Nemzeti Bajnokság II

NB II, currently known as the Merkantil Bank Liga for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of Hungarian football. At the end of the 2004–05 season, the tournament format was changed from one division of 14 teams to two divisions: Keleti (Eastern) and Nyugati (Western), each with 16 teams. The champion and the runner-up will ascend to the first division while the two lowest teams in NB II are relegated to NB III.

Format
On 2 March 2017, the Hungarian Football Federation announced that the number of the teams in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II will not be reduced to 12.

From 2024 onwards, the league was reduced to 16 teams from 20 and 18 teams in 2022–2024, respectively.

History
The second league was founded in 1901, having 8 teams. The first two teams would participate in a promotion playoff with the last 2 teams from the first league. Even though the 4 rural districts were founded on paper in 1904, they only began to compete officially in the season 1907-1908. Thus the second league had 1 urban(Budapest) league and 4 rural leagues. The rural champions would participate in a tournament, the winner would face the urban league champion for the second league title. During the world war I the league was played with very few teams.

In 2013, the format was changed and there is one division again with 16 teams, then increase to 20 teams from 2015 to 2023.

In 2023, the league was reduce to 18 teams for 2023–24 and again to 16 teams from 2024–25 onwards.