The Denmark Series (, abbreviated DS) is the fifth tier of the Danish football league system and the highest level of amateur football for men in Denmark. It is administered by the tournament committee of the Danish Football Association (DBU) and is contested by 40 clubs in four regionally allocated groups of ten.
The competition was established in 1965 and first played in 1966, replacing the Qualification Tournament (), colloquially known as the fourth division, which had been contested since 1946. It began as the fourth tier of the Danish pyramid, was briefly the fifth between 1998 and 2000, and has been the fifth again since the 3rd Division was created in 2021. Alongside first teams it admits the reserve sides of clubs in the Superliga, the 1st Division and the 2nd Division, a provision that distinguished it from its predecessor and that at its height accounted for almost half the participating teams.
From its foundation until 2000–01 the group winners contested a knockout play-off for a national Denmark Series championship, the winner receiving a challenge trophy put up by the DBU. Vejle's reserve side won the first edition in 1966 and Næsby the last in 2001, after which the overall title was discontinued.
History Qualification Tournament (1946–65) After the German occupation ended, travel conditions for clubs gradually normalised and the DBU resumed the Danish football championship from 1945–46 with three nationwide divisions. The Qualification Cup ( was introduced in 1946, in which the winners of the regional associations' top competitions played for promotion to the following season's 3rd Division. The first editions were played on a cup basis over three rounds, before a single round-robin of six matches between seven regional winners was adopted in 1950–51.
From 1959 the tournament, popularly called the fourth division, was expanded to twelve clubs playing 22 matches across a full calendar year. It comprised two clubs relegated from the 3rd Division, three retained from the previous season and the seven best-placed sides from the regional associations. The two leading clubs went up automatically, the seven lowest returned to their regional competitions and the remaining three stayed on. It was played for the last time in 1965, when a restructuring of the fourth level abolished it in favour of the new Denmark Series.
Establishment (1966) The new calendar-year competition began in 1966 with four groups of twelve clubs playing 22 matches each, from spring to autumn within the same year. The groups were allocated on geographical criteria by the DBU and placed between the 3rd Division and the regional series administered by the DBU's local associations.
Accommodating so many participating clubs required relegation from both the 3rd Division and the Qualification Tournament to be suspended. The seven lowest-placed clubs in the 1965 Qualification Tournament qualified automatically for the inaugural season and the remaining 41 were drawn up from the regional associations' top competitions. Six clubs were taken from the Zealand Series, and a comparable number from each of the other associations, which in turn meant that relegation from the regional series was suspended for 1965.
Unlike the Qualification Tournament, the Denmark Series admitted from the outset the reserve sides of clubs in the national divisions, which had previously been unable to win promotion out of the regional leagues. Nineteen reserve teams took part in the first season and three of the four groups were won by one. At a meeting of the Denmark Series committee on 19 November 1966 it was agreed to standardise the rules across all four groups, so that from the second season the differing regional provisions on moving players between a club's first and reserve teams no longer applied.
The Denmark Series championship Each group winner qualified automatically for a play-off, in which two semi-finals decided the participants in a final for the Danish championship for Denmark Series clubs. Semi-finals were normally scheduled for the two weeks immediately after the season ended. The late point in the year brought a heightened risk of snow, and several ties were postponed by up to a number of weeks. Finals were played at the ground of one of the two clubs, without regard to home advantage.
The winner received a challenge trophy put up by the DBU, which could not be won outright, and gained the right to style itself winner of the Denmark Series for men. All play-off participants received seventeen sets of the DBU's Denmark Series medals. The title was discontinued after the 2000–01 play-off.
Changes of format The four groups of twelve held until 1986, when group sizes varied between twelve and fourteen, and from 1987 all four groups contained fourteen clubs playing 26 matches. Groups were enlarged again to sixteen clubs and 30 matches in 1991.
The transition to an autumn-to-spring calendar was made in two stages. A half-season was played in spring 1995, in which no championship was decided; because reserve teams could not go up, the four promotion places went to Lillerød IF, Roskilde B 1906, Nykøbing Falster Alliancen and Aarhus Fremad rather than to all four group winners. A second half-season was played in spring 2000, after which the competition ran from August to May with a winter break of around five months.
Between the spring of 1998 and the spring of 2000 the Denmark Series was the fifth tier rather than the fourth, following the introduction of the Qualification League between the divisions and the regional series. It returned to the fourth level thereafter.
The number of groups then fluctuated for two decades. It fell to three of sixteen clubs in 2000–01, to two in 2005–06, returned to three of fourteen in 2008–09, and was set at four groups of ten from 2016–17, the structure still in use.
The share of reserve teams declined sharply over the same period. They made up 48% of the field in 1986 and 46.9% as late as 2007–08, but only 7.1% by 2014–15. Among the more unusual cases, KB was compulsorily relegated into the 1992 Denmark Series by the DBU after the first half of the 1991 1st Division season, as a consequence of the elite partnership being formed with B 1903; it became formally the reserve side of Copenhagen only when that partnership was established on 1 July 1992.
Since 2021 The creation of the 3rd Division in 2021–22 moved the Denmark Series down to the fifth tier. Four clubs went up in the first season under the new arrangement, and from the following season the DBU settled on three promoted and three relegated between the two levels.
The 2020–21 season was played to a one-off structure of four groups of eleven. The top four clubs in groups 1 and 2 contested a play-off for a place in the 2021–22 Danish 2nd Division, as did those in groups 3 and 4, producing one promoted club from the eastern groups and one from the western. Clubs placed fifth to eleventh were gathered into two groups of fourteen in which they met the clubs from the opposite group once, carrying their points and goals with them. Sixteen clubs were relegated, distributed according to the geographical origin of the eight clubs relegated from the 2nd Division.
Format The 40 clubs play a regular season in four groups of ten. The five best-placed clubs in each group then enter a promotion round, those from groups 1 and 2 forming an eastern group and those from groups 3 and 4 a western one. Clubs carry their points, goals and any disciplinary points across from the regular season.
The best-placed promotion-eligible club in each promotion group goes up to the 3rd Division. The second-best-placed eligible club in each plays the other over two legs for the third and final place, decided under UEFA competition rules. Reserve teams may not be promoted to a point within two levels of their first team, so the place passes down the table where necessary.
The remaining clubs contest a relegation round. The number relegated to the Copenhagen Series, Zealand Series, Lolland-Falster Series, Funen Series or Jutland Series varies from season to season, depending on how many clubs come down from the 3rd Division and on where those clubs are based, and each club drops into the competition of the regional association it belongs to.
Clubs in the Denmark Series enter the Danish Cup.
Champions and group winners 1966 to 2020–21 Reserve teams are marked II. The championship play-off was contested from 1966 to 2000–01 only. Season Champions Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 1966 Vejle II BK Rødovre KB II Esbjerg fB II Vejle II 1967 KB II BK Hero KB II Aabenraa BK AaB II 1968 KB II Rønne IK KB II Svendborg fB Esbjerg fB II 1969 Not recorded Kastrup Herfølge Vejen SF AaB II 1970 Holstebro Brønshøj II Kalundborg GF&BK B.1901 II Holstebro 1971 IF 32 Glostrup B.93 II IF 32 Glostrup Vejle II AGF II 1972 Glostrup IC BK Dalgas Glostrup IC Vejle II Hjørring IF 1973 Ballerup IF BK Hero Ballerup IF Maribo BK Viborg FF 1974 Kolding IF Fremad Amager II Brøndby Kolding IF IK Skovbakken 1975 Vejle II BK Rødovre Roskilde B 1906 Vejle II AIA-Tranbjerg 1976 Vejle II Fremad Amager II IF 32 Glostrup Kolding IF Vejle II 1977 Jyderup SG&IF B 1903 II Jyderup SG&IF Skamby BK Vejle II 1978 Nørresundby Fremad Valby Ballerup IF Odense KFUM Nørresundby 1979 OB II BK Hero Hvidovre IF II OB II Hjørring IF 1980 Horsens fS Brønshøj II IF Skjold Birkerød Aabenraa BK Horsens fS 1981 B 1903 II B 1903 II Lyngby II Esbjerg fB II Hjørring IF 1982 B 1913 Brønshøj II Skovlunde IF B 1913 Silkeborg 1983 AGF II B 1908 Greve Næsby AGF II 1984 Ikast FS II B.93 II Brøndby II Vordingborg IF Ikast FS II 1985 AGF II B.93 II Brøndby II Odense KFUM AGF II 1986 Albertslund IF Brønshøj II Albertslund IF Vejle II Silkeborg II 1987 AGF II Skovshoved IF Lyngby II Vejle II AGF II 1988 B 1903 II B 1903 II KB II OB II Asaa BK 1989 B 1903 II Lyngby II B 1903 II B 1909 II Holstebro 1990 BK Frem II Hellerup IK BK Frem II Vejle II Silkeborg II 1991 BK Frem II Hvidovre IF BK Frem II FC Fredericia AaB II 1992 Silkeborg II Skovshoved IF BK Frem II Haderslev FK Silkeborg II 1993 IF 32 Glostrup IF 32 Glostrup Brøndby II Varde IF Silkeborg II 1994 Brøndby II Skovshoved IF Brøndby II B 1909 Silkeborg II spring 1995 Not contested Lillerød IF Roskilde B 1906 Vejle II Ikast FS II autumn 1995 Brøndby II B 1908 Brøndby II Vejle II AGF II 1996 Brøndby II Skovshoved IF Brøndby II Vejle II AaB II 1997 Brøndby II Herlev IF Brøndby II Næsby Ikast FS II 1998 IF Skjold Birkerød IF Skjold Birkerød Brøndby II Kolding IF Silkeborg II 1999 Lyngby II Virum-Sorgenfri BK Lyngby II Korup IF Frederikshavn fI spring 2000 Ikast FS II Brøndby II KB II Vejle II Ikast FS II 2000–01 Næsby BK Skjold Kalundborg GF&BK Næsby None 2001–02 Discontinued Nykøbing Falster Alliancen Slagelse BK&IF Silkeborg II None 2002–03 Lyngby Esbjerg fB II Brabrand IF None 2003–04 Værløse BK Esbjerg fB II Silkeborg II None 2004–05 KB II Brøndby II Silkeborg II None 2005–06 Greve Skive None None 2006–07 Vanløse AaB II None None 2007–08 Avarta Randers Freja None None 2008–09 B 1908 Otterup B&IK Silkeborg II None 2009–10 Elite 3000 Middelfart G&BK Horsens fS II None 2010–11 IF Skjold Birkerød Marienlyst Kjellerup None 2011–12 BK Frem Middelfart G&BK FC Skanderborg None 2012–13 B.93 SC Egedal Kolding IF None 2013–14 Avedøre IF Kolding IF Kjellerup None 2014–15 AB Tårnby Dalum IF Aarhus Fremad None 2015–16 Fredensborg BI FC Sydvest Kjellerup None 2016–17 Hillerød Skovshoved Ringkøbing Lyseng 2017–18 Slagelse B&I Vanløse Tarup-Paarup Vejgaard 2018–19 Holbæk B&I FA 2000 Næsby VSK Aarhus 2019–20 Holstebro Roskilde KFUM SfB-Oure FA AB Tårnby 2020–21 Karlslunde IF Herlev IF Marienlyst Lyseng
Promoted clubs since 2021–22 The introduction of promotion and relegation rounds from 2021–22 means the competition no longer produces group winners in the earlier sense.