The Oberliga Westfalen is the highest level football league in the region of

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

, which is part of the state of

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 ...

. The league existed from 1978 to 2008, but was then replaced by the NRW-Liga, a new statewide league. With the reform of the league system in 2012, which reduced the

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 ...

to clubs from North Rhine-Westphalia only and disbanded the NRW-Liga below it, the Oberliga Westfalen was reintroduced as the highest tier in the region and the fifth level overall in Germany. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football, the fifth tier of the

German football league system The German football league system, or league pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for Football in Germany, association football in Germany that in the 2016–17 Season (sports), season consisted of 2,235 Sports_leag ...

Overview

The league was formed in 1978 as a highest level of play for the region of Westphalia, which used to be split into two groups and covered the eastern half of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The main reason for the creation of this league was to allow its champion direct promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga Nord rather than having to go through a

promotion play-off Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or ...

. The league was created from nine clubs from the Verbandsliga Westfalen-Nordost and eight from the Verbandsliga Westfalen-Südwest. The

SC Herford SC Herford is a German association football club based in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was formed out of the merger of several local sides in the late 1960s and early 1970s and then went on to enjoy a short turn in second division ...

was relegated from the 2. Bundesliga Nord to the new league. The league was founded as the Amateur-Oberliga Westfalen, but from 1994 the name was shortened to Oberliga Westfalen. With the introduction of the unified 2nd Bundesliga in 1981, direct promotion for the Oberliga champions became impossible again because there were eight of them competing for four promotion spots. The champion of the Oberliga Westfalen had to compete with the winner and the runner-up of the Oberliga Nord and the winners of the Oberliga Berlin and of the

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 ...

for two 2. Bundesliga spots. Upon creation of the Regionalligas in 1994, the champions of the Oberligas were directly promoted again, however the Oberligas slipped to fourth tier in the German football league system. The top six team of the Oberliga that year were admitted to the new

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 ...

, the clubs being: * TuS Paderborn-Neuhaus *

SC Preußen Münster SC Preußen Münster (English: Prussia Münster) is a German sports club based in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia which is mostly recognised for its football section. The football team currently plays in Regionalliga West which is the fourth tie ...

* Arminia Bielefeld *

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 ...

SC Verl SC Verl is a German association football club based in Verl, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded on 6 September 1924, and since 1970 has consistently played in the higher echelons of amateur football. The club was promoted to the profe ...

SG Wattenscheid 09 II SG Wattenscheid 09 is a German association football club located in Wattenscheid, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club claimed an official founding date of 18 September 1909 as Ballspiel-Verein Wattenscheid out of the merger of two earlier ...

With the reduction of the number of Regionalligas from four to two in 2000, the Oberliga Westfalen was now located below 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 ...

. However, the

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 ...

, based in the very south of the region, played in the Regionalliga Süd. With the creation of the 3rd Liga in 2008 the Oberliga Westfalen was replaced by the NRW-Liga, which now is the fifth tier of the league system. The Oberliga Westfalen ceased to exist after 30 seasons. Its clubs were split up over three league levels. The first four teams were promoted to the new

, clubs from place five to eleven went to the new Oberliga while the bottom seven teams were relegated to the Verbandsligas. The league was reintroduced in 2012 after the NRW-Liga was disbanded again. Throughout the league's existence the two leagues below the Oberliga were: *

Verbandsliga Westfalen 1 The Westfalenliga (''formerly the '') is the second highest amateur football league in the region of Westphalia which is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the sixth tier of the German football league system. It operates in two groups ...

*Verbandsliga Westfalen 2

Champions of the Oberliga Westfalen

The league champions:

Original league 1978 to 2008

The league champions of the first era of the league:

New league from 2012

The league champions and runners-up from 2012 onwards:

Placings in the Oberliga Westfalen

The final league placings in the second era of the league from 2012 to present: Sources:

Founding members of the Oberliga Westfalen

From the 2nd Bundesliga Nord: *

From the Verbandsliga Westfalen-Nordost: * 1. FC Paderborn *

VfB Rheine FC Eintracht Rheine is a German association football club from the city of Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia. History The club was formed through the 10 June 1994 union of ''VfB Rheine'' and ''SG Eintracht Rheine''. That merger actually shrouds ...

* TuS Schloß Neuhaus * SV Ahlen * Bünder SV * SV Emsdetten * SV Beckum *

DJK Gütersloh DJK may refer to: * DJK-Sportverband German Youth Power Sports Association (german: Deutsche Jugendkraft Sportverband, DJK) is a Catholic Church, Catholic-sponsored sports association in Germany. Founded as a faith-based organization, today it is ...

''(merged with Arminia Gütersloh to form FC Gütersloh in 1978)'' * TSG Harsewinkel From the Verbandsliga Westfalen-Südwest: *

VfL Gevelsberg The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

* DJK Hellweg Lütgendortmund * SuS Hüsten 09 * SV Holzwickede * Eintracht Recklinghausen *

VfB Altena VfB Altena is a German football club from the city of Altena, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent most of its existence in lower level local play with the exception of seven seasons (1974–81) spent in third tier competition. In additi ...

References

Sources

* ''Deutschlands Fußball in Zahlen'', An annual publication with tables and results from the Bundesliga to Verbandsliga/Landesliga. DSFS. * ''Kicker Almanach'', The yearbook on German football from Bundesliga to Oberliga, since 1937. ''Kicker'' Sports Magazine.

External links

Das deutsche Fussball Archiv
Historic German league tables
Westfalen Football Association (FLVW)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westfalen, Oberliga Oberliga (football) Organizations disestablished in 2008 Football competitions in North Rhine-Westphalia 1978 establishments in Germany 2008 disestablishments in Germany 2012 establishments in Germany