Bayer 04 Leverkusen II was the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

of German football club

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

. Until 2005, the team played as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Amateure. The team has qualified for the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

, the German Cup, on eight occasions, but never advanced beyond the first round. Before being withdrawn from competition at the end of the 2013–14 season the team played in the tier four

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

History

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Amateure first entered the highest football league in the Middle Rhine region, the

Verbandsliga Mittelrhein The Mittelrheinliga ( en, Middle Rhine League), sometimes also referred to as Oberliga Mittelrhein after its elevation to Oberliga status in 2012, is a German amateur football division administered by the Football association of the Middle Rhine, ...

, in 1978 and won the league in its fourth season there, in 1981. The team spent the next seventeen seasons in the tier-three

Oberliga Nordrhein The Oberliga Nordrhein was the highest Football League in the region of Nordrhein which is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 2008. In its last season, it was one of nine Oberligas in German football, the 4th tier of the Ge ...

, gradually improving its results. In 1994 the

Regionalliga The Regionalliga () is the fourth tier in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier in Germany. In 1994, it was introduced as the third tier. Upon the creation of the new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it became the four ...

was established as the new third tier of German football and the team won promotion to this level after an Oberliga championship in 1998.Historic German football league tables
Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv, accessed: 30 January 2015 Bayer Leverkusen Amateure became a

yo-yo A yo-yo (also spelled yoyo) is a toy consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a string looped around the axle, similar to a spool. It is an ancient toy with proof of existence since 500 BCE. The yo-yo was also called a bandalore in ...

team between the Regionalliga and Oberliga, winning promotion to the former in 1998, 2001 and 2005 but suffering relegation again each time, in 2000, 2003 and 2007. It became a more permanent member of the Regionalliga when the Oberliga Nordrhein was disbanded in 2008 and the Regionalliga West established, with the team entering the latter league. The team spent its last six seasons from 2008 to 2014 in the tier-four

, where its best result was an eighth place in its last season there. The team also qualified for the DFB-Pokal eight times, in 1981–82, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2000–01, 2003–04 and 2007–08, but never advanced past the first round. In 2014 a change in the regulations by the

Deutsche Fußball Liga The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH, or simply Deutsche Fußball Liga ("German Football League"), and often shortened to DFL, is a wholly owned subsidiary of ''Die Liga – Fußballverband''. The DFL is responsible for entire operating business o ...

regarding reserve teams meant that such sides, in the form of under-23 teams, were not compulsory anymore for Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga clubs. Following this change, some reserve teams were withdrawn from competition, among them

Eintracht Frankfurt II Eintracht Frankfurt II is the reserve team of Eintracht Frankfurt. Formerly known as ''Eintracht Frankfurt Amateure'' (Amateurs) until 2005 the team played as U23 (Under 23) to emphasize the character of the team as a link between youth academy a ...

FSV Frankfurt II The FSV Frankfurt II was a Football in Germany, German Association football, association football club from the town of Frankfurt, Hesse. It was the German reserve football teams, reserve team of FSV Frankfurt. Until 2005 the team played as FSV F ...

and Bayer 04 Leverkusen II. Bayer 04 Leverkusen had requested the change as it did not see much potential for reserve team players in the Regionalliga to break through to the Bundesliga side and wanted to focus on its under-17 and under-19 sides instead and to loan out young players.Regionalliga: Bayer Leverkusen meldet U23-Team ab
''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', published: 23 April 2014, accessed: 30 January 2015

Honours

The team's honours: *

** Champions: (3) 1998, 2001, 2005 ** Runners-up: 2008 *

** Champions: 1981 *

Middle Rhine Cup The Middle Rhine Cup (German: ''Mittelrheinpokal'') is a German football club Cup competition open to teams from the Lower Rhine region of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The competition is one of the 21 regional cup competitions of German fo ...

** Winners: (5) 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2007

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:Fussball.de – Ergebnisse
Tables and results of all German football leagues * With the introduction of the

s in 1994 and the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

in 2008 as the new third tier, below the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

, all leagues below dropped one tier. In 2000 all clubs from the disbanded

Regionalliga West/Südwest The Regionalliga West/Südwest was the third tier of the German football league system in the states of Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz and Nordrhein-Westfalen from 1994 to 2000. Overview The Regionalliga West/Südwest was formed in 1994 to form a r ...

from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

joint the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

, in 2008 these clubs left the league again to join the new

Stadium

The team used to play their home game at Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion, Platz 11, next to the club's main stadium, with a capacity of 3,200.

Players

Squad

References

External links

Official club website

Bayer 04 Leverkusen II at Weltfussball.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leverkusen, Bayer 04 II Bayer 04 Leverkusen North Rhine-Westphalia reserve football teams German reserve football teams Association football clubs disestablished in 2014