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 SeasonWinnerRunner-up1994–95Arminia Bielefeld SC Verl1995–96FC Gütersloh Rot-Weiß Essen1996–97SG Wattenscheid 09 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen1997–98Rot-Weiß Oberhausen Sportfreunde Siegen 1998–99Alemannia Aachen SV Eintracht Trier 051999–20001. FC Saarbrücken LR Ahlen Source: 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 12TuS 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:
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
External links Das deutsche Fußball Archiv Regionalligas at Fussballdaten.de