The Regional League Reform Working Group has taken a step closer to its goal of improving the promotion rules from the Regional League.

During its second meeting today, Monday, the 13-member group agreed to focus initially on reducing the Regionalliga to four divisions from among all the proposed solutions. This will be further explored and developed at the next meeting.

At the start of the meeting, the working group took a comprehensive look at the development of leagues in Germany. In addition, the league structures of other top European nations were examined. The group then considered various basic models for potentially adjusting the promotion rules at the fourth division level, before narrowing down and prioritizing the options through intensive discussions.

“That was a very good start to the substantive discussion,” said the working group’s chair, Michael Vesper: “It became clear that everyone in the group is willing and interested in working constructively toward a solution. We discussed all conceivable model approaches and conducted initial evaluations. In my view, this was a significant step forward.”

The working group was established with the mandate to develop a proposal for a decision, which will then be submitted to the relevant decision-making bodies. The working group itself is not a decision-making body. Its next meeting is scheduled for January. Possible follow-up meetings have also already been scheduled for February and March.

The Regional League Reform Working Group includes club and association representatives from all five regional leagues. It had been agreed upon in advance that each division would independently appoint its own representatives to the working group. Other members include Manuel Hartmann, Managing Director of Match Operations for the DFB, and Ansgar Schwenken, Director of Match Operations & Fans for the DFL.