Promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga (Football)

From 1974 to 1994, the Oberligas in German football, originally called 1st Amateurliga, were set right below the two 2nd Bundesligas, North and South. Originally there was 15 Amateurligas which were reduced to 8 Oberligas in 1978. From 1981 the 2nd Bundesliga was reduced to one single league. Because there always were more Oberliga champions then promtion spots, these clubs had to determind the promoted teams by the way of a promotion play-off, called "Aufstiegsrunde zur 2.Bundesliga".

=Promotion to 2nd Bundesliga South=

From 1975 till 1978 the champions of the 1st Amateurligas Bayern and Hessen were directly promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. The winners of the Amateurligas Nordbaden, Südbaden, Schwarzwald-Bodensee and Württemberg played out a third promotion spot. The winners of the Amateurligas Saarland, Südwest and Rheinland played out a fourth spot. Both these rounds were played in a home-and-away round robin.

In 1979 and 1980 there was no play-offs as the nine southern Amateurligas had merged to four Oberligas and therefore each champion was promoted directly. This fact was actually the main reason for the merger.

=Promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga North=

In 1975 and 1976 the champions of the 1st Amateurligas Niederrhein, Mittelrhein and the second placed team in the Oberliga Nord played out two promotion spots. The champion of the 1st Amateurliga Berlin, the champion of the Oberliga Nord and the winner of the decider of the two Westfalen champions played out another two spots.

In 1977 and 1978 the top four teams of the Oberliga Nord, the champions of the 1st Amateurliga Niederrhein, Mittelrhein, Westfalen 1, Westfalen 2 and Berlin played out the four promotion spots in two groups of four. Beforehand, a decider between the 4th placed team from the North and the runners-up of Westfalen reduced the number to eight out of those nine.

In 1979 and 1980 there was no play-offs as the six northern leagues merged to form four Oberligas like in the south. The champions and the from the Oberliga Nord, Nordrhein and Westfalen were promoted directly, the winner of Oberliga Berlin had to play the runners-up of the Oberliga Nord for the last spot.

Promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga

From 1982 till 1991 the play-offs were split into a north and a south group.

In the southern group the four Oberliga champions of Bayern, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and Südwest played out two promotion spots. In 1982 this was done in a single round system, afterwards in a home-and-away round robin.

In the northern group the winners of the four Oberligas Berlin, Westfalen, Nordrhein and Nord played out two promotion spots. In 1982 this was done in a single round system, afterwards in a home-and-away round robin. From 1984 the runners-up of the Oberliga Nord was also included in this play-off, taking the number of teams to five.

After the reunification of Germany the number of teams was extended.

In 1991 there was an additional two groups of four teams from East Germany. The winner of each of those four groups were promoted.

In 1992 there was 13 teams in four groups with the group winner gaining promotion. Qualified to this play-off were the ten Oberliga champions, the runners-up from Oberliga Nord and two teams from 2nd Bundesliga.

In 1993 and 1994 the ten Oberliga champions and the runners-up from Oberliga Nord played in three groups, two times four and one time three, for three promotion spots.

in 1994 the four Regionalligas were introduced as an intermidiate between 2nd Bundesliga and the Oberligas. Oberliga teams were now promoted to the Regionalligas insted.

Promotion from the Regionalligas to the 2nd Bundesliga

With the introduction of the four Regionalligas in 1994, the system for promotion was somewhat simpler. The champions of the Regionalligas Süd and West/Südwest were always directly promoted. The Regionalligas Nord and Nordost were considered a single entity for the purpose of promotion, therefore only one of the two winners could get directly promoted. From 1996, the two winners of the league had to play a home-and-away decider. The reason for this was the fact that each of the first two Regionalligas covered areas with a population and playing strength roughly equal to the combined second two. The fourth promotion spot was allocated the following way:

*1995: To the Nord/Nordost region, therefore both league winners promoted.
*1996: To the West/Südwest region, runners-up of that region promoted.
*1997: To the Süd region, runners-up of that region promoted.
*1998 to 2000: The runners-up of West/Südwest and Süd plus the losing team from the Nord/Nordost area play a group round-robin to determind the fourth promoted team.

With the reduction of the numbers of Regionalligas in 2000 to two, play-offs became unneccerssary and two teams from each league were directly promoted.

The Nord versus Nordost play-off games

These were staged in the five seasons from 1996 to 2000 to determind which team was directly promoted. From 1998, the loser of this games got a second chance for promotion by playing the runners-up of the other two Regionalligas.

*1996 Tennis Borussia Berlin - VfB Oldenburg 1-1 1-2 (after overtime)
*1997 Hannover 96 - Energie Cottbus 0-0 1-3
*1998 Tennis Borussia Berlin - Hannover 96 2-0 1-3 (after pen.)
*1999 VfL Osnabrück - Chemnitzer FC 1-0 0-2
*2000 1.FC Union Berlin - VfL Osnabrück 1-1 7-8 (after pen.)

*Winner in bold.

Promoted teams (south)

1975 FSV Frankfurt (H), Jahn Regensburg (B), Eintracht Kreuznacht (SW), SSV Reutlingen (S-B) 1976 KSV Baunatal (H), FV Würzburg 04 (B), Eintracht Trier (R), BSV Schwenningen (S-B) 1977 VfR Bürstadt (H), Kickers Würzburg (B), Wormatia Worms (SW), Freiburger FC (SB) 1978 FC Hanau 93 (H), MTV Ingolstadt (B), Borussia Neunkirchen (S), SC Freiburg (SB)

(H)=Hessen, (B)=Bayern, (SW)=Südwest, (R)=Rheinland, (S)=Saarland, (S-B)=Schwarzwald-Bodensee, (SB)=Südbaden, (NB)=Nordbaden, (W)=Württemberg

1979 VfR Bürstadt (H), ESV Ingolstadt (B), Röchling Völklingen (SW), SSV Ulm 1846 (BW) 1980 Hessen Kassel (H), FC Augsburg (B), Borussia Neunkirchen (SW), VfB Eppingen (BW) 1981 "no promotion" 1982 FSV Frankfurt (H), FC Augsburg (B) 1983 SSV Ulm 1846 (BW), 1.FC Saarbrücken (SW) 1984 VfR Bürstadt (H), FC Homburg (SW) 1985 Viktoria Aschaffenburg (H), SpVgg Bayreuth (B) 1986 SSV Ulm 1846 (BW), FSV Salmrohr (SW) 1987 Kickers Offenbach (H), SpVgg Bayreuth (B) 1988 Viktoria Aschaffenburg (H), FSV Mainz 05 (SW) 1989 Hessen Kassel (H), SpVgg Unterhaching (B) 1990 FSV Mainz 05 (SW), FC Schweinfurt 05 (B) 1991 TSV 1860 München (B) 1992 SpVgg Unterhaching (B) 1993 TSV 1860 München (B) 1994 FSV Frankfurt (H)

(H)=Hessen, (B)=Bayern, (SW)=Südwest, (BW)=Baden-Württemberg

Promoted teams (north)

1975 Bayer Leverkusen (MR), Union Solingen (NR), Westfalia Herne (W), Spandauer SV (B) 1976 Bonner SC (MR), SC Herford (W), VfL Wolfsburg (N), Arminia Hannover (N) 1977 1.FC Bocholt (NR), RW Lüdenscheid (W), TuS Bremerhaven 93 (N) 1978 Viktoria Köln (MR), DSC Wanne-Eickel (W), Holstein Kiel (N), Wacker 04 Berlin (B)

(MR)=Mittelrhein, (NR)=Niederrhein, (W)=Westfalen, (B)=Berlin, (N)=Nord

1979 RW Oberhausen (NR), SC Herford (W), OSV Hannover (N), OSC Bremerhaven (N) 1980 1.FC Bocholt (NR), SpVgg Erkenschwick (W), VfB Oldenburg (N), Göttingen 05 (N) 1981 "no promotion" 1982 BV Lüttringhausen (NR), TuS Schloss Neuhaus (W) 1983 RW Oberhausen (NR), SC Charlottenburg (B) 1984 FC St Pauli (N), BW 90 Berlin (B) 1985 VfL Osnabrück (N), Tennis Borussia Berlin (B) 1986 FC St Pauli (N), RW Essen (NR) 1987 SV Meppen (N), BVL Remscheid (NR) 1988 Eintracht Braunschweig (N), Hertha BSC Berlin (B) 1989 MSV Duisburg (NR), Preußen Münster (W) 1990 VfB Oldenburg (N), TSV Havelse (N) 1991 FC Remscheid (NR) 1992 Wuppertaler SV (NR), VfL Wolfsburg (N) 1993 RW Essen (NR) 1994 Fortuna Düsseldorf (NR)

(NR)=Nordrhein, (W)=Westfalen, (B)= Berlin, (N)=Nord

Promoted teams (east)

1991 Stahl Brandenburg , 1.FC Lok Leipzig 1992 none 1993 Tennis Borussia Berlin 1994 FSV Zwickau

Promoted teams from the Regionalliga 1995-2000

1995 SpVgg Unterhaching (S), Arminia Bielefeld (W), Carl Zeiss Jena (NO), VfB Lübeck (N) 1996 Stuttgarter Kickers (S), FC Gütersloh (W), VfB Oldenburg (N) , Rot-Weiß Essen (W) 1997 1. FC Nürnberg (S), SG Wattenscheid 09 (W), Energie Cottbus (NO), SpVgg Greuther Fürth (S) 1998 SSV Ulm 1846 (S), Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (W), Hannover 96 (N) , Tennis Borussia Berlin (NO) 1999 Waldhof Mannheim (S), Alemannia Aachen (W), Chemnitzer FC (NO), Kickers Offenbach (S) 2000 SSV Reutlingen (S), 1. FC Saarbrücken (W), VfL Osnabrück (N) , LR Ahlen (W)

*(S) = Regionalliga Süd, (W) = Regionalliga West/Südwest, (NO) = Regionalliga Nordost, (N) = Regionalliga Nord,

External links

* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fussball Archiv ]
* [http://www.oberliga-fussball.de/ Website on Oberliga Football]