Bezirksoberliga Oberbayern - Overview

Overview

The Bezirksoberligas in Bavaria were introduced in 1988 to create a highest single-division playing level for each of the seven Regierungsbezirk. The term Bezirksoberliga translates roughly into County Premier League, a Regierungsbezirk being a similar administrative entity to a County.

Before the introduction of the Bezirksoberligas, the Bezirksliga was the level of play below the Landesliga. The Bezirksligas Oberbayern-Nord, Oberbayern-Süd and Oberbayern-Ost fed the Landesliga Bayern-Süd as they afterwards feed the Bezirksoberliga Oberbayern.

The winner of the Bezirksoberliga Oberbayern, like the winner of the Bezirksoberliga Schwaben, was directly promoted to the Landesliga Bayern-Süd. The two second placed teams out of those leagues played-off for another promotion spot. The winner went to Landesliga, the loser faced the 15th placed team out of the Landesliga for the last spot there. However, in some years additional promotion places were available in the Landesliga.

The three bottom teams of the Bezirksoberliga were relegated to the Bezirksliga, the team just above those faced a play-off against the second placed Bezirksliga teams.

Some of the clubs in the west of Oberbayern actually play in the Schwaben football league system. This is mostly because before the border reform in the 1970s some actually had belonged to Schwaben. Being geographically closer to Augsburg then Munich also makes a difference.

Oberbayern is the only one of the seven Bezirke to have three Bezirksligas. The reason for this is the fact that it is the most populous. The Bavarian FA actually regulates, how many Bezirksligas a Bezirk needs to have, based on the number of clubs in the region.

With the league reform at the end of the 2011-12 season, which includes an expansion of the number of Landesligas from three to five, the Bezirksoberligas were disbanded. Instead, the Bezirksligas took the place of the Bezirksoberligas below the Landesligas once more.

The clubs from the Bezirksoberliga joined the following leagues:

• Champions: Promotion round to the Bayernliga, winners to the Bayernliga, losers to the Landesliga.
• Teams placed 2nd to 6th: Directly qualified to the Landesliga.
• Teams placed 7th to 12th: Three additional Landesliga places to be determined in a play-off round with the Bezirksliga champions, losers enter Bezirksliga.
• Teams placed 13th to 16th: Directly relegated to Bezirksligas