All of the Bundesliga on one page: today's stories told by hundreds of German and international outlets, the live table, fixtures, results and the news of every club, translated into English.
GermaniaThe Bundesliga (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌliːɡa] ; lit. 'Federal League'), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga ([ˌfuːsbal-]) or 1.
Bundesliga ([ˌeːɐ̯stə-]), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. 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, with a focus on Saturdays. All Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal cup competition. The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup.
The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund, with the first season beginning in 1963–64. It was run by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (English: German Football Association) until the Deutsche Fußball Liga (English: German Football League) took over in 2001. Fifty-eight clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding. Bayern Munich has dominated with 34 of 63 titles, including 11 consecutive seasons between 2013 and 2023. Other champions include Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and VfB Stuttgart.
The Bundesliga is one of Europe's top leagues, ranking fourth in the UEFA league coefficient for 2024–25 based on results over the previous five seasons. The Bundesliga led the UEFA ranking from 1976 to 1984 and in 1990, and has produced the continent’s top-rated club eight 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 received ten Ballon d'Or awards, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, six European Golden Shoe, and three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards, including UEFA Club Footballer of the Year. The Bundesliga is the second-highest league by average attendance as of 2024–25, with 38,656 spectators per game, behind only England's Premier League.
Structure
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 the 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 39,512 per game—approximately 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.
No clubs have played continuously in the Bundesliga since its foundation; on 12 May 2018, Hamburger SV was the last founding club to be 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 were automatically relegated, to be replaced by the top three finishers in the 2. Bundesliga. From 1963 until 1981 two, or later three, teams were relegated from the Bundesliga automatically, while promotion was decided either completely or partially in promotion play-offs.
The season starts in early August and lasts until late May, with a winter break of six weeks (mid-December through to the end of January). Starting with the 2002-03 season, opening matches were introduced to feature defending champions on Friday nights on the first match day. Defending champions have not lost the opening matches since then, winning 19 of the 24 matches (up to the 2025-26 season). Starting with the 2021–22 season, kick off times were 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.