teams are not permitted in the Regionalliga. The reorganisation of the Regionalligas so soon after the last changes in 2008 became necessary because of a large number of insolvencies. These were caused by a lack of media interest in the leagues combined with large expenses and infrastructure demands. The five Regionalligas from 2012 are: Regionalliga Nord, (covering the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg) Regionalliga Nordost, (covering the states of Brandenburg, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony) Regionalliga West, (covering the state of North Rhine-Westphalia) Regionalliga Südwest, (covering the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg) Regionalliga Bayern, (covering the state of Bavaria) Some regional football associations also made changes to the league system below the Regionalliga in their area. From the 2012–13 season, the Bavarian Football Association split the Bayernliga into a northern and a southern division, and increased the number of Landesligas from three to five. Changes to promotion rules from 2018 At the 96th DFB-Bundestag in December 2017, delegates decided to change the promotion rules and, without success, reduce the number of leagues to four. To achieve this, a temporary solution was put into place for the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons. Four teams were promoted and there were three guaranteed promotion places from the champions of the five regional leagues. The champion of the southwest league, which gave up its second playoff place, were promoted automatically in the next two seasons. Additionally there were two teams promoted from the other four regional leagues. In the 2018–19 season, the champion of the northeast league were also be promoted directly. The winner of the third guaranteed promotion place was decided by the drawing of lots. The remaining two regional league champions of the 2018–19 season faced off in a two-legged playoff determining the fourth promotion place. The two regional leagues whose teams took part in the playoff automatically had promotion places for the 2019–20 season. As a result, the third division has had four relegation places. At the 97th DFB-Bundestag in 2019, a working group under DFB vice-president Peter Frymuth unsuccessfully proposed a system involving four rather than five regional leagues. Instead, the delegates reformed the promotion scheme from the 2020–21 season, in which there continued to be four promotions to the 3. Liga. The Regionalliga West and Southwest each provide a fixed direct promotion. Another direct promotion place is be assigned according to a rotation principle