Checking out the latest Jugend standings and noticed they consolidated some leagues Sud and Sudwest and Nord and Nordost. Does this mean the 4 teams in the three divisions advance to a playoffs? Where are the teams relegated to? Is there 2.Sud/Sudwest? What was the reason behind it? Cut down on travel costs? Promote more competition? Thanks in advance
They play the new Bundesliga in three divisions. At the end there will be four team playoffs with the top 3 of each group plus (what a great rule...) the second of Bundesliga South/Southwest. Three (out of 14!!!) are relegating. Bundesliga North/Northeast has two leagues below, the two champions promote and the runners up have a playoff game. Promotion to Bundesliga West is easy as they have three leagues below and allow the champion to promote. Promotion to Bundesliga South/Southwest is a bit more complicated as they have four leagues below - Bayern and Baden Württemberg get a direct promotion spot, Hessen and Southwest go into a playoff game. Relegation from Bundesliga means that the team returns to the highest league of their regional association. The number of relegating teams from Bundesliga reflects on the number of relegating/promoting teams in the specific regional association. Below the second highest (=regional top) leagues, there remains the normal pyramid system of regional to county leagues. Reason for introduction was to get a higher level of competition. Introducing a nationwide Bundesliga on youth level would have been to expensive regarding travel costs.