Ice hockey league system in Germany

The ice hockey league system in Germany is a league system for the division of the German ice hockey leagues. The highest league recognized by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) is the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), which plays off the German ice hockey champions. The second highest league is the DEL2 , which is operated by the ice hockey game operating company (ESBG). The third divisions are the two major leagues , which are regionally staggered and represent the link between professional and amateur hockey and are organized by the DEB. Below the league, gaming is fully organized regionally by the state ice hockey associations (LEV).

League pyramid

step	league
1	German ice hockey league 14 teams
2	DEL2 14 teams
	↑ ↓ 1 direct
3	Major league play-offs
	Oberliga Nord 13 teams				Oberliga Süd 13 teams
	↑ ↓ direct		↑ ↓ direct	↑ ↓		↑ ↓ direct	↑ ↓ Relegation
4th	Regionalliga West 12 teams		Regionalliga Nord 8 teams	Regionalliga Ost 9 teams		Regionalliga Süd-West 9 teams	Bayernliga 15 teams
	↑ ↓ direct	↑ ↓ direct	↑ ↓ Relegation			↑ ↓ direct	↑ ↓ Relegation
5	District league NRW 12 teams	Hessenliga 13 teams in two groups	Association League North 6 teams	Landesliga Berlin 10 teams Landesliga Sachsen 6 teams Landesliga Thuringia 6 teams		Landesliga Baden-Württemberg 7 teams	Landesliga Bayern 20 teams in two groups
			↑ ↓ direct				↑ ↓ direct
6th		Rhineland-Palatinate League 4 teams	Landesliga Nord 18 teams in three groups. Ostseeliga 5 teams				Bezirksliga Bayern 33 teams in 4 groups

Leagues

augsburg Berlin Bremerhaven Dusseldorf Ingolstadt Iserlohn Cologne Krefeld Mannheim Munich Nuremberg Schwenningen 0Straubing Wolfsburg Bietigheim Crimmitschau Dresden Frankfurt Kaufbeuren kassel Bad Nauheim Ravensburg White water Freiburg Heilbronn Bayreuth Bad Tölz Landshut Tilburg 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

German clubs of the three highest leagues in the 2019/20 season (red: DEL, blue: DEL 2, green: Oberliga Nord, orange: Oberliga Süd).

German ice hockey league

The German Ice Hockey League was founded in 1994 by merging the Ice Hockey Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga . It is a pure professional league, the teams involved are organized as corporations. DEL GmbH has belonged to the participating teams since 1996, is responsible for the licensing of games and teams and organizes game operations. Each DEL participant cooperates with a parent club, which is responsible for the youth work.

14 teams currently play in the DEL. After a main round of 52 games in play-offs you play the title of German champion. The clubs are members of the German Ice Hockey Federation. The cooperation agreement between the DEL and the DEB regulates the recognition by the DEB and obligations of the DEL clubs. The introduction of promotion and relegation to the DEL2 is planned for 2020.

DEL2

The DEL2 is the second highest division in Germany. It was introduced in 2013 and replaced the previous 2nd Bundesliga . The DEL2 is a professional league and has a nominal strength of 14 teams.

The ice hockey game operation company mbH, founded in 2002, organizes the game operations in the DEL2. From 2002 to 2010 she was also responsible for the league.

Oberliga

The ice hockey league , the third highest division in German ice hockey , is carried out by the DEB. It has been played in two regional groups, North and South, since the 2015/16 season.

State ice hockey associations

The state ice hockey associations (LEV) organize the game of amateur leagues. Not every LEV organizes regular gaming operations.

Bavaria

The top division of the Bavarian Ice Sports Association (BEV) is the Bayernliga, also known as the Bavarian Ice Hockey League (BEL). It is played across Bavaria. Below the BEL, the BEV also organizes the regional league and the district league. The regional league has been played in three regional groups and the district league in four groups since 2015. The regional league plays one promoted to the BEL and one participant in the BEL relegation, plus three relegated teams are played. The champions of the district league groups play the district league champions and the three promoted teams. A total of around 80 teams take part in the BEV's game operations. The BEV also organizes a cup competition for low-class clubs.

Baden-Württemberg

The Regionalliga Süd-West , formerly Baden-Württembergliga (BWL), is the highest amateur league in Baden-Württemberg. The Landesliga Baden-Württemberg is played below the Regionalliga Süd-West. About 18 teams take part in the games of the Ice Sports Association Baden-Württemberg .

west

From the 2016/17 season, the North Rhine-Westphalia Ice Hockey Association (EHV NRW) is organizing the West Regional League for North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Below the Regionalliga West, the EHV NRW organizes two other leagues: the state league and the district league, which is played in regional groups.

In Hesse, the Hessian Ice Sports Association organizes the Hesse League below the Regionalliga West, the winners of which can be promoted to the Regionalliga West. Among them there is the Landesliga Hessen.

Teams from Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland take part in the games of the LEV NRW as well as in Hesse and Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the Rhineland-Palatinate League is played by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ice and Roller Sports Association, in which teams from Luxembourg also took part.

Northern Association

The LEVs of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremen cooperate in the so-called Northern Association . The Lower Saxony Ice Sports Association (NEV) organizes the Regionalliga Nord for this. Since the 2016/17 season, an association league has been held below the regional league. This includes the Landesliga Nord, with one group having the traditional name Ostseeliga .

East Germany

The Saxon Ice Sports Association organizes the Regional League East for Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin, which emerged in 2011 from the Saxony League . There are national leagues in Berlin and Thuringia. There is no official game operation in Brandenburg.

history

The first ice hockey league was founded in Berlin in 1890: The Berlin city league, which still exists today (with interruptions) . In the course of time, other national leagues emerged. From 1912 to 1948, German championships were held in cup mode between the winners of the respective national leagues.

Federal Republic of Germany

→ Main article : Ice hockey in Germany

For the first time in 1948, a nationwide ice hockey league , the Oberliga, was set up by the German Ice Sports Association . For the 1958/59 season, the Bundesliga replaced the Oberliga as the top division, but the Oberliga continued to exist as the second highest national division. As the third-highest division in 1961 the regional into two groups north and south was informed group league introduced that in 1965 the name Regional received. The organization of the top three leagues took over from 1963 the newly founded German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). From 1966 to 1970 the Oberliga was divided into two regional groups, analogous to the Regional League.

For the 1973/74 season, the nationwide 2nd Bundesliga was introduced. The league was played on two tracks again, between 1983 and 1985 there was also a middle group. After a season break, the Regionalliga formed the fourth division, from 1975 in the three groups North, West and South, from 1981 in the groups North / West, Southwest and South, from 1984 in North, West, Southwest and South, from 1987 played in north, west, center, southwest and south. The 2nd Bundesliga was played in two regional groups for the first time in 1981/82 and also played in the two groups North and South from 1983 to 1991.

German Democratic Republic

→ Main article : Ice hockey in the GDR

In 1950, the GDR League was founded in the GDR by the German Sports Committee . When the East German league was introduced as the top division in 1952 , the league continued to exist as the second division. For the 1955/56 season the league was renamed the first division and a second division was introduced as the third highest division. From 1958 the German Ice Skating Association of the GDR took over the organization of the games. The 2nd league was renamed the group league in 1962 and became the second highest division from 1965 after the 1st league was abolished. For the 1970/71 season the league was reduced to two teams ( Dynamo Weißwasser and Dynamo Berlin ) and the group league was abolished. Below the major league, only a best determination was carried out in tournament form.

Germany since 1990

→ Main article : "Turbulent 1990s" in the article Ice Hockey in Germany

Even before the state reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the two GDR upper division clubs were accepted into the German Bundesliga for the 1990/91 season. For the 1992/93 season, the previous 2nd national leagues North and South were merged and the Oberliga and Regionalliga were each reduced to two groups, North and South. In the summer of 1994 a comprehensive reform was carried out: the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) was introduced as a closed top division and replaced the two national leagues. Under the DEL, the first division and the second division , each in groups north and south, were introduced. The first division played the German amateur champion in joint play-offs , who could apply for admission to the DEL. The 2nd division north only existed until 1997.

The DEL became independent from the DEB in 1996, but remained linked to it through a cooperation agreement. The DEB then re-established a Germany-wide Bundesliga in 1998, which was named 2nd Bundesliga after an agreement by the DEL in 1999. The DEL therefore operates temporarily under the name "DEL - The 1. Bundesliga". Also in 1999 the previous 1st leagues were renamed Oberligen, the 2nd League South in Regionalliga Süd. Regional leagues also existed in northern Germany, but these were organized by the state ice sports associations (LEV). The Oberliga Nord was dissolved in 2001. The Oberliga Süd took on the two remaining clubs and thus became de facto the third-highest division in Germany. For the 2002 season, the ice hockey game operating company (ESBG) founded by the DEB took over the organization of the 2nd Bundesliga and Oberliga, the regional league was dissolved. From 2002 to 2005 the league played in the two groups West and East, from 2005 to 2007 again single-track. Since 2007, two groups, north and south, have been played in the preliminary round with the groups interlocking.

After a final division of the upper league into north and south failed for the 2009/10 season and the league had to play single-track again, a league reform was carried out for the 2010/11 season: The league is therefore played in four regional groups that are no longer managed by the ESBG , but by the DEB (OL South) or by the LEV (OL North, West, East). For this purpose, the league was filled with teams from the previous regional leagues North, East and West.

For the 2013/14 season, the previous 2. Bundesliga was replaced by the DEL2. For the 2015/16 season, the groups north, east and west of the Oberliga were merged to form the Oberliga Nord under the direction of the DEB.

Women

In women's ice hockey, there is a Germany-wide league hosted by the DEB, the German Women's Ice Hockey Bundesliga (DEFL). The regional associations run the game below. EHV NRW organizes the 2nd North League for northern Germany. Among them there is a state and a district league in North Rhine-Westphalia, for the rest of the area the 1st Women's League North / East (formerly 1st Women's League North) hosted by the LEV Lower Saxony. In Bavaria and in Baden-Württemberg, the second highest and lowest division is the state league.

step	league
1	Women's ice hockey Bundesliga
2	2nd League North				State League Baden-Württemberg		State League Bavaria
3	1st women's league north / east		State League NRW
4th			District League NRW

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dpa: DEB President Reindl implements reforms. In: FAZ.net . April 18, 2015, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
2. ↑ http://www.kicker.de/news/eishockey/startseite/728366/artikel_del-und-del2-fuehren-auf--und-abstieg-wieder-ein.html
3. ↑ http://www.hockeyweb.de/oberliga/nachrichten/artikel/news/deb-plant-neue-oberliga-struktur-77428/
4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.