Junior league
The junior league was a football league in the GDR that existed between 1976 and 1983 and from 1989 to 1991. In this league of the German Football Association (DFV) played the young players of the teams that were represented in the relevant season in the Oberliga , the top division of the GDR. From 1983 to 1989 the junior league took its place and players from the league clubs and communities who had outgrown the junior division were able to compete in the second teams, which mostly competed in the second-rate league or the third-rate district league , for the planned jump into the upper house of the GDR -Fetch football .
Emergence
The GDR youth national team showed a negative balance from 1971 to 1973. Of the 34 international matches played during this period, only twelve were won, but 13 were lost. At the same time, qualification for the European junior championship in 1972 was missed. The players who have outgrown the junior age should usually be introduced to the men's area in the second teams of the upper division representatives. For this purpose, the second teams could move up to the second-rate GDR league . In the five league seasons comprising eleven or twelve teams, however, the level was weak, so that the second teams of the upper division were hardly challenged. Due to the constantly changing line-ups, the second teams also distorted the competition and displaced traditional communities from the province. In the 1973/74 season z. B. in the league season D with twelve participants four second teams.
These reasons led the GDR Football Association to introduce the junior league in the 1976/77 season. The junior teams of the 14 upper division clubs of the 1976/77 season were eligible to start . These were all eleven football clubs (including SG Dynamo Dresden ) as well as the reserves of the three major league company sports associations Sachsenring Zwickau , Wismut Aue and Stahl Riesa .
As a result, ten additional places became free in the GDR league for the 1976/77 season (the second representatives of Lokomotive Leipzig , Rot-Weiß Erfurt , Union Berlin and Hansa Rostock were still in the district league in 1975/76 ) and thus from the five seasons of the GDR league only had to relegate one team.
course
The game operations of the junior league ran parallel to the GDR league. Players up to the age of 21 were eligible to play. Two older players could also be used per game. The youth games took place as a prelude to the league matches. A champion was determined, but the relegation was decided by the first team. If they were relegated from the league, their reserve from the junior league was transferred to the district league as the 2nd team. At the same time, the second representatives of the upper league promoted to the junior league changed. This regulation led to curious results: For example, the second team from Vorwärts Frankfurt had to relegate in 1978, although they had become runner-up in the junior league with one point behind 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig. After the first team in Frankfurt managed to get promoted again, the second team was reintegrated into the junior league and in 1980 they were runner-up again straight away.
The youngsters from Dynamo Dresden developed into the most successful team during the seven seasons of the youth league with two championship titles and three runners-up championships. A fourth 2nd place came for the Dresden team after the revival of this league in 1989/90.
| season | master | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| 1976/77 | 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig | Dynamo Dresden |
| 1977/78 | 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig | Forward Frankfurt / Oder |
| 1978/79 | Dynamo Dresden | Berlin FC Dynamo |
| 1979/80 | FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt | Forward Frankfurt / Oder |
| 1980/81 | Berlin FC Dynamo | Dynamo Dresden |
| 1981/82 | Forward Frankfurt / Oder | Dynamo Dresden |
| 1982/83 | Dynamo Dresden | Berlin FC Dynamo |
| 1989/90 | FC Hansa Rostock | Dynamo Dresden |
| 1990/91 | FC Berlin | FC Carl Zeiss Jena |
Structural changes and processing after the fall of the Berlin Wall
In the course of establishing the junior league, the structure of the junior league was changed. Until then, the game was regulated as in the future junior league: each GDR league team was also represented with a team in the junior league. During the existence of the junior league, the junior league (AK 17/18) - the same procedure was followed with the youth league (AK 15/16) - was only formed by the eleven soccer clubs of the GDR, including the SG Dynamo Dresden, which was also classified as particularly worthy of support. There were no relegated teams in these divisions.
As before in the U-23 area, this regulation also had negative effects. The junior national team failed to qualify for the U-18 European Championship four times between 1981 and 1984. Therefore, after the 1982/83 season, the GDR Football Association returned to the regulation before 1976. For the juniors, the game was now analogous to the GDR upper league and they crowned their champions in an identical 14-player league in the return game .
The junior league teams, however, were returned to the status of a second team and initially classified in the district leagues in 1983 with the option of promotion to the GDR league. In 1989 the junior league was revived again for two years and it now again replaced the junior league. As objective of this measure of the communications of the German Democratic Republic in the spring of 1989 in the trade journal from the office Fuwo communicates: ". With the introduction of this new league is to be raised to the juniors and promoted for connection cadres of the transition to the men's section the level of play," In addition to the junior players were up to four older players who fought for their chances of playing in the top division squads - which were limited to 25 players with the introduction of the contractual system - are called up in every point game. After the dissolution of an independent East German football in the course of reunification and the liquidation of the GDR / NOFV Oberliga in spring 1991, the junior league , which was operating in parallel, was also discontinued. The last junior soccer champion in the field of the newly founded Northeast German Football Association was FC Berlin , the successor club of BFC Dynamo , in 1990/91 .
literature
- Carsten Töller (Ed.): Football in Germany since 1945 . Self-published, Mettmann 2009.
- GDR sports daily Deutsches Sportecho, born 1976–1991
- various daily newspapers on June 3, 1991