Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974)

Regionalliga Süd
Founded	1963
Folded	1974 (11 seasons)
Replaced by	2. Bundesliga Süd
Country	West Germany
States	Bavaria; Baden-Württemberg; Hesse;
Level on pyramid	Level 2
Promotion to	Bundesliga
Relegation to	Amateurliga Bayern; Amateurliga Hessen; Amateurliga Nordbaden; Amateurliga Südbaden; Amateurliga Württemberg; Amateurliga Schwarzwald-Bodensee;
Last champions	FC Augsburg ; (1973–74)

The Regionalliga Süd was the second-highest level of the German football league system. It existed in the south of West Germany from 1963 until the formation of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974. It covered the three states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.

Overview

The league started out in 1963 with 20 clubs which were reduced for the next season to 19. From 1965 to 1974, there were always 18 teams in the league, except in 1972 when another season of 19 clubs was played.

It was formed from the eleven clubs of the Oberliga Süd which did not get admitted to the new Bundesliga and from the top nine clubs of the 2. Oberliga Süd. The Regionalliga Süd was as such a continuation of the Oberliga Süd under a different name and a tier lower.

Along with the Regionalliga Süd went another four Regionalligas, these five formed the second tier of German football until 1974:

Regionalliga Nord, covering the states of Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg
Regionalliga West, covering the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen
Regionalliga Berlin, covering West-Berlin
Regionalliga Südwest, covering the states of Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland

The new Regionalligas were formed along the borders of the old post-World War II Oberligas, not after a balanced regional system. Therefore, the Oberligas Berlin and West covered small but populous areas while Nord and Süd covered large areas. Südwest was something of an anachronism, neither large nor populous.

The league contained some big names of German Football, having the FC Bayern Munich, Kickers Offenbach and SpVgg Fürth as its founder members. In later years, clubs like TSV 1860 Munich, 1. FC Nürnberg and Karlsruher SC found themselves relegated to the league. The league posed something of a death trap for the big names of southern German football, as only the FC Bayern Munich and Kickers Offenbach achieved promotion from it. Kickers Offenbach also managed to win the German Cup in 1970, while still a Regionalliga side, the only club to do so.

The FC Schweinfurt 05, SpVgg Fürth, Stuttgarter Kickers, KSV Hessen Kassel, Freiburger FC and FC Bayern Hof all played in the league for the duration of its 11-season existence. Of those six, the Stuttgarter Kickers had the longest unbroken run in the second division, from 1960 to 1988, 28 seasons.

The winners and runners-up of this league were admitted to the promotion play-off to the Bundesliga, which was staged in two groups of originally four, later five teams each with the winner of each group going up.

The bottom three, some years four teams were relegated to the Amateurligas. Below the Regionalliga Süd were the following Amateurligas:

Disbanding of the Regionalliga Süd

The league was dissolved in 1974. According to their performance of the last couple of seasons, 13 clubs of the Regionalliga went to the new 2. Bundesliga Süd. The five remaining clubs were relegated to the Amateurligas.

The teams admitted to the 2. Bundesliga Süd were:

The following teams were relegated to the Amateurligas:

FSV Frankfurt (11th) – Amateurliga Hessen
VfR Bürstadt (14th) – Amateurliga Hessen
Hessen Kassel (16th) – Amateurliga Hessen
Freiburger FC (17th) – Amateurliga Südbaden
Jahn Regensburg (18th) – Amateurliga Bayern

Qualifying to the 2. Bundesliga

From the Regionalliga Süd, 13 clubs qualified for the new 2. Bundesliga Süd, together with seven teams from the Südwest region.

The qualifying modus saw the last five seasons counted, whereby the last placed team in each season received one point, the second-last two points and so on. For a Bundesliga season within this five-year period, a club received 25 points, for an Amateurliga season none.

For the seasons 1969–70 and 70–71, the received points counted single, for the 71–72 and 72–73 season double and for the 73–74 season three times.

To be considered in the points table for the new league, a club had to play either in the Regionalliga Süd in 1973–74 or to have been relegated from the Bundesliga to it for the next season, something which did not apply to the league that year.

The bottom three clubs in the league, nominally the relegated teams in a normal season, were barred from entry to the 2. Bundesliga, regardless of where they stood in the points ranking. This fact saved the FC Augsburg, the last league champion, from relegation, as Hessen Kassel, placed ninth overall but having finished 16th in 1973–74 was barred from promotion, opening the way for FCA.^[1]

Points table:

Rank	Club	Points (1969–1974)	Position in 1973–74
1	1860 Munich	155	3
2	1. FC Nürnberg	138	2
3	Karlsruher SC	134	8
4	Darmstadt 98	110	4
5	FC Bayern Hof	104	9
6	Stuttgarter Kickers	98	6
7	SpVgg Bayreuth	90	5
8	VfR Heilbronn	90	12
9	Hessen Kassel ¹	90	16
10	SpVgg Fürth	85	10
11	FC Schweinfurt 05	68	15
12	Freiburger FC ¹	68	17
13	SV Waldhof Mannheim	61	7
14	FC Augsburg	54	1
15	Jahn Regensburg ¹	53	18
16	VfR Mannheim	28	13
17	VfR Bürstadt	27	14
18	FSV Frankfurt	26	11

Source: DSFS Liga-Chronik (in German), page: C4, accessed: 18 March 2009
Bold teams are promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga.
¹ Barred from gaining access to the 2. Bundesliga due to having finished on a relegation spot.

Re-formation of the Regionalliga Süd

The Regionalliga Süd was reformed in 1994, now as the third tier of the German football league system, again covering the three southern German states of Bayern, Baden-Württemberg and Hessen. In something of a repeat of history, the clubs from the Oberliga Südwest merged into the league in 2000. The Regionalliga Süd now roughly covered the same area as the 2nd Bundesliga Süd did from 1974 to 1981. In 2008, the Südwest clubs will leave the league again and join the new Regionalliga West and the Regionalliga Süd will revert to its coverage of the three original regions, but now as the fourth tier of the league system, below the new 3. Liga.

Winners and runners-up of the Regionalliga Süd

The winners and runners–up of the league were:^[2]

Season	Winners	Runners–up
1963–64	Hessen Kassel	Bayern Munich
1964–65	Bayern Munich	SSV Reutlingen
1965–66	FC Schweinfurt 05	Kickers Offenbach
1966–67	Kickers Offenbach	FC Bayern Hof
1967–68	FC Bayern Hof	Kickers Offenbach
1968–69	Karlsruher SC	Freiburger FC
1969–70	Kickers Offenbach	Karlsruher SC
1970–71	1. FC Nürnberg	Karlsruher SC
1971–72	Kickers Offenbach	FC Bayern Hof
1972–73	Darmstadt 98	Karlsruher SC
1973–74	FC Augsburg	1. FC Nürnberg

Bold denotes team went on to gain promotion to the Bundesliga.
In 1970, Kickers Offenbach won the German Cup as a Regionalliga team, the only one to do so. They are also the only club to have won the league more than once, having done so three times.
In 1974, FC Augsburg won the Regionalliga being freshly promoted from the Amateurliga Bayern.
Of the nine different winners of the Regionalliga Süd from 1964 to 1974, four have done so again in the new Regionalliga Süd: FC Augsburg, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg and, for a record fourth time, Kickers Offenbach in 2005.

Placings in the Regionalliga Süd 1963 to 1974

The league placings from 1963 to 1974:^[3]

Club	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74
Bayern Munich	2	1	B	B	B	B	B	B	B	B	B
Kickers Offenbach	3	3	2	1	2	B	1	B	1	B	B
FC Augsburg											1
1. FC Nürnberg	B	B	B	B	B	B	3	1	9	5	2
1860 Munich	B	B	B	B	B	B	B	4	3	3	3
Darmstadt 98		14	13	14	14	8	18		7	1	4
SpVgg Bayreuth							17		13	4	5
Stuttgarter Kickers	14	7	5	4	4	4	12	10	11	8	6
SV Waldhof Mannheim	11	4	3	11	12	11	20			7	7
Karlsruher SC	B	B	B	B	B	1	2	2	5	2	8
FC Bayern Hof	13	9	9	2	1	3	4	13	2	12	9
SpVgg Fürth	9	8	4	3	7	7	8	7	14	9	10
FSV Frankfurt	16	10	14	13	16		19				11
VfR Heilbronn							14	8	8	6	12
VfR Mannheim	6	6	12	5	6	14	15	16			13
VfR Bürstadt										13	14
FC Schweinfurt 05	7	15	1	10	5	6	5	6	12	14	15
KSV Hessen Kassel	1	5	6	8	8	10	7	3	4	10	16
Freiburger FC	10	11	15	7	9	2	6	9	6	15	17
SSV Jahn Regensburg					15	5	10	5	16	11	18
SpVgg Ludwigsburg									15	16
SSV Reutlingen	5	2	8	6	3	9	11	15	10	17
FC Wacker München		17						19		18
Opel Rüsselsheim			10	12	11	15	13	14	17
FC 08 Villingen				15	10	13	9	12	18
ESV Ingolstadt	12	12	16			12	16	11	19
1. Göppinger SV								17
Viktoria Aschaffenburg								18
VfL Neckarau						16
TSV Schwaben Augsburg	4	16	11	9	13	17
Rot-Weiß Frankfurt						18
TSG Backnang					17
SV Wiesbaden					18
BC Augsburg	19			16
Germania Wiesbaden				17
1. FC Pforzheim	15	13	7	18
SpVgg Weiden			17
VfR Pforzheim			18
TSG Ulm 1846	8	18
FC Emmendingen		19
SpVgg Neu-Isenburg	17
Borussia Fulda	18
Amicitia Viernheim	20

Source:"Regionalliga Süd". Das deutsche Fussball-Archiv. Retrieved 7 January 2008.

Key

Symbol	Key
B	Bundesliga
Place	League
Blank	Played at a league level below this league

Top scorers

The league's top scorers:

Season	Player(s)	Club(s)	Goals
1963–64	Jendrosch	Hessen Kassel	34
1964–65	Rainer Ohlhauser	Bayern Munich	42
1965–66	Mikulasch	ESV Ingolstadt	29
1966–67	Windhausen	SpVgg Fürth	32
1967–68	Breuer	FC Bayern Hof	27
1967–68	Schäffner	VfR Mannheim	27
1968–69	Klier	FC 08 Villingen	23
1969–70	Klier	FC 08 Villingen	22
1970–71	Bründl	Stuttgarter Kickers	21
1971–72	Erwin Kostedde	Kickers Offenbach	27
1972–73	Keller	1860 Munich	26
1973–74	Obermeier	FC Augsburg	25

Source:100 Jahre Süddeutscher Fussball-Verband. Vindelica Verlag. 1997. p. 172.

Records

The league records:

Biggest win	11–0	Kickers Offenbach 11–0 VfR Pforzheim (19 September 1965)^[4]
Most goals in a game	13	Freiburger FC 2–11 Bayern Munich (7 February 1965)^[5]
Season with most goals	1,255 (3,67 per game)	1964–65^[6]
Round with most goals	49 (5,44 per game)	Round 19, 1964–65^[7]

All-time table

The best and worst teams in the all-time table of the league from 1963 to 1974:^[8]

Pos.	Club	Seasons	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	FC Bayern Hof	11	388	183	81	124	761	554	447
2	KSV Hessen Kassel	11	388	166	89	133	733	609	421
3	Stuttgarter Kickers	11	388	164	87	137	709	619	415
4–41	38 clubs
42	FC Emmendingen	1	36	1	2	33	31	159	4

References

^ Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik seit 1945 – History of German league football since 1945 (in German) publisher: DSFS, published: 2006, page: C3 + C4
^ "Kicker Almanach" The Football Yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the kicker Sports Magazine
^ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (in German) Historical German domestic league tables
^ "Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974) .:. Statistik .:. Die höchsten Siege" (in German). Weltfussball.de. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
^ "Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974) .:. Statistik .:. Die torreichsten Spiele" (in German). Weltfussball.de. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
^ "Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974) » Statistik » Tore pro Saison" (in German). Weltfussball.de. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
^ "Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974) » Statistik » Tore pro Spielrunde" (in German). Weltfussball.de. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
^ "Regionalliga Süd (1963–1974) » Ewige Tabelle" (in German). Weltfussball.de. Retrieved 3 December 2015.

Sources

Deutschlands Fußball in Zahlen, (in German) An annual publication with tables and results from the Bundesliga to Verbandsliga/Landesliga, publisher: DSFS
Kicker Almanach, (in German) The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937, published by the Kicker Sports Magazine
Süddeutschlands Fussballgeschichte in Tabellenform 1897–1988 (in German) History of Southern German football in tables, publisher & author: Ludolf Hyll
Die Deutsche Liga-Chronik 1945–2005 (in German) History of German football from 1945 to 2005 in tables, publisher: DSFS, published: 2006