[1][2] Covering the Greater Glasgow area and also including teams in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire from the outset, the Central league was created following the Intermediate dispute raised in 1927 by many of the Junior teams in relation to compensation payments for their players moving to Scottish Football League clubs, which in that era was a very common route of progression into the top professional level (whereas towards the end of the 20th century the Senior clubs would typically develop young players within their own youth systems, with Junior squads usually consisting of players of various ages who had been deemed not quite good enough for the professional level, and moving up from Junior to Senior being more the exception than the norm as in the past).
In 1931 these teams returned to the SJFA and the Central league was created,[1] although notes from its 1932 AGM stated that it was the 32nd such meeting, suggesting that internally it was considered a continuation of the pre-1927 GJL.
The Central League continued to provide many finalists in the Scottish Junior Cup, although its membership was somewhat weakened in the 1960s when several teams who had been successful in the GJL era (primarily Parkhead, Strathclyde and Shawfield) folded, due in part to changes of the urban environment in which they had drawn their support, with traditional communities being rebuilt and many residents rehomed in new peripheral estates or new towns outside the city.
[2] In that period, Cambuslang Rangers (coincidentally one of those members based in Lanarkshire but always affiliated with Glasgow leagues) were the strongest club, but their dominance faded after the mid-1970s.
At the end of the 2019–20 season – which was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic – all 63 West Region clubs left the SJFA setup to join a new West of Scotland Football League in the Senior pyramid,[7][8] bringing 125 years of Junior league football in the region (including the intermediate years) to an end.