Regionalliga Nord - Overview

Overview

The Regionalliga Nord was introduced in 1994 along with three other Regionalligas, those being:

• Regionalliga Süd
• Regionalliga Nordost
• Regionalliga West/Südwest

The reason for its introduction was to create a highest regional league for the north of Germany and to allow its champions, and some years the runners-up too, to be directly promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. Previous to the introduction of the four Regionalligas, the leagues below the second division were the Oberligas, which there was ten of. Those ten Oberliga champions had to go through a promotion play-off rather than being directly promoted. The champions of the Regionalligas Nord and Nordost however had to play-off for a spot in the 2nd Bundesliga from 1996 to 2000. The winner of this contest was promoted, the loser faced the runners-ups of the Regionalligas Süd and West/Südwest for another spot in the second division.

The Regionalliga Nord was direct continuation of the Oberliga Nord, which was disbanded in 1994 in favour of the Regionalliga. Fourteen out of sixteen Oberliga Nord clubs qualified for the new league, only the bottom two teams were relegated to the two new Oberligas.

To replace the Oberliga Nord below the Regionalliga, two new leagues were formed, those being the Oberligas Niedersachsen/Bremen and Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein. This two leagues were in turn disbanded in 2004 when the Oberliga Nord was reformed.

In 2001, the 1. FC Union Berlin of this league became only the second Regionalliga side to reach a German Cup final, losing 2-0 to FC Schalke 04.

With the league changes in Germany in 2008, the Oberliga Nord was again disbanded and the level below the Regionalliga Nord in this region were the five Verbandligas. This required a promotion play-off for this league winners as there were not five promotion spots available for their region. No changes were made in the NOFV region were the two Oberligas Nord and Süd will remain.

The following four teams were promoted to the Regionalliga from 2009:

• NOFV-Oberliga Nord champions
• NOFV-Oberliga Süd champions
• Lower Saxony champions, being the winner of the home-and-away series of the champions of the Oberliga Niedersachsen-West and Oberliga Niedersachsen-Ost
• Winner of the promotion play-off for the champions of the Oberliga Hamburg, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein