Bundesliga

89 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 Edit
 View history
Tools












From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the German men's football league. For the German women's
football league, see Frauen-Bundesliga. For other uses, see Bundesliga
(disambiguation).

Bundesliga

Organising body Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL)

Founded 24 August 1963; 59 years ago

Country Germany

Confederation UEFA
 Number of teams 18 (since 1992–93)

Level on pyramid 1

Relegation to 2. Bundesliga

 DFB-Pokal
Domestic cup(s)
DFL-Supercup

International cup(s)  UEFA Champions League

UEFA Europa League

UEFA Europa Conference League

Current champions Bayern Munich (31st title)

(2021–22)

Most championships Bayern Munich (31 titles)

Most appearances Charly Körbel (602)

Top goalscorer Gerd Müller (365)

TV partners List of broadcasters

Website www.bundesliga.com

Current: 2022–23 Bundesliga

The Bundesliga (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌliːɡa] ( listen); lit. 'Federal League'), sometimes

referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga ([ˌfuːsbal-]) or 1. Bundesliga ([ˌeːɐ̯stə-]), is
a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German
football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary football competition.
The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and
relegation with the 2. Bundesliga. Seasons run from August to May. Games are
played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. All of the Bundesliga clubs take part in
the DFB-Pokal cup competition . The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for
the DFL-Supercup.
Fifty-six clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding. Bayern
Munich has won 31 of 59 titles, as well as the last ten seasons. The Bundesliga
has seen other champions, with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder
Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and VfB Stuttgart most prominent among
them. The Bundesliga is one of the top national leagues, ranked third in Europe
according to UEFA's league coefficient ranking for the current 2022–23 season,
based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons. [1] The
Bundesliga led the UEFA ranking from 1976 to 1984 and in 1990. It has also
produced the continent's top-rated club seven times. Bundesliga clubs have won
eight UEFA Champions League, seven UEFA Europa League, four European Cup
Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cup, two FIFA Club World Cup, and
three Intercontinental Cup titles. Its players have accumulated nine Ballon
d'Or awards, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, four European Golden
Shoe, and three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards including UEFA Club
Footballer of the Year.
The Bundesliga is the number one football league in the world in terms of average
attendance; out of all sports, its average of 45,134 fans per game during the 2011–
12 season was the second-highest of any sports league in the world after the
American National Football League.[2] The Bundesliga is broadcast on television in
over 200 countries.[3]
The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund[4] and the first season started in
1963–64. The structure and organisation of the Bundesliga, along with Germany's
other football leagues, have undergone frequent changes. The Bundesliga was
founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (English: German Football Association),
but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (English: German Football
League).

Structure[edit]
The Bundesliga is composed of two divisions: the 1. Bundesliga (although it is
rarely referred to with the First prefix), and, below that, the 2. Bundesliga (2nd
Bundesliga), which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. The
Bundesligen (plural) are professional leagues. Since 2008, the 3. Liga (3rd
League) in Germany has also been a professional league, but may not be called
Bundesliga because the league is run by the German Football Association (DFB)
and not, as are the two Bundesligen, by the German Football League (DFL).
Below the level of the 3. Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional
basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord (North),
Nordost (Northeast), Süd (South), Südwest (Southwest) and West divisions. Below
this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen (upper
leagues) which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas.
The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas. The league structure
has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport
in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by
the reunification of Germany and the subsequent integration of the national league
of East Germany.
Every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or
else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must
be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations.
As in other national leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top
division:

 A greater share of television broadcast licence revenues goes to 1.

Bundesliga sides.
  1. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support.
Average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game—more than
twice the average of the 2. Bundesliga.
 Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps
1. Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships.
 1. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the
combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and
marketing of their team brands. This allows them to attract and retain
skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct
first-class stadium facilities.
The 1. Bundesliga is financially strong, and the 2. Bundesliga has begun to evolve
in a similar direction, becoming more stable organizationally and financially, and
reflecting an increasingly higher standard of professional play. [citation needed]

Borussia Dortmund against rivals Schalke, known as the Revierderby, in the Bundesliga in 2009

Internationally, the most well-known German clubs include Bayern

Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, RB Leipzig, Hamburger SV, VfB
Stuttgart, 1. FC Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer
Leverkusen.[5] Hamburger SV was the only club to have played continuously in the
Bundesliga since its foundation, until 12 May 2018, when the club was relegated
for the first time.
In the 2008–09 season, the Bundesliga reinstated an earlier German system of
promotion and relegation, which had been in use from 1981 until 1991:

 The bottom two finishers in the Bundesliga are automatically relegated

to the 2. Bundesliga, with the top two finishers in the 2. Bundesliga
taking their places.
 The third-from-bottom club in the Bundesliga will play a two-legged tie
with the third-place team from the 2. Bundesliga, with the winner taking
up the final place in the following season's Bundesliga.
From 1992 until 2008, a different system was used, in which the bottom three
finishers of the Bundesliga had been automatically relegated, to be replaced by the
top three finishers in the 2. Bundesliga. From 1963 until 1981 two, or later three,
teams had been relegated from the Bundesliga automatically, while promotion had
been decided either completely or partially in promotion play-offs.
The season starts in early August[6] and lasts until late May, with a winter break of
six weeks (mid-December through to the end of January). Starting with the 2021–
22 season, kick off times have been changed with Friday matches starting at
8:30 pm, Saturdays at 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm, and Sundays at 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm
and 7:30 pm.[7]

History[edit]
Origins[edit]
Further information: History of German football
Before the formation of the Bundesliga, German football was played at an amateur
level in a large number of sub-regional leagues until, in 1949, part-time (semi-)
professionalism was introduced and only five regional Oberligen (Premier
Leagues) remained. Regional champions and runners-up played a series of playoff
matches for the right to compete in a final game for the national championship. On
28 January 1900, a national association, the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) had
been founded in Leipzig with 86 member clubs. The first recognised national
championship team was VfB Leipzig, who beat DFC Prague 7–2 in a game played
at Altona on 31 May 1903.
Through the 1950s, there were continued calls for the formation of a central
professional league, especially as professional leagues in other countries began to
draw Germany's best players away from the semi-professional domestic leagues.
At the international level, the German game began to falter as German teams often
fared poorly against professional teams from other countries. A key supporter of
the central league concept was national team head coach Sepp Herberger who
said, "If we want to remain competitive internationally, we have to raise our
expectations at the national level."[This quote needs a citation]
Meanwhile, in East Germany, a separate league was established with the
formation of the DS-Oberliga (Deutscher Sportausschuss Oberliga) in 1950. The
league was renamed the Football Oberliga DFV in 1958 and was generally referred
to simply as the DDR-Liga or DDR-Oberliga. The league fielded 14 teams with two
relegation spots.