2nd Bundesliga Süd (1974-81)

The 2nd Bundesliga Süd was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the south of Germany from 1974 until the formation of the single-division 2nd Bundesliga in 1981. It covered the southern states of Saarland,Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and Bayern.

Overview

The league was established in 1974 to reduce the number of second divisions in Germany from five to two and thereby allow direct promotion to the league winners.Along with the foundation of the 2nd Bundesliga Süd, formed from clubs of the two former Regionalligas of Süd and Südwest, went the foundation of the 2nd Bundesliga Nord, which was created from clubs of the other three Regionalligas, Nord, Berlin and West.

The league was created from thirteen southern and seven southwestern clubs, reflecting the difference in size of the two regions, south being much the larger.

The winner of the 2nd Bundesliga Süd was directly promoted to the Bundesliga, the runners-up played a home-and-away series versus the northern runners-up for the third promotion spot.

The league operated with 20 teams in six seasons of its existence, only in 1980 was there 21 teams in the league. The bottom three, some years four teams were relegated to the Amateurligas, after 1978 to the new Oberligas.

Until 1978, below the 2nd Bundesliga Süd ranked the following Amateurligas:

*Amateurliga Saarland
*Amateurliga Rheinland
*Amateurliga Südwest
*Amateurliga Württemberg
*Amateurliga Schwarzwald-Bodensee
*Amateurliga Nordbaden
*Amateurliga Südbaden

*Amateurliga Hessen

*Amateurliga Bayern

The winners of the larger leagues of Bayern and Hessen were directlly promoted while the other seven leagues had to play-off for two more promotion spots. After 1978 these seven leagues merged down to two new leagues and the champions of those four remaining leagues, now called Oberligas, were all directly promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga Süd.

*Oberliga Südwest
*Oberliga Baden-Württemberg
*Oberliga Hessen
*Oberliga Bayern

In 1981, the two 2nd Bundesligas merged into one, country-wide division. Nine clubs from the south and eight from the north plus the three relegated teams from the Bundesliga were admitted into the new league, the 2nd Bundesliga.

The Stuttgarter Kickers, SV Waldhof Mannheim, SpVgg Fürth, SpVgg Bayreuth and FC Homburg all played every one of the seven seasons of the league.

Disbanding of the 2nd Bundesliga Süd

The league was dissolved in 1981. According to their performance of the last couple of seasons, nine clubs of the league went to the new 2nd Bundesliga while the champion was promoted to Bundesliga. The ten remaining clubs were relegated to the Amateurligas.

The teams admitted to the 2nd Bundesliga were:

*Kickers Offenbach (Runners-up)
*Stuttgarter Kickers (3rd)
*Hessen Kassel (4th)
*SV Waldhof Mannheim (6th)
*SC Freiburg (7th)
*SpVgg Bayreuth (9th)
*Freiburger FC (10th)
*VfR Wormatia Worms (12th)
*SpVgg Fürth (14th)

Of the nine clubs, only one came from the southwest region, VfR Wormatia Worms, all others were southern clubs.

Relegated teams:

*to the Oberliga Bayern: ESV Ingolstadt, FC Augsburg
*to the Oberliga Hessen: VfR Bürstadt, FSV Frankfurt
*to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg: SSV Ulm 1846, VfB Eppingen
*to the Oberliga Südwest: Eintracht Trier, FC Homburg, 1. FC Saarbrücken, Borussia Neunkirchen

The reduction in numbers of second division teams hit especially the Saarland hard, having their three most well known clubs, all members of the Bundesliga at some stage, relegated. While the FC Homburg and the 1. FC Saarbrücken soon bounced back, Borussia Neunkirchen never returned to second dvision football but did remain a force in the Oberliga Südwest.

Winners and runners-up of the 2nd Bundesliga Süd ["Kicker Almanach" The Football Yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine]

1975 Karlsruher SC FK Pirmasens 1976 1. FC Saarbrücken 1. FC Nuremberg 1977 VfB Stuttgart TSV 1860 München 1978 SV Darmstadt 98 1. FC Nuremberg 1979 TSV 1860 München SpVgg Bayreuth 1980 1. FC Nuremberg Karlsruher SC 1981 SV Darmstadt 98 Kickers Offenbach

Bold denotes team went on to gain promotion to the Bundesliga.

Play-off for Bundesliga promotion

1975 FK Pirmasens - Bayer Uerdingen 4-4 / 0-6 1976 1. FC Nuremberg - Borussia Dortmund 0-1 / 2-3 1977 TSV 1860 München - Arminia Bielefeld 4-0 / 0-4 / 2-0 1978 1. FC Nuremberg - RW Essen 1-0 / 2-2 1979 SpVgg Bayreuth - Bayer Uerdingen 1-1 / 1-2 1980 Karlsruher SC - RW Essen 5-1 / 1-3 1981 Kickers Offenbach - Eintracht Braunschweig 1-0 / 0-2

Placings in the 2nd Bundesliga Süd 1974 to 1981

Source:Cite web
url = http://www.f-archiv.de/
title = 2nd Bundesliga Süd
accessdate = 2008-01-08
publisher = Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv

*♦ denotes club played in the Bundesliga.
*"FSV Mainz 05" withdrew from the league in 1976.

ee also

*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1974-75
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1975-76
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1976-77
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1977-78
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1978-79
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1979-80
*Second Fußball-Bundesliga 1980-81

External links

* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fussball Archiv ]
* [http://www.weltfussball.de/spielplan.php?Thema=4&Liga=2&s_id=42&x=14&y=7 The 2nd Bundesliga Süd at Weltfussball.de (with round-by-round results and tables)]

References