As the first Bundesliga club, 1. FC Union Berlin has joined the "Promotion Reform 2025" initiative, thereby supporting the interests of many East German regional leagues. "Anyone who becomes champion has achieved something extraordinary - that must be rewarded accordingly. It's about recognizing sporting success and planning security for the clubs," said Union president Dirk Zingler.
Since March, the initiative founded by several fourth-division clubs from the north-east division has been seeking a change to the promotion regulations for the 3rd division. However, it was recently considered questionable whether a consensus proposal could be drawn up for the DFB Bundesestag in November, mainly due to time constraints. In terms of content, the initiative has recently received a lot of support, including from clubs in the Regionalliga West and third division clubs such as Energie Cottbus.
At present, only the champions of the Regionalliga West and Südwest are promoted directly. The first-placed teams in the North, Bavaria and North-East leagues are promoted directly in a rotation system, while the champions of the other two leagues determine the fourth promoted team in play-offs. This season, TSV Havelse from the north beat Lok Leipzig from the northeast.
