Regionalliga Südwest (1963–74)

Regionalliga Südwest
Founded
1963
Disbanded
1974
Nation
 Germany
States
Rheinland-Pfalz
Saarland
Promotion To
Bundesliga
Relegation To
Amateurliga Rheinland
Amateurliga Saarland
Amateurliga Südwest
Number of Seasons
11
Replaced by
2nd Bundesliga Süd
Level on Pyramid
Level 2
Last Champions 1973-74
Borussia Neunkirchen

The Regionalliga Südwest was the second-highest level of the German football league system in the southwest of Germany from 1963 until the formation of the 2nd Bundesliga in 1974. It covered the states of Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz.

Contents

Overview

Along with the Regionalliga Südwest went another four Regionalligas, these five formed the second tier of German football until 1974:

The new Regionalligas were formed along the borders of the old post-2nd World War Oberligas, not after a balanced regional system. Therefore the Oberligas Berlin and West covered small but populos areas while Nord and Süd covered large areas. Südwest was something of an anachronism, neither large nor populos. It was basically a remainder of the former French occupation zone.

Originally only the winners, later also runners-up of this league were admitted to the promotion play-off to the new Bundesliga, which was staged in two groups of originally four, later five teams each with the winner of each group going up.

The bottom three teams were relegated to the Amateurligas. Below the Regionalliga Südwest were the following Amateurligas:

The FSV Mainz 05, VfR Wormatia Worms, FK Pirmasens, SV Röchling Völklingen, Südwest Ludwigshafen and TuS Neuendorf all played every one of the eleven seasons of the Regionalliga Südwest.

Disbanding of the Regionalliga Südwest

The league was dissolved in 1974. According to their performance of the last couple of seasons, seven clubs of the Regionalliga went to the new 2nd Bundesliga Süd. The nine remaining clubs were relegated to the Amateurligas.

The teams admitted to the 2nd Bundesliga Süd were:

Relegated clubs:

Qualifying to the 2nd Bundesliga

From the Regionalliga Südwest, seven clubs qualified for the new 2nd Bundesliga Süd, together with 13 teams from the Süd region.

The qualifying modus saw the last five seasons counted, whereby the last placed team in each season received one point, the second-last two points and so on. For a Bundesliga season within this five year period, a club received 25 points, for an Amateurliga season none.

For the seasons 1969-70 and 70-71, the received points counted single, for the 71-72 and 72-73 season double and for the 73-74 season three times.

To be considered in the points table for the new league, a club had to play either in the Regionalliga Südwest in 1973-74 or to have been relegated from the Bundesliga to it for the next season, something which did not apply to the league that year.

The bottom three clubs in the league, nominally the relegated teams in a normal season, were barred from entry to the 2nd Bundesliga, regardless of where they stood in the points ranking.[1]

Points table:

Rank Club Points 1969-74 Place in 1973-74
1 Borussia Neunkirchen 133 1
2 SV Röchling Völklingen 110 4
3 FSV Mainz 05 109 5
4 FK Pirmasens 107 8
5 SV Alsenborn 1 95 10
6 FC 08 Homburg 90 3
7 VfR Wormatia Worms 90 6
8 1. FC Saarbrücken 87 2
9 ASV Landau 82 9
10 Südwest Ludwigshafen 76 11
11 TuS Neuendorf 71 12
12 FV Speyer 43 15
13 Eintracht Bad Kreuznach 30 7
14 VfB Theley 27 13
15 Sportfreunde Eisbachtal 15 14
16 FC Ensdorf 3 16

Re-creation of the Regionalliga

In 1994 the Regionalligas were reintroduced, this time as the third tier of German Football. The teams from the southwest were however integrated into the new Regionalliga West/Südwest with the clubs from Nordrhein-Westfalen. In 2000, when the number of Regionalligas was reduced from four to two, the south western clubs moved to the Regionalliga Süd. In 2008, with the introduction of the 3rd Liga the southwestern clubs will again move, into the new Regionalliga West and again be with the teams from Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Winners and runners-up of the Regionalliga Südwest[2]

Season Winner Runner-Up
1963-64 Borussia Neunkirchen FK Pirmasens
1964-65 1. FC Saarbrücken VfR Wormatia Worms
1965-66 FK Pirmasens 1. FC Saarbrücken
1966-67 Borussia Neunkirchen 1. FC Saarbrücken
1967-68 SV Alsenborn TuS Neuendorf
1968-69 SV Alsenborn TuS Neuendorf
1969-70 SV Alsenborn FK Pirmasens
1970-71 Borussia Neunkirchen FK Pirmasens
1971-72 Borussia Neunkirchen SV Röchling Völklingen
1972-73 FSV Mainz 05 SV Röchling Völklingen
1973-74 Borussia Neunkirchen 1. FC Saarbrücken

Placings in the Regionalliga Südwest 1963 to 1974

The league placings from 1963 to 1974:[3]

Club 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74
Borussia Neunkirchen 1 B B 1 B 5 4 1 1 5 1
1. FC Saarbrücken B 1 2 2 5 3 6 4 12 13 2
FC 08 Homburg 11 10 9 14 8 9 7 3
SV Röchling Völklingen 13 14 8 9 7 12 13 10 2 2 4
FSV Mainz 05 4 11 3 4 4 13 12 7 4 1 5
VfR Wormatia Worms 3 2 5 13 12 8 11 12 7 4 6
Eintracht Bad Kreuznach 7
FK Pirmasens 2 7 1 6 3 4 2 2 6 3 8
ASV Landau 19 7 9 8 6 9
SV Alsenborn 9 8 1 1 1 5 3 8 10
Südwest Ludwigshafen 1 9 5 11 7 6 7 3 3 10 9 11
TuS Neuendorf 11 6 4 14 2 2 8 6 5 11 12
VfB Theley 16 10 13
Sportfreunde Eisbachtal 14 14
FV Speyer 11 5 14 11 12 15
FC Ensdorf 16
Eintracht Trier 5 3 13 5 8 10 10 11 13 15
Phönix Bellheim 17 10 12 15 14 16
VfR Frankenthal 15 12 7 12 13 15 13 15
SpVgg Andernach 16
SV Saar 05 Saarbrücken 6 4 6 10 9 6 9 15
SpVgg Weisenau 14 9 10 3 11 14 15
SC Friedrichsthal 14 16
FC Landsweiler 16
SC Ludwigshafen 10 8 14 15
SSV Mülheim 16
Germania Metternich 18 16
BSC Oppau 16 13 15
TSC Zweibrücken 18 15 16
Sportfreunde Saarbrücken 8 16
VfR Kaiserslautern 7 17
Tura Ludwigshafen 1 12
SV Niederlahnstein 20

Source:"Regionalliga Südwest". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. http://www.f-archiv.de/. Retrieved 2008-01-07. 

Key

Symbol Key
B Bundesliga
Place League
Blank Played at a league level below this league

Notes

References

  1. ^ Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik seit 1945 - History of German league football since 1945 (German) publisher: DSFS, published: 2006, page: C3 + C4
  2. ^ "Kicker Almanach" The Football Yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine
  3. ^ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (German) Historical German domestic league tables

Sources

External links