German regional leagues

I recently started a game with German Regional North league team Dusseldorf.

I was planning on taking them to the top and world domination etc, you know...the usual

3 games into my first season and I check to see how many promotion/relegation places there are and discover that there doesnt appear to be any? Neither for promotion or relegation.

Does this mean I can't be promoted? I checked to see the real life system and apparently one team is promoted and 3 are relegated from both south and north leagues.

Can anyone tell me if its possible for me to be promoted in the game first season and how many available posistions there are for this.

Thanks in advance.

Does this help you out?

If you finish in the top 10 of your division in the first season, you'll start the next season the the 3rd Bundesliga. Finish below that and you'll still be in the Regionalliga.

I hate the German lower leagues, because after the expansion, you only have one promotion spot and 4 relegation spots. Makes it almost impossible to be promoted to the next level.

Well, one at least alwasy gets promotion. Quite like the Scottish 1st division.

Has it IRL already been decided which teams will be playing in the new reagional divisions in 08/09?

Yes. If you click the Wikipedia link that SWaRFeGa posted, it lists the teams.

Originally posted by BamaToon:

If you finish in the top 10 of your division in the first season, you'll start the next season the the 3rd Bundesliga. Finish below that and you'll still be in the Regionalliga.

I hate the German lower leagues, because after the expansion, you only have one promotion spot and 4 relegation spots. Makes it almost impossible to be promoted to the next level.

You should try Norway! 14 team leagues with 1 team getting promoted and 4 getting relegated (I think...could be 3, but still it's a lot more than get promoted). Now that's bad odds for you

IIRC when the amount of teams in the Serbian league was changed last season, 7 teams out of 16 were relegated

Originally posted by BamaToon:

Yes. If you click the Wikipedia link that SWaRFeGa posted, it lists the teams.

It lists the likely new 3rd Liga teams, not the Regionalliga ones I asked about. Wikipedia's Regionalliga page is of no help either.

In the German Regionalliga of the first season the two top teams of each division are promoted to 2. Bundesliga.

Positions 3-10 make it into the new 3. Liga while the rest is 'relegated' to the Regionalliga which will be the 4th division from season 2008/09 onwards.

As second teams of higher division clubs cannot be promoted, the promoted sides might not be in the first two positions. Maybe that's why promotion places are not indicated by colour in these leagues. Also, just a max of 4 second teams were allowed promotion into the 3. Liga, but I don't know if that is incorporated in FM as well. While irl exactly those max 4 qualified it would have been possible to earn qualification via a 12th position as well, so there might be a further reason to not indicated the line between 10th and 11th position in that league.

hth