Grave mistakes by the club's management led to 1. FC Magdeburg losing touch with top-flight football. After the third place in 1990, hopes were high that the team would be able to qualify for Fußball-Bundesliga or at least Second Bundesliga in the 1990–91 season. However, the club could not compensate for losing manager Joachim Streich (to Eintracht Braunschweig) and a number of players (Dirk Schuster, Wolfgang Steinbach among others) and only finished tenth. In the qualification playoffs for the Second Bundesliga the club did not win a single game and found themselves in the tier III Oberliga Nordost/Staffel Mitte. Eventually, Magdeburg are ranked eighth in All-Time DDR-Oberliga Table. During the 1991–92 season Magdeburg managed to keep up with 1. FC Union Berlin, but eventually finished second, trailing the winners by thirteen points.