2. Bundesliga Süd (1974–1981)

The 2. Bundesliga Süd was the second-highest level of the West German football league system in the south of West Germany from its introduction in 1974 until the formation of the single-division 2. Bundesliga in 1981. It covered the southern states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Bavaria.

2. Bundesliga Süd
A map of West Germany and West Berlin with the location of the 2. Bundesliga Süd highlighted
Founded1974
Folded1981
Replaced by2. Bundesliga
Country West Germany
States
Level on pyramidLevel 2
Promotion toBundesliga
Relegation to
Last championsSV Darmstadt 98
(1980–81)

Overview

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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 2. Bundesliga Süd, formed from clubs of the two former Regionalligas of Süd and Südwest, went the foundation of the 2. 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 2. 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 were 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 2. Bundesliga Süd ranked the following Amateurligas:

The winners of the larger leagues of Bayern and Hessen were directly 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 2. Bundesliga Süd.

In 1981, the two 2. 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 2. 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.

Qualifying to the 2. Bundesliga Süd

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From the Regionalliga Südwest, seven clubs qualified for the new 2. Bundesliga Süd; from the Regionalliga Süd it was 13 clubs.

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 in 1973–74 or to have been relegated from the Bundesliga to it for the next season, something which did not apply for the south as both teams relegated from the Bundesliga in 1974 went to the north.

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

Regionalliga Südwest points table

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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 Alsenborn1 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
  • Source: DSFS Liga-Chronik (in German), page: C4, accessed: 18 March 2009
  • Bold teams are promoted to the 2. Bundesliga.
  • 1 SV Alsenborn was denied the 2. Bundesliga licence.

Regionalliga Süd points table

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Rank Club Points 1969–74 Place in 1973–74
1 TSV 1860 Munich 155 3
2 1. FC Nürnberg 138 2
3 Karlsruher SC 134 8
4 SV Darmstadt 98 110 4
5 FC Bayern Hof 104 9
6 Stuttgarter Kickers 98 6
7 SpVgg Bayreuth 90 5
8 VfR Heilbronn 90 12
9 Hessen Kassel1 90 16
10 SpVgg Fürth 85 10
11 FC Schweinfurt 05 68 15
12 Freiburger FC1 68 17
13 SV Waldhof Mannheim 61 7
14 FC Augsburg 54 1
15 Jahn Regensburg1 53 18
16 VfR Mannheim 28 13
17 VfR Bürstadt 27 14
18 FSV Frankfurt 26 11
  • Source: DSFS Liga-Chronik (in German), page: C4, accessed: 18 March 2009
  • Bold teams are promoted to the 2. Bundesliga.
  • 1 Barred from gaining access to the 2. Bundesliga due to having finished on a relegation spot.

Disbanding of the 2. Bundesliga Süd

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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 2. Bundesliga while the champion was promoted to Bundesliga. The ten remaining clubs were relegated to the Amateurligas.

The teams admitted to the 2. Bundesliga were:

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

Relegated teams to the Oberliga:

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 division football but did remain a force in the Oberliga Südwest.

Winners and runners-up

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The winners and runners-up of the league were:[2]

Season Club Runners-up
1974–75 Karlsruher SC FK Pirmasens
1975–76 1. FC Saarbrücken 1. FC Nürnberg
1976–77 VfB Stuttgart TSV 1860 Munich
1977–78 SV Darmstadt 98 1. FC Nürnberg
1978–79 TSV 1860 Munich SpVgg Bayreuth
1979–80 1. FC Nürnberg Karlsruher SC
1980–81 SV Darmstadt 98 Kickers Offenbach
  • Promoted teams in bold.

Play-offs for Bundesliga promotion

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The third promotion spot to the Bundesliga was decided through a play-off round of the runners-up of the two 2. Bundesligas. The results of this round are as follows:

Season North South Results
1975 FK Pirmasens Bayer Uerdingen 4-4 / 0-6
1976 1. FC Nürnberg Borussia Dortmund 0-1 / 2-3
1977 TSV 1860 Munich Arminia Bielefeld 4-0 / 0-4 / 2-0
1978 1. FC Nürnberg 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
  • Bold denotes promotion-winner.

Placings in the 2. Bundesliga Süd 1974–1981

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The league placings from 1974 to 1981:[3]

Club 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
VfB Stuttgart B 11 1 B B B B
TSV 1860 Munich 5 4 2 B 1 B B
1. FC Nürnberg 6 2 5 2 B 1 B
Karlsruher SC 1 B B 7 5 2 B
SV Darmstadt 98 10 7 6 1 B 4 1
Kickers Offenbach B B 3 5 6 8 2
Stuttgarter Kickers 16 16 10 10 9 3 3
KSV Hessen Kassel 4
SSV Ulm 1846 16 5
SV Waldhof Mannheim 8 8 11 8 16 11 6
SC Freiburg 15 6 7
Eintracht Trier 17 12 10 15 8
SpVgg Bayreuth 9 5 14 4 2 13 9
Freiburger FC 13 13 9 10
FC Homburg 14 3 4 3 7 12 11
VfR Wormatia Worms 19 9 3 10 12
VfR Bürstadt 18 14 13
SpVgg Fürth 15 10 8 6 4 7 14
FSV Frankfurt 13 7 15 12 18 15
ESV Ingolstadt 17 16
1. FC Saarbrücken 7 1 B B 8 5 17
FC Augsburg 12 15 9 14 18 18
Borussia Neunkirchen 18 20 19
VfB Eppingen 20
MTV Ingolstadt 11 19
SV Röchling Völklingen 13 6 16 20
FV Würzburg 04 13 11 14 21
FC Hanau 93 17
KSV Baunatal 15 16 19
FC Bayern Hof 4 9 12 17
Kickers Würzburg 19
FK Pirmasens 2 14 18 20
SSV Jahn Regensburg 17 19
BSV Schwenningen 20
FSV Mainz 05 11 12
FC Schweinfurt 05 3 18
Eintracht Bad Kreuznach 19
SSV Reutlingen 20
VfR Heilbronn 17
VfR Mannheim 20

Source:"2. Bundesliga Süd". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv (in German). Archived from the original on 5 January 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2008.

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

Notes

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  • FSV Mainz 05 withdrew from the league in 1976.

Top scorers

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Year Player Club Goals
1974–75 Bernd Hoffmann Karlsruher SC 25
1975–76 Karl-Heinz Granitza Röchling Völklingen 29
1976–77 Lothar Emmerich Würzburger FV 04 29
1977–78 Emanuel Günther Karlsruher SC 27
1978–79 Eduard Kirschner SpVgg Fürth 33
1979–80 Emanuel Günther Karlsruher SC 29
1980–81 Horst Neumann SV Darmstadt 98 27

Source: 100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband. Vindelica Verlag. 1997. p. 173.

References

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  1. ^ Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik seit 1945 - History of German league football since 1945 (in 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 (in German) Historical German domestic league tables

Sources

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  • Deutschlands Fußball in Zahlen, (in German) An annual publication with tables and results from the Bundesliga to Verbandsliga/Landesliga, publisher: DSFS
  • Kicker Almanach, (in German) The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine
  • Süddeutschlands Fussballgeschichte in Tabellenform 1897-1988 (in German) History of Southern German football in tables, publisher & author: Ludolf Hyll
  • Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945-2005 (in German) History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables, publisher: DSFS, published: 2006
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