Oberliga Nordrhein-Westfalen

The NRW-Liga is the highest Football League in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of twelve Oberligas in German Football, the 5th tier of the German football league system. It replaced the two Oberligas Nordrhein and Westfalen in this position.

Overview

The NRW-Liga is a new league, scheduled to kick-off in July 2008 as a feeder league to the also new Regionalliga West. The new Oberliga is actually a merger of the two Oberligas of Nordrhein and Westfalen, giving the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen its first statewide league since the "old" Regionalliga West was disbanded in 1974. Unlike the two old Oberligas who were set at tier four of the league system, the new league will be fifth tier.

The league will retain the four Verbandsligas of the two predecessor Oberligas as its feeder leagues, with the champion of each of those gaining direct promotion to the Oberliga. In turn, the top two teams of the Oberliga will gain promotion to the Regionalliga West.

The league will be made up from a set quota of teams from each of the two predecessor Oberligas and the four Verbandsligas. While the top four clubs from Nordrhein and Westfalen will be promoted to the new Regionalliga, teams placed fifth to eleventh will go to the new Oberliga. The clubs placed twelve to eighteen will be relegated to their Verbandsligas [cite web |url=http://www.weltfussball.de/spielplan.php?Thema=341&Liga=27|title=Current table of the Oberliga Nordrhein|accessdate=2008-02-08|author=|publisher=weltfussball.de] [cite web |url=http://www.weltfussball.de/spielplan.php?Thema=360&Liga=28|title=Current table of the Oberliga Westfalen|accessdate=2008-02-08|author=|publisher=weltfussball.de] . From the four Verbandsligas, the champions will each gain admittance, unless it would be a reserves team of a club already qualified for the Oberliga. In this case, the next eligible club would be admitted.

There is some dispute about the name of the league with the suggestion having been made to rather call it Oberliga West, a league of that name having already existed from 1947 to 1963, the "old" Oberliga West. The previous league of that name was a tier one league but covered the same region. It has however been decided to officially call it NRW-Liga, short for Nordrhein-Westfalen-Liga. [cite web |url=http://www.wflv.de/fileadmin/downloads/NRW-Liga/A-NRW-Liga-Statut__komplett_.pdf|title=NRW-Liga Statut|accessdate=2008-08-27|author=|publisher=WFLV Football Association] .

Additionally, the Verbandsligas will be renamed "Niederrheinliga", "Mittelrheinliga" and "Westfalenliga" [cite web |url=http://www.amateurkick.de/ligareform.php|title=League reform|accessdate=2008-02-08|author=|publisher=www.amateurkick.de] .

Teams qualified for the new NRW-Liga

With the last round of play on 1 June 2008, the qualification process for the new league was completed, with the following clubs admitted to it [cite web |url=http://www.amateurkick.de/ligenzusammensetzung.php|title=Club movements for the 2008-09 season|accessdate=2008-02-08|author=|publisher=www.amateurkick.de] :

From the Regionalliga Süd:
*Sportfreunde Siegen

From the Oberliga Nordrhein:
*Schwarz-Weiß Essen
*SSVg Velbert
*MSV Duisburg II
*Germania Dattenfeld
*Alemannia Aachen II
*Bonner SC
*Fortuna Düsseldorf II

From the Oberliga Westfalen:
*Westfalia Herne
*Hammer SpVg
*Delbrücker SC
*Arminia Bielefeld II
*SV Schermbeck
*FC Gütersloh
*SF Oestrich Iserlohn

From the Verbandsliga Niederrhein:
*Rot-Weiß Essen II

From the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein:
*Fortuna Köln

From the Verbandsliga Westfalen 1:
*VfB Hüls

From the Verbandsliga Westfalen 2:
*SG Wattenscheid 09

The Sportfreunde Siegen were meant to be playing in the Regionalliga Süd but due to their insolvency, the club will now be entering the NRW-Ligaor below in the 2008-09 season [ [http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/vereine/artikel/379458 Sportfreunde planen für die 5. Liga] (in German) kicker.de, accessed: 8 June 2008] .

External links

* [http://www.amateurkick.de/ Oberliga Football website]
* [http://www.fvn.de/index.html?news_id=298 Niederrhein Football Association (FVN)]
* [http://www.fvm.de/ Mittelrhein Football Association (FVM)]
* [http://www.flvw.de/ Westfalen Football Association (FLVW)]

References

Clubs in the NRW-Liga