Overview
The league's history goes back to 1979, when four new Bezirksoberligas (Braunschweig, Hannover, Lüneburg and Weser-Ems) were formed in the state of Lower Saxony. The Bezirksoberligas (6th tier) were set below the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen (4th tier) and the two Landesligas (5th tier) in the German football league system. In 1994, the two old Landesligas were dissolved, while the four Bezirksoberligas were renamed into Landesliga Braunschweig, Landesliga Hannover, Landesliga Lüneburg, and Landesliga Weser-Ems respectively. Due to the introduction of the new Regionalliga (IV) the new Landesligas still remained at the 6th tier of German football, however.
In 2006, the Landesliga was renamed into Bezirksoberliga again. The new Bezirksoberliga Wser-Ems was made up of sixteen clubs, three from the tier-five Verbandsliga Niedersachsen-West, nine from the Landesliga and two each from the two Bezirksligas. The league was formed in a reorganisation of the league system in Lower Saxony, whereby the four regional Landsligas were replaced by the Bezirksoberligas. Below these, the number of Bezirksligas was increased. In Weser-Ems, the two Bezirksligas were expanded to five, while the other three regions operate with four Bezirksligas at this level.
The Bezirksoberliga, like the Landesliga before, was set in the league system below the Verbandsliga and above the now five Bezirksligas, which were numbered from one to five. The winner of the Bezirksoberliga was directly promoted to the Verbandsliga, while the bottom placed teams, in a varying number, were relegated to the Bezirksliga. The Bezirksoberligas of Weser-Ems and Hannover form the tier below the Verbandsliga West, while those of Lüneburg and Braunschweig form the tier below the eastern division of the Verbandsliga.
In the leagues first season, 2006–07, the runners-up of the league, SV Holthausen-Biene, had to play-off with the runners-up of the Bezirksoberliga Hannover, TSV Stelingen, a game they lost 1-0 and thereby failed to gain promotion. In the following two seasons, only the league champions were eligible for promotion.
At the end of the 2007-08 season, with the introduction of the 3rd Liga, the Verbandsliga was renamed Oberliga Niedersachsen-West. For the Bezirksoberliga, this had no direct consequences, but the league was increased to eighteen clubs.
After the 2009-10 season, the two Oberligas (English: Premier league) in Lower Saxony will be merged to one single division. The four Bezirksoberliga champions that season will not be automatically promoted, instead they will have to compete with the four teams placed ninth and tenth in the Oberliga for four more spots in this league.
On 17 May 2010, the Lower Saxony football association decided to rename the four Bezirksoberligas to Landesligas from the 1 July 2010. This change in name came alongside the merger of the two Oberliga divisions above it into the Niedersachsenliga.
Read more about this topic: Landesliga Weser-Ems