The 1972–73 Regionalliga was the tenth season of the Regionalliga, the second tier of the

German football league system The German football league system, or league pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Germany that in the 2016–17 season consisted of 2,235 leagues in up to 13 levels having 31,645 teams ...

. The league operated in five regional divisions,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

, South,

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. The five league champions and all five runners-up, at the end of the season, entered a promotion play-off to determine the two clubs to move up to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

for the next season. Both promotion spots went to the Regionalliga West with Rot-Weiß Essen and

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until a ...

promoted.

Regionalliga Nord

The 1972–73 season saw two new clubs in the league,

VfB Oldenburg VfB Oldenburg is a German association football club based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. In the 2022–23 season, they play in the 3. Liga, the third level of football in Germany. History Founded by a group of high school boys as ''FC 1897 Ol ...

and SV Meppen, both promoted from the Amateurliga, while no club had been relegated from the Bundesliga to the league.

Regionalliga Berlin

The 1972–73 season saw two new clubs in the league, BFC Preussen and Rot-Weiß Neukölln, both promoted from the

Amateurliga Berlin The Amateur-Oberliga Berlin was the second tier of the German football league system in the city of West Berlin in Germany from 1947 until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, operating under the name of Amateurliga Berlin. After 1963, it was ...

, while no club had been relegated from the Bundesliga to the league. The league played a home-and-away round, after which it was split into a championship and relegation round. Former Bundesliga club

Tasmania 1900 Berlin SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin was a German football club based in the Berlin district of Neukölln. History The club was founded as ''Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900'' on 2 June 1900. It is believed the founders of the club were about to migrate t ...

became insolvent at the end of the 1972–73 season and folded.

Regionalliga West

The 1972–73 season saw four new clubs in the league,

1. FC Mülheim FC Mülheim is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Mülheim an der Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia. History ''Spielvereinigung Oberhausen und Styrum'' was established through the union of a number of local sports clubs ...

and

Sportfreunde Siegen Sportfreunde Siegen is a German association football club based in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia. After going through insolvency in 2008, the first team was forcibly relegated to the fifth-tier NRW-Liga. Promotion to fourth division Regionallig ...

, both promoted from the Verbandsliga, while Arminia Bielefeld, as part of the Bundesliga scandal, and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

had been relegated from the Bundesliga to the league. Eintracht Gelsenkirchen merged at the end of the 1972–73 season with STV Horst-Emscher to form Eintracht Gelsenkirchen-Horst.

Regionalliga Südwest

The 1972–73 season saw two new clubs in the league,

VfB Theley VfB Theley is a German association football club from the Theley suburb of the town of Tholey, Saarland. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the second tier 2. Oberliga Südwest in 1958 where it played for five seasons. After the ...

and

Sportfreunde Eisbachtal Eisbachtaler Sportfreunde is a German association football club based in Nentershausen, Rhineland-Palatinate. __TOC__ History Eisbachtaler Sportfreunde were formed in 1966 as a merger of local teams SC Großholbach, TuS Girod-Kleinholbach, ...

, both promoted from the Amateurliga, while no club had been relegated from the Bundesliga to the league.

Regionalliga Süd

The 1972–73 season saw three new clubs in the league, SV Waldhof Mannheim, VfR Oli Bürstadt and

FC Wacker München FC Wacker München is a German association football club of about 200 members based in the Sendling borough of Munich, Bavaria. At their zenith in the 1920s the ''Blue Stars'' twice reached the semi-finals of the German Championship. After Worl ...

, all three promoted from the Amateurliga, while no club had been relegated from the Bundesliga to the league.

Bundesliga promotion round

Group 1

Group 2

References

Sources

* ''30 Jahre Bundesliga'' 30th anniversary special, publisher: '' kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1993 * ''kicker-Almanach 1990'' Yearbook of German football, publisher: ''kicker Sportmagazin'', published: 1989, * ''DSFS Liga-Chronik seit 1945'' publisher: DSFS, published: 2005

External links

Regionalliga on the official DFB website

Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv
Historic German league tables {{DEFAULTSORT:Regionalliga, 1972-73 1972-73 2 Ger