even receive a trophy or medals; the league's Latin motto was honor sufficit ('honour is sufficient').

Thus, those clubs less able to compete financially gravitated to it rather than to the Southern League, which attracted clubs with ambition and money. Although the Isthmian League established itself as one of the strongest amateur leagues in the country, routinely providing the winners of the FA Amateur Cup, it was still regarded as being at a lower level than the Southern League, which had developed into the top regional semi-professional league. By 1922 the Isthmian League had fourteen clubs and over the next five decades, only a few new members were admitted, mainly to fill vacancies left by clubs leaving the league. Most new Isthmian League members joined from the Athenian League, which was similarly dedicated to amateurism.

The Isthmian League was most likely named after the ancient Isthmian Games, with the later Athenian League, Corinthian League, Delphian League, Spartan League, Parthenon League and Aetolian League all adding a Classical Greek flavour to amateur football competition. In 1962 an 'all-star' team from the Isthmian League entered the 1962 Ugandan Independence Tournament, drawing both their games versus Kenya and Ghana.

The league finally began to permit professionalism in the mid-1970s when the Football Association abolished the long-standing distinction between amateur and professional status with effect from the 1974–75 season. A second division of sixteen clubs was formed in 1973 and a third division followed in 1977. However, the league still remained officious and refused to participate in the formation of the Alliance Premier League in 1979 and whilst two Isthmian clubs, Enfield and Dagenham, defected to the APL in 1981, it was not until 1985 that the Isthmian League champions were given a promotion place to the newly renamed Football Conference. The reward of promotion into the Conference means that, since 1985, no team has won the league champions title two seasons in succession (as had happened on 22 occasions previously). The Athenian League disbanded in 1984 when the Isthmian League Second Division split into North and South Divisions. These were restructured yet again to Second and Third Divisions in 1991.

In 2002, the league was restructured once more, with the First and Second Divisions merging to become Division One North and Division One South (later renamed simply the North and South divisions), and the Third Division being renamed as Division Two. In addition, the league's three feeder leagues—the Combined Counties League, Essex Senior League and Spartan South Midlands League—ran in parallel with Division Two, and were able to feed directly into the regional Division Ones.

In 2004, The Football Association pushed through a major restructuring of the entire national non-league National League System, creating new regional divisions of the Football Conference feeding into the top, national, level. As a consequence of this restructuring, the Isthmian League was reduced back down to three divisions, and its boundaries were changed to remove the overlap with the Southern League.

In 2006, further reorganisation saw a reversion to two regional Division Ones and the disbandment of Division Two. This current plan calls for clubs based on the edges of the Isthmian League's territory to transfer to and from the Southern League as necessary to maintain numerical balance between the leagues. One team, Clapton, who were ever present in the Isthmian League since its foundation, were moved to the Essex Senior League for the 2006–07 season. Dulwich Hamlet, who had joined the league in 1907, became its longest serving member until their promotion to the National League South for the 2018–19 season.

In May 2017, The Football Association chose the Isthmian League to add a third regional division at Step 4 as part of further restructuring in the National League System, reducing all divisions at Step 4 to 20 teams. The new division started play in the 2018–19 season.^[1]

For the 1973–74 season, Division Two was added.

For the 1977–78 season, Division One was renamed the Premier Division, Division Two was renamed Division One and new Division Two was added.

For the 1984–85 season, Division Two was reorganised into North and South regions.

For the 1991–92 season, regional divisions Two were merged and Division Three was added.

At the end of the 1994–95 season, Enfield were denied promotion to the Conference. Their place was taken by Slough Town who finished as runners-up.

For the 2002–03 season, Division One was reorganised into North and South regions and Division Three was disbanded.

For the 2004–05 season Division Ones North and South were merged.

For the 2006–07 season, Division One was reorganised into North and South regions and Division Two was disbanded.

For the 2018–19 season, the South Division was reorganised into South Central and South East divisions.

¹ The 2019–20 season was terminated on 26 March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic; the teams listed here were in first place in the standings at the time of the termination, but were not recognised as champions.

² The 2020–21 season was also terminated on 24 February 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic; the teams listed here were in first place in the standings at the time of the termination, but were not recognised as champions.

The Alan Turvey Trophy, formerly the Isthmian League Cup, has run since 1975 and involves all Isthmian League teams.

Several previous members of the Isthmian League have reached the English Football League. In its earlier years, the Football League didn't directly promote teams from the Non-League system on merit; instead, holding regular elections, for which any Non-League side could apply to enter. In practice, only the most ambitious non-League sides put themselves forward for election,^[7] and success was uncommon (outside of divisional expansions, from 1945 to its abolition in 1987, only seven clubs were successful in vying for admission to the League). No Isthmian League member ever put themselves forward for election to the Football League, but Wimbledon were elected as a Southern League member, having left the Isthmian League in 1964.^[7]

The first ex-Isthmian League team to reach the Football League was Wimbledon in 1977, followed subsequently by Maidstone United (1989), Wycombe Wanderers (1993), Yeovil Town (2003), Dagenham & Redbridge (2007), Aldershot Town (2008), Stevenage (2010), and AFC Wimbledon (2011). Sutton United, who had been in the Isthmian League as recently as 2011, became the most recent former member to be promoted to the Football League, winning promotion in 2021.

• Northern Premier League
• Southern Football League