Landesliga Bayern-Nord - Overview

Overview

The Landesligen in Bayern were formed in 1963, in place of the 2nd Amateurligas, which operated below the Bayernliga until then. In the region of the Landesliga Nord, the 2nd Amateurligen were split into three groups, Oberfranken, Unterfranken-Ost and Unterfranken-West. The league was formed from eighteen clubs, seven of them from the Amateurligas (III) and thirteen from the 2nd Amateurligas (IV).

In the first eighteen season, up until 1980, only the league champions were promoted to the Bayernliga. This was altered in 1981, when the three Landesliga runners-up were given the opportunity to earn promotion, too, via a promotion round. It took 14 attempts by a Landesliga Nord club however, to actually achieve promotion through this way, which VfL Frohnlach finally did in 1994. The Bavarian football association actually stipulates in its rules and regulations that every league champion has to be promoted, unless it declines to do so, and every runners-up has to have the opportunity to earn promotion, too.

Below the league, the Bezirksligas were set as the fifth tier of league football, until 1988, when the Bezirksoberligas were formed. In the first years, four teams were promoted from the Bezirksligas, two from each region. In the 1980s, this number was increased to five clubs for a time. The Landesliga Nord was now fed by the two Bezirksoberligen of Unterfranken and Oberfranken. The winner of those were automatically promoted, the runners-up played-off for another promotion spot, the loser of this game then played a decider with the 15th placed team of Landesliga to determine the winner of the last available spot in the Landesliga.

For the most part of its history, the league has operated on a strength of eighteen clubs, only occasionally diverting from this when the number of teams relegated from the Bayernliga to it was more than one. With the changes in the league system there were, on occasion, two automatical promotion places available to each of the Landesligs, like in the seasons 1993-94 and 2007-08.

Clubs based in the border region to Hesse traditionally play in the Hessen football league system rather than the Bavarian Football League System. Notable examples of this are Viktoria Aschaffenburg and FC Bayern Alzenau who both currently play in the Oberliga Hessen. The later only left Landesliga Nord to do so in 1992.