Landesliga Bayern-Mitte - 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 Mitte, the 2nd Amateurligen were split into three groups, Niederbayern, Oberpfalz and Mittelfranken. The league was formed from eighteen clubs, six of them from the Amateurligas (III) and twelve 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. 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 year, three teams were promoted from the Bezirksligas, one from each region; from 1966, it was four clubs. The Landesliga Mitte was fed by the three Bezirksoberligen of Mittelfranken, Oberpfalz and Niederbayern from 1988 onwards. The winner of those were automatically promoted, the runners-up played-off for another promotion spot with the 15th placed team of Landesliga to determine the winner of the last available spot in the Landesliga. The Landesliga Mitte is the only one of the three Bavarian Landesligas to have had three Bezirksoberligas as feeder leagues, the other two only have two each.

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 change in the league system in 1994 and 2008, the introduction of the Regionalliga and the 3. Liga, there were two automatic promotion places available to each of the Landesligen in those seasons.