West Germany remained the number one championship in Europe, but a change was coming, concerning the second level: 1980-81 was the last season with 2 Second League groups. A convention of DFB met on June 7, 1980 to discuss the issue and decision for single division was voted 84 to 77. Narrow win, but decision was good: 42 cubs played in the second professional level currently – 20 in the Northern Division and 22 in the Southern one. Most of them were not competitive enough and professional football was too much for them. Since the second professional level was introduced in 1974, its contribution was hardly great. Instead of strong teams pushing their way into the Bundesliga a group of clubs not so strong to keep their place among the best, but far stronger than most of the second level members formed. It became quite clear that there was a group of stronger teams existed in second level, but not strong enough to change anything in the Bundesliga. In the same time various small clubs came from and quickly returned to the regional championships without leaving a trace. Second level did not produce many talented players too. Reduction was sensible – a new 20-team single division would be strong and competitive enough without the financial strains for many small clubs. Not everybody believed that, but those wanting a change won. That meant a number of changes: 22 teams were to be relegated at the end of the season. Thus, many clubs were motivated to fight for a place in the new league – especially those with some fame from bigger cities. No teams were to be promoted from the regional leagues – this seemed unfair, but necessary. Three teams were still going up to the Bundesliga – replaced by the three relegated at the end of the season. So far, so good… the problem was how to make twenty-team league. With 3 newcomers from the top league, 17 places remained – uneven number, which automatically made unclear which 10th placed team of which division will stay in the single league. One look at the next year table immediately shows discrepancies – at the end, it is unclear why some teams were in and others out, but about this later. The season started and naturally the biggest issue was promotion. As before, the champions of each division were promoted directly and the second placed teams played a promotional play-off for the third spot. As luck had it, all relegated in 1979-80 season were from the North, making this division stronger. A rather big group of former Bundesliga members: Hertha (West Berlin), Eintracht (Braunschweig), Hannover 96, Rot Weiss (Essen), Tennis Borussia (West Berlin), topped by Werder (Bremen), relegated for the first time from the big league. These clubs were expected to compete for the promotional spots and actually most of them did – to a point: actually, three teams competed for the top two places, leaving everybody else far behind. Werder, Eintracht (Braunschweig), and Hertha – the first two just relegated, and Hetha – relegated one year earlier, in 1979. Apart from the battle between these three clubs, the season was marked by very high scoring – especially when compared to the scores in South. Hertha scored 123 goals! Eintracht (Braunschweig) – 102 goals. Rot Weiss (Essen) – 99 and Werder – 97 goals. OSV Hannover, the last in the table, was also the lowest scoring team this year with 41 goals. As it happened, the lowest scoring team was in highest scoring division.
Four points separated the top teams at the end.
Hertha lost the battle, finishing 3rd with 64 points. By now, Hertha lost all good players of her strong years not long ago, but still was better team than most in the league – having 2 Yugoslavian imports and one very exotic player: the first player from Thailand to play in Germany and very likely the first Thai to play professionally in Europe. Witthaya Hloagune – or Laohakul – joined Hertha in 1979. 1980-81 was the last season for the Asian midfielder in West Berlin – after the season he was transferred to Saarbrucken. Anyhow, Hertha lost the chance for promotion by a single point – Eintracht (Braunschweig) finished with 65 points.
Just relegated from the top league, Eintracht was eager to return to top flight immediately. It was familiar situation for Eintracht and for their loyal goalkeeper Franke, who lost his place in the 1974 national team because his club was not in the top division. Franke was one of the best West German goalkeepers in the 1970s, but playing for a weak club. The same misfortune happened to the Yugoslavian national team winger Popivoda and to the Swedish national team player Borg. As a whole, Eintracht was stronger than Hertha, but no as good as Werder – second place still kept them hoping for promotion. If they won the play-off against the 2nd placed in the Southern division.
Werder won 2. Liga Nord with 68 points. 30 wins, 8 ties, and only 4 lost matches. The best defense and the 4th best scorers in the league. Werder was relegated in 1879-80 season, but unlike Eintracht and other similar clubs, who were never strong enough to stay among the best for long, Werder most likley just had misfortunate season. No wonder they were ambitious leave the second division right away and promptly won the championship. Well known coach – Klotzer – and plethora of star players: Burdenski, Reinders, Fichtel, and once again coming back from Belgium Kostedde. For the record, so far, this is the only season Werder played in the second division.
The lower placed were important only in terms of the next year single league membership. Liga Nord got 8 places in the new single division – hard to say why, although one place was really questionable. Since Liga Nord was stronger this season, may be they should have been allowed 9th team . Anyhow, they were not and the teams from 3rd to 10th place became members of the new single second division: Hertha, Hannover 96, Alemania, VfL Osnabruck, Union (Solingen), Rot Weiss (Essen), Fortuna (Koln), and Wattenscheid 09. If anyhting, there was order and nothing confusing.
Perhaps Viktoria (Koln) was unlucky – they finished 11th, a point behind Wattenscheid 09.