| Mittelrheinliga |
|---|
| Founded |
| 1956 |
| Nation |
| Germany |
| State |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen |
| Promotion To |
| NRW-Liga |
| Relegation To |
| Landesliga Mittelrhein-Staffel 1 |
| Landesliga Mittelrhein-Staffel 2 |
| Number of Teams |
| 17 |
| Level on Pyramid |
| Level 6 |
| Current Champions 2010–11 |
| FC Junkersdorf |
The Mittelrheinliga, formerly the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein, is the highest Football League in the region of Mittelrhein which is part of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. It is the 6th tier of the German football league system. Until 2008, when the 3rd Liga was introduced, it was the 5th tier of the German league system.
Contents |
The league was formed from 15 clubs in 1956 to provide a single-division highest league for the Mittelrhein Football Association. Previous to this, the two Landesligen were the highest level of play in the region. The Landesligen still remain as the tier below the Verbandsliga to this day.
Upon its inception, the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein became the third tier of the German league system. The league champion had to compete with the winner of the Verbandsliga Niederrhein for promotion to the 2nd Oberliga West. Only the Bonner FV in 1959 was successful at that. Upon introduction of the Bundesliga in 1963, the league was set below the new Regionalliga West but remained as the third tier. With the exception of 1963 and 1974, when the league systems were changed, the champion continued to have the opportunity to win promotion. The clubs from the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein remained mostly unsuccessful as that, only archiving promotion in 1966, 67, 68, 73, 75, 76 and 78.
The league operated with 16 clubs throughout most of its existence, only occasionally altering the numbers to balance out promotion and relegation.
With the replacement of the Regionalliga by the 2nd Bundesliga Nord in 1974, the league champion had to gain promotion through a play-off system with the winners of the other tier-three leagues in northern Germany.
In 1978, the Amateur-Oberliga Nordrhein was formed as the third tier of football in the region compromising the area of the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein and Verbandsliga Niederrhein. One of the main reasons for this move was to provide direct promotion for the tier-three champions again. This seasons league winner, Viktoria Köln, was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga, the clubs placed two to ten in the league were admitted to the new Oberliga, these being:
Verbandsliga Mittelrhein, together with Niederrhein, remained as a feeder league for the new Oberliga, but now as a tier-four competition. Its champion, and some years the runners-up, were directly promoted to the Oberliga Nordrhein.
With the re-introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994, the league slipped to tier five but remained unchanged otherwise.
From 2008, with the introduction of the 3rd Liga, the Verbandsliga Mittelrhein was downgraded to the sixth tier. The league above it was then the new Oberliga Nordrhein-Westfalen, a merger of the Oberligas Nordrhein and Westfalen. The champion of the Verbandsliga continued to be directly promoted but since there was now four Verbandsligen below the Oberliga, the runners-up didn't have the option of promotion unless the league winner declined.
|
|
|
Source:"Verbandsliga Mittelrhein". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. http://www.f-archiv.de/. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
From the 2nd Oberliga West:
From the Landesliga Gruppe 1:
From the Landesliga Gruppe 2:
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||