Today, the German football league system consists refers to a series of hierarchically interconnected leagues for association football clubs in Germany, in which all leagues are bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation. As of 2015, the league systems spans up to 14 levels and consists of over 2,300 divisions in total, that stands at the end of a development starting around the year 1900 with different district leagues, was then organized over decades on a regional basis and saw the first edition of a nationwide league as late as 1963.
Until the foundation of the German Football Association there had already been different regional and district championships' respective leagues and it was not until 1906 that there was a consistent mode to determine the participants of the German championship that was played as a final tournament until the foundation of the Bundesliga. For that reason football in Germany was divided into seven regions which had their own regional championships (that were mostly played as a cup tournament, too). Only the regional champions and the defending German champion were qualified to play in the championship until 1924, when the number of final tournament participants was increased to 16.
As there were no regional top-level league established the system of many parallel leagues and divisions continued up to the 1933–34 season.
From the late 1920s on there were efforts to install a nationwide professional league, but these efforts were never powerful enough to outreach the strong anti-professionalism from conservative and nationalist officials.
Level
Division
↑ Winners qualified for German championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
↑ Winners qualified for Regional championship tournament
National Socialism took power in Germany in January 1933. This also meant the end of attempts to invent professional football in Germany. But the football authorities did restructure and slightly centralise the football competition system. So in 1933 the Gauliga (county league) system was initiated as a system of 16 top-level divisions similar in strength that replaced the more than thirty previous top-level divisions. The champion of each Gauliga was qualified to play in the German championship tournament. With 10 teams each in the Gau leagues, the number of teams in the top flight was 160, a reduction from 400 to 500 teams until then.[1] The number of Gau leagues increased to 31 in 1944, because of league division for economic reasons (transport costs) and territory annexion during World War II.
National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Party – officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party – in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar aims.
A Gauliga was the highest level of play in German football from 1933 to 1945. The leagues were introduced in 1933, after the Nazi takeover of power by the Sports office of the Third Reich.
Level
Division
↑ Winners qualified for German championship tournament
After World War II the Oberliga system developed out of the occupation zone championships. The best teams of the five West German top-level divisions qualified for the German championship tournament. From 1949 until 1991 the German Democratic Republic had its own football league system.
The football league system of the German Democratic Republic existed from the creation of the DDR-Oberliga in 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1990.
Level
Division
↑ Winners and runners-up qualified for German championship tournament
Since the late 1920s there had been plans to establish a nationwide professional top-level league, but they all failed because of the opposition by anti-professionalists and the relatively strong regional football associations. In summer 1962, under the influence of the FIFA World Cupquarter final defeat to Yugoslavia, the German Football Association decided to establish the Bundesliga as a nationwide professional football league.
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champion is France, which won its second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary football competition. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga. Seasons run from August to May. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal. The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup.
The Introduction of the Bundesliga was the long-debated step of establishing a top-level association football league in Germany in 1963. The new league, the Bundesliga, played its first season in 1963–64 and continues to be the highest league in the country. Its introduction reduced the number of first division teams in Germany from 74 to 16 and finally eliminated the problem of the top-teams having to play uncompetitive teams in regional leagues.
The previous Oberliga became the second level of the German league system, now named Regionalliga. Its five parallel divisions (Nord, West, Südwest, Süd, Stadtliga Berlin) corresponded with the previous Oberliga divisions.
The Regionalliga is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany and in 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the fourth tier. Most clubs are full-time professional at this level.
In the first two years the Bundesliga had 16 members but their number was increased to 18 in 1965. Two teams were relegated to the Regionalliga. The first two teams from each Regionalliga division and the champion of West Berlin competed in a promotion tournament in two groups, whose winners were promoted into the Bundesliga.
Soon it became obvious that the financial gap between the fully professionalised Bundesliga and the five Regionalliga divisions, where many semi-professional and even amateur-like clubs competed, was too large. Teams relegated from the Bundesliga were often in serious danger of bankruptcy. Some clubs tried to avoid this fate by match fixing, known as the 1971 Bundesliga scandal.
In organized sports, match fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. The most common reason is to obtain a payoff from gamblers, but teams may also intentionally perform poorly to gain a future advantage, such as a better draft pick or, on paper, a less eminent opponent in a play-off. A player might also play poorly to rig a handicap system.
The Bundesliga scandal refers to the malicious, for-profit manipulation of games in the 1970–71 German football championship season.
To narrow the gap between pro football and amateur levels, in 1974 a second professional tier was introduced with the 2. Bundesliga, having a North and a South Division with usually 20 clubs each. For the first time in Bundesliga history, the level II division champions gained direct access to the Bundesliga, as the former promotion tournament was disestablished. Instead, even the playoff winner among the two runners-up was also promoted, with relegation from the Bundesliga therefore increased to 3 clubs.
The Introduction of the 2. Bundesliga was the step of establishing a professional second tier association football league in Germany in 1974. The new league, the 2. Bundesliga, played its first season in 1974–75 and continues to be the second-highest league in the country. Its introduction reduced the number of second divisions in Germany from five to two and the number of teams at this level from 83 to 40. It eliminated the necessity of having a promotion round at the end of the season to determine the two teams promoted to the Bundesliga.
The 2. Bundesliga is the second division of professional football in Germany. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below the Bundesliga and above the 3. Liga in the German football league system. All of the 2. Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the annual German Cup competition. A total of 125 clubs have competed in the 2. Bundesliga since its foundation.
As the Regionalligas were dissolved in 1974, with about one half of the former Regionalliga clubs relegated to their corresponding fully amateur state league pyramids, between 1974 and 1978, several amateur premier leagues, called Amateur-Oberliga, were established in every region, to narrow the gap between professional football and amateur level once more.
As the league systems of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were merged in 1991, the number of teams competing in the Bundesliga was temporarily increased to 20 and to make room for 24 teams the 2. Bundesliga was again divided into a North and a South division of 12 teams each.
In 1992 the number of competing teams in the Bundesliga was re-decreased to 18 with four teams relegated and only two promoted from the second level. The 2. Bundesliga played one more season with 24 teams in one division before its size was decreased to 20 members in 1993 and 18 teams in 1994.
In 1994 the Regionalliga was re-established at the third-tier of the German football league system. It was divided into four divisions (Nord, Nordost, West/Südwest and Süd). Four teams were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga. At the beginning these were the four division champions, but later the champions of the Nord and Nordost division had to compete in a promotion play-off while one runner-up from the South or West division was promoted additionally.
From 2000 until 2008 there were two Regionalliga divisions (Nord and Süd), the champions and runners-up of each division were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga.
In 2006, the German Football Association decided to establish a further nationwide league at the third level of the German football league system starting with the 2008–09 season. This 3. Liga consists of 20 teams. In the starting season the league consisted of the four lowest-ranked teams of the 2. Bundesliga after the 2007–08 season and the 3rd to 10th-place finishers in both the Regionalliga Nord and the Regionalliga Süd after 2007–08 season.
The champions and the runners-up of the 3. Liga are promoted to the 2. Bundesliga. The third placed team starts in a home and away play-off against the third-last team of the 2. Bundesliga. The teams finishing 18th to 20th in the 3. Liga are relegated to the Regionalliga.
The Regionalliga was continued with an additional division (West) as fourth level of the league system. 54 teams compete in three regional divisions (North, West, South) of 18 teams each. These 54 teams consist of those Regionalliga teams that did not qualify for the 3. Liga after the 2007–08 season and additional teams from Oberliga feeders. Starting in 2008–09, the winner of each Regionalliga division will be promoted to the 3. Liga.
Starting from the 2012–13 season, the Regionalliga was expanded to five regional divisions. The Northern Division was split into a Northern Division and a North-Eastern Division. The Western and the Southern Division were divided into a Western Division, a South/South-Western Division and a Bavarian Division. The five Division winners along with the runner-up of the South-Western Division will compete for 3 promotions spots to the 3. Liga in a play-off round.
¹ in some areas called Landesliga, in others Verbandsliga.
² in some areas called Kreisliga A, Kreisliga B, Kreisliga C and Kreisliga D or 1. Kreisklasse, 2. Kreisklasse and 3. Kreisklasse.
The league structure has shifted frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by German reunification and the subsequent integration of the national leagues of East and West Germany. All these levels are interconnected by way of promotion and relegation. The next diagram shows how this works for the first five levels. Note that the actual number of clubs being promoted and relegated below the Regionalliga level is frequently subject to change by the German Football Association.
League timeline
Related Research Articles
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The Regionalliga Nord was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the north of Germany from 1963 until the formation of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974. It covered the states of Niedersachsen, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.
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The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was the third tier until 1991, when the league was disbanded. In 1974, the league changed its name from Amateurliga Berlin to Amateur-Oberliga Berlin.
The NOFV-Oberliga Nord is the fifth tier of the German football league system in the northern states of the former East Germany and West Berlin. It covers the German states of Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football. Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008 it was the fourth tier of the league system, until the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 the third tier.
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References
↑ "Die Neuordnung im Fußballsport". Magdeburgische Zeitung (in German). 28 July 1933. p.8.
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