Venues of the Gauliga Südwest 1939/40 (red = relay Mainhessen, blue = relay Saarpfalz)
The Gauliga Südwest 1939/40 was the seventh season of the Gauliga Südwest (officially: Division Southwest ) in football. The season was interrupted by the beginning of World War II after the first day of the game and later rescheduled in two seasons of seven teams each. Champion Kickers Offenbach .
The Gauliga started on August 27, 1939, the weekend before the start of the Second World War, with ten teams and five games (Neunkirchen – Worms 3: 0, Wiesbaden – Eintracht 1: 1, FSV Frankfurt – Saarbrücken 6: 0, Offenbach –Rüsselsheim 7-0) into the new round. With the beginning of the war the season was interrupted and instead local bridging rounds were organized (Frankfurt, Offenbach, Mainz-Wiesbaden, Vorderpfalz and Nibelungenring).
On November 26th, a regular Gaume Championship started, but in most sports areas it was carried out in two or more relays. In the southwest, the two squadrons of Mainhessen and Saarpfalz were set up with seven teams each, so that instead of ten there were now fourteen Gauligists. From the original teams, the FV Saarbrücken withdrew its eleven due to the tense situation in the Saar area from the competition, so that five of the six participants in the promotion round were now in the top division. Due to the circumstances, there were shifts and great differences in the performance of the teams compared to previous years. With Kickers Offenbach in Mainhessen and promoted 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Saarpfalz, two teams prevailed in the two seasons that had not played a significant role in the battle for the championship in previous years. The Gaumeister was determined in two finals, in which the OFC prevailed 6: 3 in the second leg. The Kickers moved into the finals for the German championship for the second time after 1934 , but had no chance there.
For the second "round of war" in 1940/41 , the mode of this season was retained again, but both seasons were increased to eight teams. The bottom two of the table, SC Opel Rüsselsheim and GfL Darmstadt, had to relegate, Worms switched to the Mainhessen relay. In the promotion rounds Germania Frankfurt (Mainhessen) and Mundenheimer SpVgg (Saarpfalz) prevailed, with FV Saarbrücken and TSG Burbach (formerly Spfr. 05 Saarbrücken) two teams from the Saar area also moved up.
In the first leg, the two season champions parted on April 14, 1940 in front of 8,000 spectators on the Betzenberg with 1: 1. In the second leg a week later, the Palatinate on the Bieberer Berg led 2-1 at the break, but came under the wheels in the second half, so that Kickers Offenbach secured the Gaumeist title.
Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 1: From the Crown Prince to the Bundesliga. 1890 to 1963. German championship, Gauliga, Oberliga. Numbers, pictures, stories. AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 1996, ISBN 3-928562-85-1 .
Hardy Greens: Encyclopedia of German League Football. Volume 7: Club Lexicon . AGON-Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-147-9 .
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Offenbacher FC Kickers