 | |
| Organising body | Western German Football Association |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2008 |
| Country | Germany |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Number of clubs | 18 |
| Level on pyramid | Level 4 |
| Promotion to | 3. Liga |
| Relegation to | Oberliga Niederrhein Oberliga Mittelrhein Oberliga Westfalen |
| Domestic cups | |
| Current champions | MSV Duisburg (2024–25 Regionalliga West) |
| Current:2025–26 Regionalliga West | |
TheRegionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by theWestern German Football Association based inDuisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western German state association, the Regionalliga is currently a level 4 division of theGerman football league system. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with theRegionalliga Bayern,Regionalliga Nordost,Regionalliga Nord and theRegionalliga Südwest.
The league came into existence in August 2008 and was formed from the fiveRegionalliga clubs in its region which did not achieve admittance to the new3rd Liga and thirteenOberliga clubs. The number of clubs in the new league was set at eighteen. Along with the formation of this league there was a merger of theOberligas below it, withNordrhein andWestfalen forming the newNRW-Liga, while theOberliga Südwest remained independent.
With the inception of the new Regionalliga West in 2008, there were now threeRegionalligas which form the fourth tier of the German football league system, these were:
The league covered the same region, as the now defunctRegionalliga West/Südwest did from 1994 to 2000. It also shares its name with the "old"Regionalliga West, which operated from 1963 to 1974, but this league only covered the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In 2008–09, withBV Cloppenburg, it included a club fromLower Saxony, while in 2009–10, withWaldhof Mannheim, a club fromBaden-Württemberg played in the league. This moving-around of clubs was done to balance out the threeRegionalligas in numbers. In 2010–11, in turn,Wormatia Worms, a club nominally belonging to the West, played in the South.[1]
In its first season, the league was won by the reserve team ofBorussia Dortmund, which finished three points ahead of the reserve side of the1. FC Kaiserslautern. The best non-reserve side in the league was thePreußen Münster, finishing fourth, 15 points clear of the champion. At the bottom of the table,1. FC Kleve andBV Cloppenburg suffered relegation, while 16th placedWormatia Worms was spared becauseFSV Oggersheim, in 12th place, did not apply for a licence for the next season.[2] The league had an average number of 1,372 spectators by game, withRot-Weiss Essen with 7,077 per game by far the best supported club in the league. Second in this ranking was Preußen Münster with 3,649 spectators per game while the reserve side ofBayer Leverkusen came last in this ranking, attracting only 247 spectators per home game.[3]
Sascha Mölders of Rot-Weiss Essen was by far the best scorer in the league scoring 28 times during the season, nine times more than the second-best,Christopher Kullmann.[4]
The reserve team ofFortuna Düsseldorf,1. FC Saarbrücken andBonner SC were promoted to the league for the following season, whileWaldhof Mannheim crossed over from the southern division to the west.[5]
The second edition of the competition was won by the 1. FC Saarbrücken, a club freshly promoted from theOberliga who had played in theBundesliga in the past but fallen down the ranks in the league system. 1. FCS beatSportfreunde Lotte by eight points to the top spot. At the bottom end,Eintracht Trier and Wormatia Worms, two clubs from Rhineland-Palatinate, were in 17th and 18th spot with a clear gap to a non-relegation rank, while 16th placedBorussia Mönchengladbach reserves was on equal points with no less than four other clubs. All three however were spared from relegation.[5]
The top goal scorers in the second season of the league were Ercan Aydogmus and Christian Knappmann, having both scored 16 goals each.[6]
At the end of the 2009–10 season, Rot-Weiss Essen, Waldhof Mannheim and Bonner SC were all refused aRegionalliga licence and relegated. This meant, the three last-placed teams in the league that season were after all reprieved and not relegated.[5] For Rot-Weiss Essen this was especially bitter, having been the best-supported club in the league for the second year running, with 5,955 spectators per home game. The gap to the second best supported team however, the 1. FC Saarbrücken, was not as wide as in the previous year, Saarbrücken attracting 4,796 spectators a game. Bayer Leverkusen II was once more the least-best supported team but managed to raise its average to 401 spectators by game. Overall, support for the league in its second yearwent up.[7]
The teams promoted from theOberliga at the end of the season wereFC 08 Homburg,SC Wiedenbrück and the reserves ofArminia Bielefeld. The reserves of Borussia Dortmund, 2009 champions, and theWuppertaler SV were relegated from the3rd Liga to theRegionalliga. Wormatia Worms had left the league for the southern division to avoid an uneven number of teams between the three Regionalligas after two of the three 3rd Liga outgoers had been from the west.
The 2010–11 season saw the league feature thirteen clubs from North Rhine-Westphalia, of which eight are from Westphalia. Of the other five, two were from the Saarland while the remaining three were from Rhineland-Palatinate. Unlike the previous two seasons, no club from outside those three states competes in the league this year.[8]
It also featured a record ten reserve teams, leaving only eight first teams in the league.[8]
The league was won byPreußen Münster, who finished with a ten-point gap to second-placedEintracht Trier.
In October 2010, another reform of theRegionalligas was decided upon. The number of leagues was now expanded to five, with the Regionalliga West losing clubs from the Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. The new system came into operation with the start of the 2012–13 season. It was also decided to limit the number of reserve teams perRegionalliga to seven. The later however is planned to be achieved through the shifting of clubs between leagues rather than restricting the overall number of reserve teams.[9]
As four teams were relegated from the 3rd Liga starting at the end of the 2018–19 season, the Regionalliga West champions, along with their counterparts from the Nordost and Südwest, were promoted directly to the 3rd Liga. The West was chosen by a draw. The remaining two champions also determined by the same draw, from the Regionalliga Nord and Bayern, played a two-legged promotion play-off for the last promotion spot.[10] In 2020, the three direct promotion spots will go to the Südwest champions and the champions of the two leagues that participated in the promotion play-off in the previous season, while the Nordost and West champions participate in the play-off. This format was initially installed as a temporary solution until theDFB-Bundestag in September 2019 decided on a format that could have enabled all Regionalliga champions to be promoted.[11] On that date, the Bundestag delegates voted to grant the Südwest and West champions two direct promotions indefinitely starting in 2021. A third direct promotion place will be assigned according to a rotation principle among the Regionalliga Nord, Nordost and Bavarian champions. The representatives from the remaining two Regionalligen will determine the fourth promoted club in two-legged playoffs.[12]
At the end of March 2023, theWestern German Football Association (WDFV) confirmed the Regionalliga West's status as a professional league for the first time with regard to the 2023–24 season's licensing procedure. North Rhine-Westphalia had already classified the league as such in the 2020–21 season to enable the "numerous professional footballers" to continue practicing their profession. At that time, for example, the game operations in the four remaining regional leagues had been stopped prematurely.[13]
The Regionalliga West was formed in 2008 with 18 clubs, five from the two Regionalligas (III), four each from the Oberligas Südwest, Nordrhein and Westfalen (IV) and one from the Oberliga Nord (IV).
The founding members were:
From theRegionalliga Nord:
From theRegionalliga Süd:
From theOberliga Nordrhein:
From theOberliga Westfalen:
From theOberliga Südwest:
From theOberliga Nord:
The winners and runners-up of the league are:
| Season | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| 2008–09 | Borussia Dortmund II | 1. FC Kaiserslautern II |
| 2009–10 | 1. FC Saarbrücken | Sportfreunde Lotte |
| 2010–11 | Preußen Münster | Eintracht Trier |
| 2011–12 | Borussia Dortmund II | Sportfreunde Lotte |
| 2012–13 | Sportfreunde Lotte | Fortuna Köln |
| 2013–14 | Fortuna Köln | Sportfreunde Lotte |
| 2014–15 | Borussia Mönchengladbach II | Alemannia Aachen |
| 2015–16 | Sportfreunde Lotte | Borussia Mönchengladbach II |
| 2016–17 | Viktoria Köln | Borussia Dortmund II |
| 2017–18 | KFC Uerdingen 05 | Viktoria Köln |
| 2018–19 | Viktoria Köln | Rot-Weiß Oberhausen |
| 2019–20 | SV Rödinghausen | SC Verl |
| 2020–21 | Borussia Dortmund II | Rot-Weiss Essen |
| 2021–22 | Rot-Weiss Essen | Preußen Münster |
| 2022–23 | Preußen Münster | Wuppertaler SV |
| 2023–24 | Alemannia Aachen | 1. FC Bocholt |
| 2024–25 | MSV Duisburg | FC Gütersloh |
The top goal scorers and spectator statistics for the league are:
| Season | Overall Spectators | Per game | Best supported Club | Spectators /game | Top goal scorer | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008–09 | 419,871[3] | 1,372 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 7,077 | Sascha Mölders(RWE)[4] | 28 |
| 2009–10 | 510,663[7] | 1,669 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 5,955 | Ercan Aydogmus(BSC) Christian Knappmann(SCV)[6] | 16 |
| 2010–11 | 305,890[14] | 1,000 | Preußen Münster | 5,640 | Robert Mainka(SCW)[15] | 18 |
| 2011–12 | 381,689[16] | 1,116 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 6,814 | Christian Knappmann(WSV)[17] | 30 |
| 2012–13 | 455,207[18] | 1,198 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 8,008 | Sven Michel(SFS,BMG)[19] | 20 |
| 2013–14 | 561,169[20] | 1,641 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 7,864 | Aziz Bouhaddouz(BLII)[21] | 24 |
| 2014–15 | 587,606[22] | 1,920 | Alemannia Aachen | 10,724 | Jesse Weißenfels(LOT)[23] | 20 |
| 2015–16 | 521,017[24] | 1,523 | Alemannia Aachen | 7,951 | Marlon Ritter(BMG)[25] | 23 |
| 2016–17 | 555,671[26] | 1,816 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 7,865 | Mike Wunderlich(VIK)[27] | 29 |
| 2017–18 | 502,319[28] | 1,642 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 6,833 | Marius Bülter(SVR) Christopher Kramer(WSV)[29] | 20 |
| 2018–19 | 474,402[30] | 1,550 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 7,259 | Simon Engelmann(SVR)[31] | 19 |
| 2019–20 | 409,252[32] | 1,819 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 10,945 | Simon Engelmann(SVR)[33] | 26 |
| League record |
Final league positions for clubs from the region currently covered by the league:
Final league positions for clubs from the regions formerly covered by the league:
| Club | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waldhof Mannheim | 14a | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | 3L | 3L | 3L | |||
| 1. FC Saarbrücken | 1 | 3L | 3L | 3L | 3L | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | 3L | 3L | |
| Mainz 05 II | 5 | 15 | 13 | 12 | RL | RL | 3L | 3L | 3L | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL |
| SV Elversberg | 11 | 7 | 12 | 13 | RL | 3L | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL |
| FC 08 Homburg | 17 | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | ||||
| Wormatia Worms | 16 | 17a | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | |||
| TuS Koblenz | 2B | 2B | 3L | 17 | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | |||||
| Eintracht Trier | 13 | 18a | 2 | 4 | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | |||||
| 1. FC Kaiserslautern II | 2 | 8 | 4 | 9 | RL | RL | RL | RL | RL | |||||
| BV Cloppenburg | 17 | RL | RL | RL | RL | |||||||||
| SC Idar-Oberstein | 16 | RL | ||||||||||||
| FSV Oggersheim | 12k |
| Symbol | Key |
|---|---|
| B | Bundesliga |
| 2B | 2. Bundesliga |
| 3L | 3. Liga |
| 1 | League champions |
| Place | League |
| Blank | Played at a league level below this league |
| RL | Played in one of the other Regionalligas |