The 1980–81 2. Bundesliga season was the seventh season of 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 ...

, 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 ...

. It was played in two regional divisions, Nord and Süd. This was the final season of the original two region 2. Bundesliga, as the DFB sought to integrate the Nord and Süd divisions into a single division for the next campaign. This meant 22 teams faced the drop to the Oberliga (12 from the Nord, 10 from the Süd). There were three promotion spots to the Bundesliga on offer, while the remaining teams would enter the new single league 2. Bundesliga in the next season.

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

, Eintracht Braunschweig and SV Darmstadt 98 were promoted 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 ...

while twenty two clubs were relegated to the Oberligas.

Nord

The 1980–81 season saw

1. FC Bocholt 1. FC Bocholt is a German association football club based in Bocholt, North Rhine-Westphalia. History The team was founded 21 August 1900 as ''Fußball-Club Bocholt'' and in 1919 was joined by ''VfvB Bocholt'', which had been established in 191 ...

Göttingen 05 Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

SpVgg Erkenschwick SpVgg Erkenschwick is a German football club based in Oer-Erkenschwick in North Rhine-Westphalia. History Founded as ''Sportverein Erkenschwick'' in 1916, they joined ''Emscher-Lippe-Spielverband'' to form ''Sportfreunde Erkenschwick'' in 1 ...

and

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 ...

promoted to the 2. Bundesliga from the Oberligas while Hertha BSC,

and Eintracht Braunschweig had been relegated to the 2. Bundesliga Nord from the Bundesliga.

League table

Results

Top scorers

Süd

The 1980–81 season saw

Borussia Neunkirchen Borussia VfB Neunkirchen is a German association football club based in Neunkirchen, Saarland. The club ''SC Borussia Neunkirchen'' was founded out of the 1907 merger of ''FC 1905 Borussia'' and ''SC Neunkirchen''. History From 1912 through t ...

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

Hessen Kassel KSV Hessen Kassel is a semi-professional German football club based in Kassel, Hesse. KSV competes in the German Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German football. Nicknamed "Die Löwen" (the lions), the club was founded as FC Union 9 ...

and

VfB Eppingen VfB Eppingen is a German association football club based in Eppingen, Baden-Württemberg with a membership of about 450 people. History The club has its roots in the sports club ''Turnverein 1865 Eppingen'' whose primary focus was gymnastics an ...

promoted to the 2. Bundesliga from the Oberligas while no club had been relegated to the 2. Bundesliga Süd from the Bundesliga.

League table

Results

Top scorers

The league's top scorers:

Promotion play-offs

The final place in the Bundesliga was contested between the two runners-up in the Nord and Süd divisions. Eintracht Braunschweig won on aggregate and were promoted to the Bundesliga.

Qualification for single-division 2. Bundesliga

There was a sophisticated system for qualifying for the new single-division 2. Bundesliga. First, the clubs had to meet technical qualification criteria. These stipulated that the stadiums had to accommodate at least 15,000 spectators and had to be equipped with floodlights within a certain period of time. If these requirements were met, sporting criteria would come into play. The non-promoted teams in fourth place and above from the Nord and Süd divisions, along with the three relegated teams from the 1980–81 Bundesliga, automatically qualified. The other participants (teams from 5th to 16th place in the Nord and Süd) were determined by a so-called "placement number" (german: Platzziffer). This was calculated from the positions achieved by teams in the last three seasons. The lower this number was, the better the club was placed. For the 1978–79 season, the table position was multiplied by one, the 1979–80 season by two and the current 1980–81 season by three. Seasons in the Bundesliga were tallied as zero. For Oberliga seasons in which teams did not achieve promotion, 20 points were added, and 16 points for seasons which teams were promoted. It was also important from which region the three relegated teams of the Bundesliga were from, as well as how many teams were promoted from the respective Nord and Süd divisions. At the end, 10 teams from the Nord and Süd divisions had represented in the next season. Teams in 17th and below from the Nord and Süd were relegated, irrespective of their placement number. There was no promotion for teams from the Oberliga going into the single-division season.

References

General references *

External links

2. Bundesliga 1980/1981 Nord at Weltfussball.de

2. Bundesliga 1980/1981 Süd at Weltfussball.de

at ''

kicker.de ''Kicker'' (stylized in all lowercase) is Germany's leading sports magazine, focused primarily on football. The magazine was founded in 1920 by German football pioneer Walther Bensemann and is published twice weekly, usually Monday and Thursday ...

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