The NB II, currently known as the Merkantil Bank Liga for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of
Hungarian football. At the end of the
2004–05 season, the tournament format was changed from one division of 14 teams to two divisions: ''Keleti'' (Eastern) and ''Nyugati'' (Western), each with 16 teams, though now it's just one league table with 16 teams as of the
2024–25 season. The champion and the runner-up will ascend to the first division while the two lowest teams in
NB II
NB, Nb, or nb may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* N.B. (album), ''N.B.'' (album), an album by Natasha Bedingfield
* NB (TV programme), ''NB'' (TV programme), a Scottish arts television programme that aired 1989–1997
Businesses
* NB Global, ...
are relegated to NB III.
Format
On 2 March 2017, the
Hungarian Football Federation
The Hungarian Football Federation (HFF) (, ) is the governing body of football and futsal in Hungary. It organizes the Hungarian league and the Hungary national team. The MLSZ is responsible for the Hungarian football league system, the men's a ...
announced that the number of the teams in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II will not be reduced to 12.
From 2024 onwards, the league was reduced to 16 teams from 20 and 18 teams in 2022–2024, respectively.
History
The second league was founded in 1901, having 8 teams. The first two teams would participate in a promotion playoff with the last 2 teams from the first league.
Even though the 4 rural districts were founded on paper in 1904, they only began to compete officially in the season 1907-1908. Thus the second league had 1 urban(Budapest) league and 4 rural leagues. The rural champions would participate in a tournament, the winner would face the urban league champion for the second league title. During the world war I the league was played with very few teams.
In 2013, the format was changed and there is one division again with 16 teams, then increase to 20 teams from 2015 to 2023.
In 2023, the league was reduce to 18 teams for 2023–24 and again to 16 teams from 2024–25 onwards.
List of champions
External links
Official page(Hungarian)
NB II on www.soccerway.com
See also
*
Nemzeti Bajnokság I
The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system.
Twelve ...
*
Nemzeti Bajnokság III
Nemzeti Bajnokság III (''NB III'', ''National Championship III'') is the third tier of Football in Hungary, Hungarian football (from the autumn of 1997 till the spring of 2005, NB III was the fourth tier, the third was NB II).
The tier contains ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemzeti Bajnoksag II
2
Hun
Professional sports leagues in Hungary