The regional football league in Germany is divided into five seasons. North, northeast, west, southwest and Bavaria. In this highly deficient league, only one thing is harder than survival: promotion. A survey among the 90 clubs in the 4th league shows: Some of the clubs pursue completely different goals.
It was a cloudy late autumn day when DJK Vilzing welcomed FV Illertissen on matchday 18 of the Regionalliga Bayern on November 2nd. A total of 549 stalwarts came to the tranquil Manfred Zollner Stadium. Those who couldn’t find a place in the small stands sat on the damp grass hills around the track and watched the hosts lose 1-0.
The next day, also in the 4th league, but in the West season, MSV Duisburg welcomed Borussia Mönchengladbach’s second representative. The majority of the 15,511 spectators in the large Duisburg Arena cheered the “Zebras” 3-1 victory.
German regional leagues – pure contrasts
Pure opposites. To speak of a heterogeneous situation in the five German regional leagues is undoubtedly a gross understatement. Football worlds are literally opposite each other. Large clubs with all-round professional structures such as the MSV compete on an equal footing against village clubs where the players change in the next room of the club restaurant.
MSV Duisburg – professionals in the 4th league
In between there are a number of secondary representatives of Bundesliga clubs who view the 4th league as a training and injury rehab league. They are the most unpopular opponents: strong teams that attract few fans and don’t actually bring any with them.
After-work footballers play against professionals
For comparison: While amateur club Vilzing, according to its own statement, gets by with an annual budget of around 650,000 euros for its after-work footballers, at MSV Duisburg, whose budget is probably at least five times as high, the office runs professional operations every day. There is also a youth NLZ and the professionals sometimes train twice a day.
DJK Vilzing is in the bottom of the league table at the end of 2024 and is threatened with relegation. And that after being at the top in the previous season. There was even a “threat” of promotion to the 3rd league in the summer. However, the DJK would never have noticed it. “We want to remain an amateur club and have no ambition to get into professional football”said Sepp Beller, the club’s sporting director. Understandable. Vilzing, a part of the district town of Cham in eastern Bavaria, has almost 500 inhabitants.
| RL West | Average spectators per game | |
|---|---|---|
1. MSV Duisburg | 15,359 | |
18. Eintracht Hohkeppel | 319 | |
| RL Southwest | ||
1. Kickers Offenbach | 6,940 | |
18. TSG Hoffenheim II | 221 | |
| RL North | ||
1. SV Meppen | 5,941 | |
18. Holstein Kiel II | 169 | |
| RL Northeast | ||
1. CZ Jena | 7,207 | |
18. SV Eilenburg | 381 | |
| RL Bavaria | ||
1. SpVg Bayreuth | 2,718 | |
18. Greuther Fürth II | 314 |
Bayern’s fourth division teams don’t want to be promoted
The Regionalliga Bayern is the highest of emotions for the club. You don’t want anything more. This is what happens to a large proportion of the 18 clubs in the Bayern League. Vilzing, Illertissen, Hankofen-Hailing, Ansbach, Aubstadt or Buchbach – amateur clubs from the provinces that don’t want to go up.
When Franz Gerber, managing director of FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt, hears something like that, his head throbs. He also competes with his club in the 4th league, but plays in the northeast relay. And it is literally packed with major East German clubs. In addition to Erfurt, Hallesche FC, Lok Leipzig, FSV Zwickau, Carl-Zeiss Jena, Dynamo Berlin, Chemnitzer FC and, and, and… start there.
Hitting and stabbing in the Northeast Regional League
They all play week after week in front of an average of over 5,000 spectators and, like their large fan base, are hoping for nothing other than a quick jump out of the fourth division. This is also the case in the regional leagues West (with MSV Duisburg, RW Oberhausen, Fortuna Köln, Wuppertaler SV and KFC Uerdingen) and Southwest (Kickers Offenbach, Stuttgarter Kickers, Hessen Kassel, FSV Frankfurt, Eintracht Trier).
RW Erfurt – just out of the 4th league…
The flight to the top is also something of a question of existence. Because the 4th league is a highly loss-making business for the clubs. Some of the players train and live like professionals and are paid like them. However, there is no TV money that covers a large part of the club budgets in the 2nd and 3rd league, for example. “No club in the 4th league can survive without external patrons”says Hajo Sommers, President of Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in an interview with sportschau.de.
“The 4th league is a pure one grant business”
Sommers has been doing the whole thing for twelve years – that’s how long his club has been languishing in the unpopular fourth division. “The 4th league is purely a subsidy business. The expenses for the players and the association’s requirements are immense, and there is almost no income.”says the 66-year-old.
| Association | Total budget | Player salaries |
|---|---|---|
RW Oberhausen | 2.4 million | 1.15 million |
FC Gütersloh | 2.0 million | 1.3 million |
SV Meppen | 1.7 million | 1.0 million |
RW Erfurt | 1.2 million | 900,000 |
DJK Vilzing | 650,000 | 400,000 |
SC Wiedenbrück | 300,000 | 210,000 |
Suggested solution: A two-part 3rd league
For Franz Gerber from Erfurt, financing a season season after season is a matter of nerves: “You have sleepless nights. Financing the gaming operations is a feat of strength year after year.”groans the ex-professional, who got fans of St. Pauli, Wuppertal and 1860 Munich in the mood as a goalscorer in the 1970s.
What could a solution look like? Gerber would already initiate a change for the 3rd league: “It would make sense to have a two-part 3rd league, which would mean that clubs like us are represented nationwide and would be more visible in the country.“Under this two-part 3rd league, the league system could, as before, be divided into five regional leagues. This would also be a solution for Sommers – but he also thinks: “The second teams of the professional clubs would have to disappear from the league.”
Sleepless nights among the club membersresponsible persons
It is an idle question as to how many of the 90 regional league teams are permanently at risk of bankruptcy. Most clubs kept a low profile in the Sportschau survey about their income and expenses. Northern league team VfB Lübeck, who had just managed to avert bankruptcy in the summer, spoke openly. “Sleepless nights is a very good keyword.”says club spokesman Max Lübeck. “It was only because of an impressive amount of solidarity towards our club, which was combined with numerous donations in a variety of ways and from a variety of countries, that we were able to close a liquidity gap and secure our gaming operations.”
VfB Lübeck – narrowly escaped bankruptcy
Felix Koppe from the Northeast league club VfC Plauen expresses the dream of a solid financial foundation as follows: “We know that we would have to spend at least 100,000 euros more to ensure sporting competitiveness and structure. Accordingly, our heads are rattling about how we can obtain financial resources in order to be able to offer these conditions at some point.”
Promotion: Four promoted teams from five leagues
One way out would of course be: promotion to league three. And with that comes 1.3 million euros in TV income. But that’s exactly the problem: only one person can be promoted per season. And that’s not even really true. Of the five regional leagues in Germany, only four teams can ultimately make it to the 3rd league.
The promotion regulation is tough: Since the 2020/21 season, the West and Southwest regional leagues have each had a permanent direct promotion team. Another direct promotion place will be awarded according to a rotation principle between the North, Northeast and Bavaria regional leagues. The representatives of the two remaining regional leagues determine the fourth promoted team in playoffs with a return leg. A regulation that actually causes all the clubs involved to shake their heads.