Cashmere Technical won the South Island playoff against Caversham 4-1 on Saturday in a one-off match between the champion sides from the Mainland and Southern federations.
Questions about the standards of football in both federations have raised the issue of re-introducing a South Island-wide league.
Scores of 15-0 and 16-1 have been recorded in the Football South premier competition this year, which is down to seven teams now from 10 two years ago.
Football South general manager Bill Chisholm confirmed the idea of the combined league was being revisited but it was not easy to please everyone.
''The players and coaches probably want to see it but the administrators, the ones who have to find the money, probably aren't as keen,'' he said.
''The question and argument is the cost versus the quality. If we want to play in a local competition then it keeps the costs down. But if you want to go to a South Island league then the costs go up and the quality of football does too.''
Chisholm is standing down by the end of the year and he said perhaps it was something the new general manger and new Mainland Football chief executive Julian Bowden should look into.
Another issue was a team from Nelson would have to be involved.
Nelson used to play against teams from Wellington when the old South Island travelling league was around but has since switched to the Mainland Federation.
''Getting to a place like Nelson is not cheap. Then although they haven't got a team in the league at the moment, you would have to look at including Invercargill. If someone is going to go from Invercargill to Nelson then that would be hard to get around.
''You look at a club like Queenstown and they pulled out of the league this year because they found the travel hard.''
He said Football South had been concentrating on the junior game in the past few years and maybe it needed to focus on senior football in the coming years.
Chisholm played in the first South Island league in 1968 and said the same issues were around then.
Caversham club president Steve Fleming said there should be a South Island league.
Players were not put under enough pressure at the moment and bloated scorelines were no good for either team.
All the good players were leaving as there was nothing to play for in the South.
''Playing against good teams you learn so much more about players. These games against easy teams just degenerate into sloppy play. Guys get greedy, start mucking round.''
He estimated it would cost about $12,000 to run a team though Caversham was financially stretched at the moment.
He questioned why so much money went to federations and there did not seem to be much of a return for the club and players.
Dunedin Technical club president Andrew Whittaker said Technical would support a South Island league.
It would help build more depth and in turn aid the Southern United team.
