In Westphalia and the Middle Rhine, it’s easy to re-integrate your U23s into a higher league, but in the Lower Rhine it’s only possible via the Kreisliga C. That’s not going to change any time soon.

A few years ago, the trend among professional clubs was to withdraw the U23s from the competition. The clubs generally wanted to save costs, but for some time now many clubs have been trying to reverse this withdrawal.

In most associations, this is now quite easy to do – including returning to a higher level. This is the case in the Middle Rhine and Westphalia, for example.

In the Middle Rhine region, for example, the statutes state: “In accordance with the Executive Committee’s decision of November 24, 2014, a withdrawn U23 team whose first team plays in a DFL or DFB division in the season for which the integration of the U23 team is requested must always be integrated one division below the withdrawal division when re-registering, but at most in the Middle Rhine League. The club has the option of registering the U23 team for a lower division. An U23 team reintegrated into the game does not have the right to promotion in the first year. The application for reintegration into the game must be submitted to the FVM by April 15 of the year.”

It sounds similar in Westphalia, where VfL Bochum wants to start an U21 team in the new season. The association’s regulations state: “A withdrawn U23 team will always be grouped one division below the league it leaves, but no higher than the Oberliga Westfalen. The league that the team would have occupied in the following season after withdrawal, including promotion or relegation, is taken as the exit league.”

As Bochum’s U23s were relegated in the 2014/15 season, the Oberliga Westfalen is taken as the basis, below which is the Westfalenliga, where the U23s could start.

However, the association has not adhered to its own rules here, as VfL will be allowed to compete in the Oberliga Westfalen in the new season, as has now been communicated. It makes you wonder why a rule is in the regulations if it is not implemented correctly.

The procedure in the Lower Rhine is completely different to the Middle Rhine or Westphalia. Here, once a U23 has been deregistered, it has to complete the ox tour from the Kreisliga C. The U23s of Rot-Weiss Essen, who are about to be promoted to Kreisliga A, are currently attempting this.

When asked by RS, Wolfgang Jades from the Lower Rhine Football Association (FVN) said: “There are currently no plans to change anything here. There is also no application from a club. If that were to happen, the soccer committee would deal with the issue.”

In the end, it’s like politics, where each federal state can do what it wants in most cases. This is also the case with the soccer associations