Rehhagel’s beginnings in Saarbrücken
©TM/IMAGO
The transfer market database has gained another milestone. The Regionalliga Südwest is now entered into the database for the 1973/74 season – and is therefore historically complete. Borussia Neunkirchen became champions of that season, closely followed by 1. FC Saarbrücken. Gerd Klier was the top scorer with 26 goals for 1. FSV Mainz 05.
With the last season of the Regionalliga Südwest from 1963 to 1974, all lineups and goals are now available in the database. It was the predecessor of the 2nd Bundesliga, which was launched in 1974 with two tracks – divided into north and south. The first six from the last RL season and FK Pirmasens (8th place) were promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga South, but not just because of their performance in the season. The participants in the 2nd league were determined using a complicated points system. Influencing factors such as rankings in the previous five seasons and economic conditions were considered.
Despite the supposedly short period of eleven seasons, the Regionalliga Südwest produced some prominent names. Bielefeld legend Wolfgang Kneib (then Mainz), Walter Frosch (St. Pauli, then Alsenborn) and Peter Hermann (TuS Neuendorf and later assistant coach of Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, among others) celebrated their debut on the player side. Greats like Aki Schmidt (FK Pirmasens), Adi Preißler (Borussia Neunkirchen) and Otto Rehhagel, who made his coaching debut for Saarbrücken in the 1972/73 season, sat on the coaching benches.
Have you noticed any errors in the match reports? Are we still missing one or two pieces of information? As a registered user, you can submit corrections to the corresponding match reports yourself and thus have a direct influence on the quality of the database. You can find short instructions for data maintenance here.
