Landesliga Bayern

In the Bavarian Football League System, the three Landesligas are the second hightest level, below the Oberliga Bayern.

Overview

The winners of the three Landesligas are automatically promoted to the Oberliga, the runners-up face a relegation play-off with the team of the Oberliga that is placed just above the relegation zone, usually the 15th placed team, for a final promotion spot. Since the start of the promotion play-offs in 1981, Landesliga Süd has won the extra spot 17 times, Landesliga Mitte 8 times and Landesliga Nord only 5 times. In 1985, 1994, 1996 and 2003 additional spots were available on top of the usual four.

The German word Landesliga can be pretty literally translated as "State League".

The three Landesligas cover the following areas:
*Landesliga Bayern-Süd : Schwaben and Oberbayern
*Landesliga Bayern-Mitte : Oberpfalz, Mittelfranken and Niederbayern
*Landesliga Bayern-Nord : Unterfranken and Oberfranken

Below the Landesligas there is the seven Bezirksoberligas, covering the above mentioned seven Bezirke. The winners of those gain promotion, the runners-up face a promotion play-off for a number of promotion spot which vary from season to season.

From 1945 to 1950, the Oberliga Bayern was called Landesliga Bayern. It was then the second tier of Southern German Football.

League Records 1963-2007

Source:Cite web
url = http://www.manfredsfussballarchiv.de/
title = tables and results of the Landesliga
accessdate = 2007-12-24
publisher = Herzing Manfred

Teams in the Landesliga

Records

* Only four teams in Bavaria have never "fallen down" to Landesliga level, these being FC Bayern München, TSV 1860 München, 1.FC Nürnberg and FC Augsburg.
* SpVgg Fürth, now SpVgg Greuther Fürth, is by far the most prominent club to have played in any of the three Landesligas, having three German championships to their name (1914, 1926, 1929).
* The longest serving club in the Landesliga is currently the TG Höchberg with 19 seasons since 1989.
* The record for the longest stint in the Landesliga is held by FC Gundelfingen (Landesliga Bayern-Süd) with 22 consecutive seasons from 1971 till 1993 when they finally archived promotion to the Oberliga Bayern. They never won the league, coming second in 1991, 1992 and 1993 insted.
* The record number of years in the Landesliga is held by TSV 1860 Rosenheim (Landesliga Bayern-Süd) with 35 seasons out of a possible 45.
* The FV Würzburg 04 holds the record of league championships, five all up. However, the club did fold and re-form in the early 1980s.

External links

* [http://www.bfv.de/ Bayrischer Fussball Bund (Bavarian FA)]
* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fussball Archiv ]
* [http://www.bayliga.de/ Bavarian League tables and results]