Regionalliga West/Südwest

Regionalliga West/Südwest

Founded	1994
Folded	2000 (6 seasons)
Replaced by	Regionalliga Nord Regionalliga Süd
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland
Level on pyramid	Level 3
Promotion to	2nd Bundesliga
Relegation to	Oberliga Südwest Oberliga Nordrhein Oberliga Westfalen
Last champions	1. FC Saarbrücken (1999–2000)

The Regionalliga West/Südwest was the third tier of the German football league system in the states of Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz and Nordrhein-Westfalen from 1994 to 2000.

Overview

The Regionalliga West/Südwest was formed in 1994 to form a regional third level of play between the 2. Bundesliga and the Oberligas Westfalen, Nordrhein and Südwest. The league was made up of 18 clubs, with six each from the three regions it covered. It was formed alongside three other Regionalligas, the Regionalliga Nord, Nordost and Süd.

The founding members were:

From the 2. Bundesliga:

• Rot-Weiß Essen (Oberliga Nordrhein region)

From the Oberliga Westfalen:

• Arminia Bielefeld
• SC Verl
• TuS Paderborn-Neuhaus
• SpVgg Erkenschwick
• SG Wattenscheid 09 II
• Preußen Münster

From the Oberliga Nordrhein:

• Wuppertaler SV
• Alemannia Aachen
• Bonner SC
• Preußen Köln
• 1. FC Bocholt

From the Oberliga Südwest:

• FSV Salmrohr
• SV Eintracht Trier 05
• Borussia Neunkirchen
• SC Hauenstein
• SV Edenkoben
• VfB Wissen

The number of teams in the league varied, starting its first season (1995) with 18, then 19 (1996), 18 (1997, 1998), 17 (1999), and 20 (2000).

The league winner was always promoted to the 2. Bundesliga; the runners up were also promoted in two of the seasons. The regulation on which of the runners-up of the four Regionalligas went up meant that promotion was allocated in an alternating way. After 1995, it gave the runners-up a chance to gain promotion too via a play-off.

In its final season (2000), Regionalliagas were reduced from four to two. With the exception of the Sportfreunde Siegen, clubs from Nordrhein-Westfalen went to the Regionalliga Nord. The clubs from Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland went to the Regionalliga Süd.

In 2008, the number of Regionalligas will be expanded from two to three and there will be a new Regionalliga West which will cover exactly the area the old Regionalliga West/Südwest did, but will then be the fourth tier of German football.

Disbanding of the Regionalliga West/Südwest

When the league was discontinued in 2000, the first two clubs in the league went to the 2. Bundesliga, clubs placed third to twelfth moved to the two remaining Regionalligas, seven to the north and three to the south. The other eight league teams were relegated down to the Oberligas.

To the Regionalliga Nord:

• SG Wattenscheid 09
• Fortuna Düsseldorf
• Rot-Weiß Essen
• SC Preußen Münster
• SC Verl
• Borussia Dortmund II
• KFC Uerdingen 05

To the Regionalliga Süd:

• Sportfreunde Siegen
• SV Eintracht Trier 05
• SV Elversberg

The Sportfreunde Siegen were the oddity in this distribution, being from the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen which had all its clubs in the northern group except the Sportfreunde. The reason for this was that Siegen is in the far south of the state.

Winners and runners-up of the Regionalliga West/Südwest

Season	Winner	Runner-Up
1994–95	Arminia Bielefeld	SC Verl
1995–96	FC Gütersloh	Rot-Weiß Essen
1996–97	SG Wattenscheid 09	Rot-Weiß Oberhausen
1997–98	Rot-Weiß Oberhausen	Sportfreunde Siegen
1998–99	Alemannia Aachen	SV Eintracht Trier 05
1999–2000	1. FC Saarbrücken	LR Ahlen

Source:"Regionalliga West/Südwest". Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv. Retrieved 19 March 2008.

• All league winners promoted.
• In 1996 and 2000, Rot-Weiß Essen and LR Ahlen were also promoted as runners-up.

Placings in the Regionalliga West/Südwest

The following clubs have played in the league and achieved the following final positions:

Club	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Arminia Bielefeld	1	2B	B	B	2B	B
Rot-Weiß Oberhausen		8	2	1	2B	2B
Alemannia Aachen	6	6	11	7	1	2B
1. FC Saarbrücken	2B	7	3	4	5	1
LR Ahlen			4	6	6	2
Sportfreunde Siegen				2	3	3
SG Wattenscheid 09	2B	2B	1	2B	2B	4
SV Eintracht Trier 05	7	15	9	5	2	5
Fortuna Düsseldorf	2B	B	B	2B	2B	6
Rot-Weiß Essen	4	2	2B	17		7
SC Preußen Münster	10	9	5	8	4	8
SC Verl	2	10	7	10	10	9
Borussia Dortmund II					14	10
KFC Uerdingen 05	B	B	2B	2B	2B	11
SV Elversberg			18		12	12
TuS Paderborn-Neuhaus/SC Paderborn 07	9	5	10	9	7	13
1. FC Kaiserslautern II		16		11	11	14
VfL Bochum II						15
Bayer 04 Leverkusen II					9	16
FK Pirmasens						17
SC Idar-Oberstein						18
FSV Salmrohr	3	13	14	14	15	19
FC Gütersloh		1	2B	2B	2B	20
Wuppertaler SV	5	4	6	12	8
FC 08 Homburg	2B	3	8	3	13
SpVgg Erkenschwick	11	11	13	15	16
FC Remscheid			15	13	17
Bonner SC	12	19		16
Germania Teveren			12	18
SC Hauenstein	15	14	16
1. FC Bocholt	13	12	17
SG Wattenscheid 09 II	14	17
Borussia Neunkirchen	8	18
Preußen Köln	16
SV Edenkoben	17
VfB Wissen	18

Source:"Regionalliga West/Südwest". Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv. Retrieved 8 December 2007.

Key

Symbol	Key
B	Bundesliga
2B	2. Bundesliga
3L	3. Liga
1	League champions
Place	League
Blank	Played at a league level below this league
RL	Played in one of the other Regionalligas

Notes

• In 1997, TuS Paderborn-Neuhaus was renamed SC Paderborn 07.
• In 1999, Wuppertaler SV and FC Homburg were relegated for financial reasons.

References

Sources

• Deutschlands Fußball in Zahlen [An annual publication with tables and results from the Bundesliga to Verbandsliga/Landesliga] (in German). DSFS.
• kicker Almanach [The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937] (in German). kicker Sports Magazine.
• Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005 [History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables] (in German). DSFS. 2006.

External links

• Das deutsche Fußball Archiv (in German)
• Regionalligas at Fussballdaten.de(in German)