Hallo! Hope you are well! I love your blog and it’s made me really want to understand and get into Bundesliga. How can I know everything I need to know about Bayern so I’m up to date and understand what’s happening within the team? I hope this makes sense? Danke!
hi anon! i’m so sorry it took me so long to reply to this. this week’s been so busy already.
i guess the internet is a good place to start for your research :) of course wikipedia itself is not a bad source, but if you really want to get information, look at the bottom of the wikipedia page for all the teams in the bundesliga, and get the info from the sources there. that’s what wikipedia uses to write their articles, so that should give you even more insight into the bundesliga and its teams, and rules, etc than you already get from the wikipedia article itself.
i’ll try and sum up the most basic info for you - that i know - and if you have any other questions, feel free to send me another message and maybe we can get into more detail:
bundesliga is the highest “class” / tier that you can play in, in germany. it is divided into 2 different tiers: 1. bundesliga and 2. bundesliga.
1. bundesliga consists of 18 teams.
for the upcoming seasons - currently in alphabetical order because the new season doesn’t start until the 18th of September - these are the teams:
DSC Arminia Bielefeld
FC Augsburg
Bayer Leverkusen
FC Bayern München
Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Eintracht Frankfurt
1. SC Freiburg
Hertha BSC Berlin
TSG Hoffenheim
1. FC Köln
1. FSV Main 05
Red Bull Leipzig
FC Schalke 04
VfB Stuttgart
Union Berlin
Werder Bremen
VfL Wolfsburg
Arminia Bielefeld were promoted from 2nd league, where they ended up in first place in the season of 2019/2020. The second team that was promoted is VfB Stuttgart.
In exchange for these two teams being promoted, two teams have to be relegated. In the season of 2019/2020 those two teams were SC Paderborn 07 and Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Back to the Bundesliga Basics:
The Bundesliga stands under the umbrella of “DFB”, or Deutscher Fußball Bund (German Football Association), which was founded in 1900. In 1904 the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded, which is basically the big boss of football. They keep an eye on a number of football associations across the world and also set up the Men’s and Women’s World Cup. DFB joined the FIFA right away in 1904, and in 1954 DFB also joined the UEFA, which is an acronym for Union des Associations Européennes de Football and therefor takes care of all things football in Europe. Self-explanatory.
UEFA wasn’t founded until 1954 because... things happened in Europe in the 30s and 40s.
During the time of the Nazi regime the DFB was dismantled in 1940 and it didn’t pick up again until 1950, when the Federal German Republic was reformed, and the West German football associations decided to get the DFB back up and running. They re-joined FIFA in 1954, and, as mentioned before, also joined UEFA that same year.
The Bundesliga how we know it, however, was not actually a thing until 28. Juli 1962, starting with the season of 1963/1964. Before that there were a number of clubs and associations throughout Germany who all kind of played side by side, and eventually in the 30s the idea of a “Reichsliga” (league of the German Reich) was brought up, where a certain number of teams would play and one would end up winning the title. Kind of what we do now.
And then the war happened.
And in between the end of that and the 60s, obviously they had brought some ideas back to the table, had tried to figure out a more competitive way and to bring football closer to the people.
In 1962 the idea of the Bundesliga was founded. 16 teams were to play each other in one league, competing against each other. 5 from “Oberliga Süd”, 5 from “Oberliga West”, 3 from “Oberliga Nord”, 2 from “Oberliga Südwest” and one from the Berlin City League - the Western part of Berlin, of course.
They had a super complicated system in place to figure out which teams would eventually be allowed to be the “founding fathers” of the Bundesliga. It had to do with economics, they ended up coming up with a weird system for who gets how many points for winning their own league, adding those up, multiplying, and then somehow they ended up with 16 teams... don’t ask me how, I have dyscalculia, I don’t understand their way of thinking at all. Maybe there was some voodoo involved, God knows, honestly.
Eventually they had their 16 winners from the aforementioned leagues:
Oberliga Süd: Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, TSV 1860 München, VfB Stuttgart
Oberliga Nord: Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV
Oberliga West: Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln, Meidericher SV, Preußen Münster, FC Schalke 04
Oberliga Südwest: 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Saarbrücken
Stadtliga Berlin: Hertha BSC Berlin
In 1963 this “Bundesliga” wasn’t a pro-league, though. And there were a ton of rules in place that would probably make you go “huh?” these days... or maybe you’d think they are great rules and they need to make a comeback. A transfer, for example, could only cost up to 50.000 German Mark (roughly 25.564,50€ / $30.149,62).
Until 1967 you also weren’t allowed to sign more than three players from another team for the upcoming season.
At some point it was decided that football players would also have the benefits of a full-time worker, if they decided on football as a career, and not just something they did on the side.
When East and West Germany were reunited in 1989 / the early 90s, that’s when the Bundesliga really became more of a commercial success not just in Germany, but also throughout non-German Europe and the rest of the world. Which is also largely due to Germany winning the World Cup in 1990, and the European title in 1996, but the Bundesliga was also specifically marketed to popular media. In 1991 the German Football Association of the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Fußball-Verband der DDR) - the East German football association - joined DFB. Thus Germany was one again, not just on paper, but also in football.
Another thing that helped the popularity of the Bundesliga was the fact that in the 90s at least one Bundesliga club reached a European championship semi-final. In 1997 Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League, in 1996 Bayern München won the Europapokal, in 1997 Schalke 04 won the UEFA-Pokal. And in the following championships at least one German team reached the final of said competitions.
Let’s jump to the 2000s!
Since 2000 FC Bayern München has won the Bundesliga 13 times. The other winners were: Borussia Dortmund (2002, 2011, 2012), Werder Bremen (2004), VfB Stuttgart (2007) and VfL Wolfsburg (2009). Bayern München is also the only Bundesliga team in the 2000s to win the Champions League: 2013 and 2020.
After all that knowledge, here’s some random facts and numbers that you might find interesting:
- since it was founded in 1963, a total of 56 teams have played in Germany’s highest league
- until the season of 2017/2018 Hamburger SV was part of the 1. Bundesliga for 55 seasons, which was a record. Now Werder Bremen holds this record, with 56 seasons to their name
- Bayer Leverkusen holds the nickname of “Vizekusen” (Vice-Kusen), and they were at one point regarded as the “ever-second”, always getting close to the top, but never reaching it
- Karl-Heinz Körbel has the most Bundesliga appearances: 602 - for Eintracht Frankfurt. He never lost a final with Frankfurt and was never relegated.
- Bernd Stöber was the youngest coach in the season of 1976/1977 a t just 24 years, 1 month and 17 days old.
- Brazil is the best-represented nation after Germany, with 159 Bundesliga exports (159), followed by Denmark (129), Austria (119), Croatia (118) and Poland (109).
- in the season of 2019/2020 Thomas Müller had the most assists: 21.
- retired football player Gerd Müller, whose active career was between 1965-1979, holds the record for the most goals: 365.
- Otto Rehhagel holds the record for most matches as a manager: 832.
Now let’s go back to where we started: the season of 2020/2021.
As mentioned above, the 1. Bundesliga has 18 teams. To get you up-to-date I’ll give you some more info on each team, that you might find useful!
DSC Arminia Bielefeld:
- founded: May 3rd 1905
- manager: Uwe Neuhaus
- stadium: SchücoArena
FC Augsburg:
- founded: August 8th 1907
- manager: Heiko Herrlich
- stadium: WWK Arena
Bayer 04 Leverkusen:
- founded: July 1st 1904 -> rebranded to current name on April 1st 1999
- manager: Peter Bosz
- stadium: BayArena
FC Bayern München:
- founded: February 27th 1900
- manager: Hansi Flick
- stadium: Allianz Arena
Borussia Dortmund:
- founded: December 19th 1909
- manager: Lucien Favre
- stadium: Signal Iduna Park
Borussia Mönchengladbach:
- founded: August 1st 1900
- manager: Marco Rose
- stadium: BORUSSIA-PARK
Eintracht Frankfurt:
- founded: March 8th 1899
- manager: Adi Hütter
- stadium: Deutsche Bank Park
SC Freiburg:
- founded: May 30th 1904
- manager: Christian Streich
- stadium: Schwarzwald-Stadion
Hertha BSC Berlin:
- founded: July 25th 1892
- manager: Bruno Labbadia
- stadium: Olympiastadion Berlin
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim:
- founded: July 1st 1899
- manager: Sebastian Hoeneß
- stadium: Prezero-Arena
1. FC Köln:
- founded: February 13th 1948
- manager: Markus Gisdol
- RheinEnergieSTADION
1. FSV Mainz 05:
- founded: March 16th 1905
- manager: Achim Beierlorzer
- stadium: OPEL ARENA
Red Bull Leipzig:
- founded: May 19th 2009
- manager: Julian Nagelsmann
- Red Bull Arena
FC Schalke 04:
- founded: May 4th 1904
- manager: David Wagner
- stadium: VELTINS-Arena
VfB Stuttgart:
- founded: September 9th 1893
- manager: Pellegrino Matarazzo
- Mercedes-Benz Arena
1. FC Union Berlin:
- founded: January 20th 1966 (originally 1906)
- manager: Urs Fischer
- stadium: Stadion An der Alten Försterei
SV Werder Bremen:
- founded: February 4th 1899
- manager: Florian Kohfeldt
- stadium: Weserstadion
VfL Wolfsburg:
- fonded: September 12th 1945 -> rebranded to current name on January 16th 2001
- manager: Oliver Glasner
- stadium: Volkswagen Arena
Maybe, to get a feeling for each club, you can check out each club’s YouTube account. Through that you should be able to find their other social media, or just by simply googling the team name:
Arminia Bielefeld ● FC Augsburg ● Bayer 04 Leverkusen ● FC Bayern München ● Borussia Dortmund ● Borussia Mönchengladbach ● Eintracht Frankfurt ● 1. SC Freiburg ● Hertha BSC Berlin ● TSG Hoffenheim ● 1. FC Köln ● 1. FSV Main 05 ● Red Bull Leipzig ● FC Schalke 04 ● VfB Stuttgart ● Union Berlin ● Werder Bremen ● VfL Wolfsburg
Each football team has 11 players on the pitch. For the new season in 2019 it was decided that instead of 18 players, each team would be allowed to have 20 players in total - which means 9 substitute players on the bench.
During each season a team can win three main cups (the ones that everyone cares about the most, let’s be real): DFB-Pokal, Meistertitel (Bundesliga winner) and Champions League trophy. The last of which is not a German tournament / cup to be won, so I’ll leave that out for now.
DFB Pokal:
The DFB-Pokal is a German knockout competition, starting out with 64 teams. 36 teams are from the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, the top four finishers of the third league are automatically added to the list. 21 slots are given to the cup winners of regional football associations, and the remaining 3 slots are given to the regional associations with the most men’s teams.
Direct quote from Wikipedia, which in turn got their information from here: for the first round, the 64 teams are split into two pots of 32. One pot contains the 18 teams from the previous season of the Bundesliga and the top 14 teams from the previous season of the 2. Bundesliga. The other pot contains the bottom 4 teams from the previous season of the 2. Bundesliga, the top 4 teams from the previous season of the 3. Liga and the 24 amateur teams that qualified through regional football tournaments. Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot. Since 1982, teams from the pot containing amateur teams have played the game at home.For the second round, the teams are again divided into two pots according to the same principles. Depending on the results of the first round, the pots might not be equal in terms of number. Teams from one pot are drawn against teams from the other pot until one pot is empty. The remaining teams are then drawn against each other with the team first drawn playing the game at home.For the remaining rounds, other than the final, the teams are drawn from one pot. Since 1985 the final has been held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
Meistertitel:
The Meistertitel is rewarded to the team that comes out on top on the last match-day of the season. Of course it can be calculated whether other teams can still catch up - points-wise - but the Meisterschale is not rewarded until the season is over. The current record-holder of most Bundesliga wins is FC Bayern München (29), followed by Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach (5) and Werder Bremen (4) in second and third place.
With the first three Bundesliga wins a team gets a gold star to put on their jersey, with five wins they get a second, ten wins is a third, twenty wins is a forth star. On top of that, the reigning Bundesliga champion gets to wear the Bundesliga logo in gold color on their sleeve.
And that’s that on that.
I don’t know what language you’re fluent in, but here are some football apps that you might enjoy using, to be on track with the upcoming season:
OneFootball
Kicker App
Bundesliga App
11 Freunde App
Amazon Bundesliga Radio
each team’s individual app for updates and news
You can also check out @bundesliga_en on Instagram and Twitter.
One last info for you, so you can jump right into it on the first day of the new Bundesliga season (fixtures are never really 100% until a day or two before the match is supposed to be, so this is preliminary): here is the link for the schedule of the upcoming 1. Bundesliga season.
You can also check out the 2. Bundesliga schedule, because it’s super interesting down there in the second league as well! I highly recommend it (keep your fingers crossed for Paderborn for me!).
I think that’s about everything I can tell you. This reply is already faaaaaaaaar too long, and I apologize! If you have any questions or want me to elaborate, feel free to send me another message.
Have the best time getting used to the Bundesliga, and welcome to the family!
Sources - with more info - under the cut:
fun facts: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/easter-eggs-surprising-facts-and-figures-you-may-not-know-3798
team information / schedule: https://www.dfb.de/bundesliga/spieltagtabelle/
team information / schedule (2nd source): https://www.kicker.de/dfb-pokal/spieltag
general information: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu%C3%9Fball-Bundesliga
app suggestions: https://www.smartmobil.de/magazin/fussball-apps
explanation for how the DFB-Pokal: https://web.archive.org/web/20090609211623/https://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=460546
70 notes
·
View notes