VfL also made one appearance in the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, in 1976–77, where it lost 4–0 to FC Augsburg in the first round.

[1] The 1973 Landesliga title earned the club promotion to the Regionalliga Nord, the level below the Bundesliga in Northern Germany at the time.

For the next fifteen seasons VfL was back in Hamburgs highest league again, now renamed to Verbandsliga, earning top-four finishes most years.

[2] The next ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 VfL played in the tier four Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein, generally as an upper table side, with a fourth-place finish in 1996 as its best result.

When the league was disbanded in favor of the re-formed Oberliga Nord at the end of the 2003–04 season a ninth-place finish was not enough to qualify.