Important promotion games
Ex-BTSV coach wants to return to the 3rd league
May 27, 2026 – 8:17 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
In 2022, Michael Schiele was promoted to the 2nd league with Eintracht Braunschweig. Now the coach is once again aiming for promotion – but one league lower.
After four years in the regional league, the Würzburger Kickers want to return to the 3rd league. In the promotion games against Lok Leipzig there is a former coach from Eintracht Braunschweig particularly in focus.
The separation from Michael Schiele almost six years ago is still considered a serious mistake for the Würzburger Kickers. The promoted team at the time had lost the first two games in the 2nd Bundesliga when the club had already parted ways with its successful coach. Felix Magath, who had recently been introduced as the investor’s senior executive, pulled the ripcord early on.
Schiele achieved promotion with Eintracht Braunschweig
Schiele, who had previously led Würzburg to the 2nd League and later also coached Eintracht Braunschweig to promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga, had to leave in September 2020. After that, the club began to falter, both athletically and structurally. Magath’s involvement in Würzburg also ended after just a few months. Schiele has been back at the Kickers since March – and is now supposed to lead the club back into the 3rd league after four years in the regional league.
“I came to get promoted. That’s my goal,” Schiele told the “Main-Post” before the first leg of the promotion round on Thursday (7 p.m./MagentaSport) at 1. FC Lok Leipzig. “The Würzburger Kickers belong in the 3rd league and the 3rd league also belongs to Würzburg.”
- He is a junior national player: BTSV before transfer of defensive talent from Austria
- It starts in a few days: “Essential factor”: New job for ex-coach Daniel Meyer
Schiele replaced Marc Reitmaier after 23 match days to give the promotion project new impetus. Due to the license withdrawal of SpVgg Unterhaching and the renunciation of promotion by the eventual champions 1. FC Nürnberg II, the Würzburgers were determined early on as Bavaria’s representatives for the promotion games – even though they only ended the season in second place in the table.
Lok Leipzig failed at TSV Havelse in 2025
Lok Leipzig, on the other hand, secured the title in the Northeast Regional League. The Saxons had already failed in the promotion games against SC Verl in 2020 and against TSV Havelse last year. “Of course they have the pressure of having to move up now,” said Schiele about their opponents. “They don’t want to fail twice. On the other hand, this can also give rise to a feeling of ‘now more than ever’.”
