Promotion Reform 2025:
Union Support Fair Promotion Initiative
In preparation for the DFB's Bundestag in December 2025, the initiative "Aufstiegsreform 2025" was founded in February in Chemnitz with the aim of delivering structural reform in Germany's regional leagues. In addition to a fair and transparent promotion process from all five leagues, it also focuses on building networks among themselves and organsing the interests of the affected football clubs towards the associations.
Currently, the movement consists of 31 clubs and is gaining new supporters almost weekly. 1. FC Union Berlin are also participating in this move to deliver a joint development of solutions for a system of fair promotion to eliminate structural inequality and ensure fairer sporting practice.
Union had already expressed their wish for direct promotion of the champions of the Regionalligen in their position paper in 2018 regarding the planned structural reform of the DFL (German Football League), among other things.
“Winning the championship is an extraordinary achievement – it must also be rewarded accordingly. It is about recognising sporting success and providing planning security for the clubs,” explained Dirk Zingler, president of 1. FC Union Berlin. “The current structure disadvantages champions whose sporting performance is not automatically rewarded with promotion. This contradicts our understanding of sporting competition. Therefore, we stand behind the goals of the reform and reaffirm our demands for a performance-based promotion regulation made back in 2018.”
