Mainz 05 II

1. FSV Mainz 05 II is a German association football club from the town of Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate.

It is the reserve team of 1. FSV Mainz 05. The team's greatest achievement came in 2014 when it won promotion to the 3. Liga for the first time, the highest league a reserve team can play in Germany. During the professional days of the senior side it played as 1. FSV Mainz 05 Amateure but when the senior side itself played at amateur level, from 1976 to 1988 and once more in 1989–90, the team played as 1. FSV Mainz 05 II. Since 2005 it has permanently adopted the name 1. FSV Mainz 05 II.

History

The history of the reserve side of Mainz 05 is strongly intertwined with the fortunes of the senior side, having risen to higher league levels when the first team started to enjoy 2. Bundesliga and Bundesliga success. The senior side was a long term member of the Oberliga Sudwest from 1945, then a tier one league, to 1963 when the Bundesliga was introduced. Mainz did not qualify for the Bundesliga but played in the tier two Regionalliga Sudwest instead. When the 2. Bundesliga was formed the club joined this league in 1974. Mainz played at this level for two seasons before disappearing into amateur football for 12 years. From 1990 the club reestablished itself in professional football and has been playing there since.

The reserve side, in the early years after the Second World War, played mostly in local amateur football. It rose to the tier three Amateurliga Sudwest for a season in 1957–58 but came last and was promptly relegated again. It dropped through the 2. Amateurliga Rheinhessen as well but made a return to this league in 1973, being relegated again in 1977. It returned to what had now become the Bezirksliga Rheinhessen in 1981 for three seasons. After this the team did not make another appearance in the higher amateur leagues again until the late 1990s, having been disbanded for a time in between.

In 1996 the club, freshly promoted to the Bezirksliga Rheinhessen (VII), wo