Bundesliga The Fußball-Bundesliga known as the Bundesliga or 1st Bundesliga, consists of 18 teams and operates a promotion and relegation system with the 2nd Bundesliga. All Bundesliga clubs participate in the DFB-Pokal (German Cup). The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup (German Super Cup) and, along with the top three teams in the table, earns a spot in the following season's UEFA Champions League. Seasons run from August to May. Games are played on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with a focus on Saturdays. In the 1932/33 season, there were 55 regional leagues in Germany with top-flight status. While football in other major European footballing nations was already organized into national professional leagues before World War II, for example, in England since 1888 and also in Austria, Spain, and Italy since the 1920s, the German national team's defeat to Yugoslavia (0–1) in the quarterfinals of the 1962 World Cup in Chile was one of the many impetus for the formation of a national league. At the annual DFB convention, under the leadership of the new president Hermann Gösmann (elected that same day), the Bundesliga was established in Dortmund's Westfalenhallen on July 28, 1962, to begin play in the 1963–64 season. Club Selection In the newly created league, 16 teams would play. Team qualification would be determined by sporting and economic criteria, with only one club per city. The selection process used to find the 16 founding members of the Bundesliga was extremely complex. The DFB opted for a classification system in which clubs' final positions in the top divisions from the 1951/52 to 1954/55 seasons were counted once, from 1955/56 to 1958/59 twice, and from 1959/60 to 1962/63 three times. Additional points were awarded for reaching the championship and cup finals. Furthermore, certain infrastructure requirements had to be met. For example, a club had to have a stadium with at least 35,000 seats and floodlights. East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, maintained its separate league structure. The selection of the 16 clubs participating in the first Bundesliga season was at times highly controversial. For example, 1. FC Saarbrücken was included not for sporting reasons, but rather for its stadium and infrastructure. It was speculated that this decision was made because Hermann Neuberger, a member of the DFB executive committee and a Saarland native, wanted to bring "his" club to the Bundesliga. For purely sporting reasons, both FK Pirmasens and Borussia Neunkirchen would have qualified as the second club from the southwest, alongside 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The following 16 clubs were founding members of the Bundesliga: From the Oberliga Nord: Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV. From the Oberliga West: Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln, Meidericher SV, Preußen Münster, FC Schalke 04. From the Oberliga Südwest: 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Saarbrücken. From the Oberliga Süd: Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, TSV 1860 Munich, VfB Stuttgart. From the Berlin City League: Hertha BSC. The first Bundesliga matches were played on August 24, 1963, with 327,000 spectators watching the eight matches on the first day of play in the stadiums. The first Bundesliga goal was scored by Timo Konietzka of Borussia Dortmund after 58 seconds against Werder Bremen. 1. FC Köln, already a professional team at the time, won the first Bundesliga championship convincingly, with only two defeats and a six-point lead over Meidericher SV. The following season saw the first major club crisis in the Bundesliga. Hertha BSC was stripped of its license due to debts owed to its players and was relegated to the then second-tier Regionalliga (fourth division). The two relegated teams, Karlsruher SC and FC Schalke 04, appealed their relegation (unlike today, there were no clear regulations governing such cases). After some back-and-forth—for example, a four-team qualifying round was scheduled and then canceled—the number of clubs was increased to 18, allowing both "truly" relegated teams to remain in the league. The DFB wanted to retain a Berlin club for political reasons. Tasmania Berlin (founded on June 2, 1900, and dissolved in 1973), the previous year's champion of the Berlin Regionalliga, was admitted to replace Hertha BSC. Despite an early season win, Tasmania were relegated after just one season in 1966 as the worst team in Bundesliga history, setting seven record lows that still stand 54 years later: fewest goals scored (15) and most goals conceded (108), fewest points (8), fewest wins (2). In the early 1970s, the league was rocked by the Bundesliga scandal, when Horst-Gregorio Canellas, the president of Offenbacher Kickers, surprised guests at his 50th anniversary party on June 6, 1971, by playing a tape. The recordings of several telephone conversations discussed match-fixing and bribery. Due to the league's match-fixing during the relegation battle, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Arminia Bielefeld managed to remain in the Bundesliga. The investigation, led by DFB Chief Prosecutor Hans Kindermann, found that 18 matches from the last eight rounds of the 1970/71 season were proven to have been fixed or manipulated. A total of 52 players, two coaches, and six directors were involved. Furthermore, Arminia Bielefeld and Kickers Offenbach had their Bundesliga licenses revoked. In the following years, football lost its credibility. The spectators punished the clubs. Although attendance had been declining steadily since 1965/66, it dropped dramatically in 1972/73, averaging 16,372 spectators per game. Besides the scandal, other reasons for the decline in attendance were also intensely discussed at the time, including the lack of comfort in the stadiums and the increasing television coverage. It was only with the 1974 World Cup that many stadiums were converted, expanded, or built. In 1972, the last salary and transfer restrictions were lifted, allowing professional football, which had existed in other countries for decades, to develop to its full potential. Borussia Mönchengladbach was the first club to successfully defend its Bundesliga championship (1970/71). In the following six seasons, Bayern Munich (1972–1974) and then Mönchengladbach (1975–1977) achieved the title hat-trick, a feat only repeated by Bayern Munich (1985–1987, 1999–2001, and 2013–2015). One of the two clubs won the championship for a total of nine consecutive seasons. Due to the smaller capacity of its own stadium, Borussia Mönchengladbach, unlike its Bavarian rivals, who moved to the new Olympic Stadium after the 1972 Olympic Games, was forced to repeatedly sell key players abroad. As a result, the club ceased to be competitive in the late 1970s. Although the 1977 league title was Mönchengladbach's last to date, and the team was relegated in 1999 and 2007, Bayern Munich managed to further extend its dominance in the following years. Borussia Mönchengladbach achieved the biggest victory in Bundesliga history on April 29, 1978, with a 12-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund. Internationally, the 1970s were the most successful decade for Bundesliga clubs. At least one club has reached the semi-finals every year, and one club has won the European Cup three times (Bayern Munich in 1974, 1975 and 1976), the European Cup Winners' Cup once (Hamburger SV in 1977) and the UEFA Cup two times (Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1975 and 1979). Since the early 1990s, the Bundesliga has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. This is partly due to the sporting success of the national team (a third World Cup title in 1990 and a third European Championship title in 1996) and partly due to the Bundesliga's targeted media marketing. In 1991, the German Football Association of the GDR (DFV) joined the DFB. With the alignment of the East German league system with the West German league system, FC Hansa Rostock and Dynamo Dresden were admitted from the GDR Oberliga to the Bundesliga. The league temporarily featured 20 clubs in 1991/92, with four being relegated. VfB Stuttgart became the first all-German champion after the end of World War II, overcoming Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund in the final round. The league competition was significantly more balanced than in previous years. Five clubs won the championship during this decade. Borussia Dortmund was able to use the revenue from the European Cup to bring players like Jürgen Kohler, Stefan Reuter, and Andreas Möller back to the Bundesliga from Juventus, thus becoming one of FC Bayern Munich's main rivals in the mid-1990s. In the 1990s, Bundesliga clubs also reached at least one European semifinal each year. Borussia Dortmund won the Champions League in 1997, Bayern Munich (1996) and Schalke 04 (1997) won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1992, and Werder Bremen won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992. Furthermore, a Bundesliga team reached the final of each competition once again. With Karlsruher SC, SC Freiburg, and VfL Wolfsburg, several teams qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time in their Bundesliga history, with Karlsruher SC reaching the semifinals in 1994. On the other hand, established clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and 1. FC Köln were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga for the first time after many years in the league. In 1998, 1. FC Kaiserslautern became the first team to win the German championship directly after being promoted. The championship has been decided in the final round six times. In the 1999/2000 season, a draw with newly promoted SpVgg Unterhaching would have been enough for Bayer 04 Leverkusen, but a 2-0 defeat allowed Bayern Munich to overtake them. The championship decider a year later was even more dramatic: FC Schalke 04, after a 5-3 victory in the final round, already believed they were German champions, but Bayern Munich scored the goal they needed to defend their title in stoppage time. At the start of the 2003/04 season, on August 23, 2003, the Bundesliga celebrated its 40th anniversary with a match between the "dinosaur of the Bundesliga," Hamburger SV, and the record-breaking FC Bayern Munich. In January 2005, a football betting scandal shocked the Bundesliga. However, it only affected matches in the 2nd Bundesliga, the German Cup, and the Regionalliga. As a result of the scandal, the DFB installed an early warning system that will flag unusual bets in the future. Attendance numbers continued to climb to new highs. The rising attendance figures can be explained by the many newly built or modernized stadiums for the 2006 World Cup. Furthermore, the construction of private boxes in stadiums was geared toward a different clientele. The proportion of female spectators also increased. Immediately after the turn of the millennium, German clubs reached the Champions League final twice more (Bayern Munich, winners in 2001, and Bayer Leverkusen in 2002) and the UEFA Cup final once (Borussia Dortmund in 2002). Bayern Munich's 2001 Champions League victory was the last European cup triumph for a German team for the next twelve years. The gradual decline in the Bundesliga's international standing in the late 2000s was accompanied by a temporary drop in the UEFA five-year rankings. The Bundesliga dropped one spot, dropping out of the top three, and thus losing a Champions League spot. After a brief drop to fifth place, it regained third place at the end of the 2010/11 season and has had four Champions League spots again since the 2011/12 season. In 2008/09, Hamburger SV and SV Werder Bremen met in the UEFA Cup semifinals. SV Werder Bremen won, becoming the first German team since 2002 to reach the final of a European competition. They lost 2-1 after extra time to Shakhtar Donetsk. In 2010, Bayern Munich became the first German club since 2002 to reach the Champions League final. In the final, FC Bayern Munich lost 2-0 to Inter Milan. Two years later, FC Bayern reached the Champions League final again, losing to Chelsea in their own stadium. In the 2012/13 season, a total of seven German teams reached the group stages of both the Europa League and the Champions League. All of them reached the round of 16, a record. Furthermore, the 2013 Champions League final was an all-German clash between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, the second since the 1979/80 UEFA Cup final. Bayern Munich won the final 2-1, becoming the first German Champions League winner since 2001. Bayern Munich's Dominance: Criticism and Praise Since 2013, FC Bayern Munich has distinguished itself from all other Bundesliga clubs with unprecedented dominance, winning the German championship in every season since. With three consecutive titles in 2014, 2015, and 2016, Pep Guardiola became the most successful foreign coach in the Bundesliga. This also marked the first time in Bundesliga history that a club won four consecutive titles. In 2020, FC Bayern Munich celebrated its eighth consecutive title. During these eight seasons, FC Bayern earned an average of 14.4 points more than the second-placed team. FC Bayern finished the 2019/20 season with the best second half of the season in Bundesliga history: remaining undefeated with 16 wins and one draw, along with a goal difference of 54:10. This ratio has only been achieved once before (also by FC Bayern, in 2012/13). In international comparisons, however, the Bundesliga—with the exception of FC Bayern Munich—is once again falling behind. In particular, the top leagues in Spain and England lead the five-year UEFA rankings by a considerable margin, ahead of the Bundesliga. German teams play only a minor role in European cup competitions. In the 2016/17 season, for the first time since the 2004/05 season, no German club reached the semifinals of a European competition. The decline in competitive balance and the resulting increase in the predictability of sporting results are increasingly criticized. A 2022 scientific study shows that clubs' final rankings depend significantly on their market value at the start of the season, and the trend is steadily increasing. FC Bayern Munich has achieved a level of success greater than that of all its rivals combined. Former Germany international Stefan Effenberg suggested that the Bundesliga would need to be restructured to end Bayern's dominance. Former England international Owen Hargreaves praised the Bundesliga, along with Pep Guardiola, for its positive impact on the development of young talent, noting that the Bundesliga is the best league in the world for fostering young footballers. Many young English talents have sought refuge in Germany to regain their fitness and football skills. Outside of Europe, Japan's J.League, founded in 1992, was heavily influenced by the Bundesliga's philosophy. Since then, the J.League has established itself as one of the best football leagues in Asia. The Bundesliga has received praise for its reputation for sound financial management and the physical fitness of its players. Investor Intake and Bayer Leverkusen's Historic Performance In December 2023, the DFL decided, in a secret ballot with a two-thirds majority (24 of the 36 club representatives voted in favor), to invest between €900 million and €1 billion over a 20-year period. A portion of the DFL's media revenues would go to investors. The vote sparked constant protests from fans. Objects such as chocolate coins and tennis balls were thrown onto the pitch in both the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga, leading to long match interruptions and even the risk of abandonment. The protests focused on the claim that the exact two-thirds majority in the secret ballot was achieved because Martin Kind of Hannover 96 voted against his own club's instructions, which constituted a violation of the 50+1 rule. Hannover 96 claimed that the DFL knew of Kind's intended violation of the instructions before the vote and had deliberately designed the voting procedures so that this would not become public knowledge. These allegations were rejected by the DFL. Several clubs, including Hannover 96, requested a re-vote. On February 21, 2024, the DFL Executive Committee announced that it would not proceed with the plans following massive fan protests. "A successful continuation of the process no longer seems possible in view of current developments," said Hans-Joachim Watzke—although there was "a large majority in favor of the commercial necessity of the strategic partnership." Bayer Leverkusen became the first team in Bundesliga history to remain unbeaten in a Bundesliga season in the 2023/24 season, securing the club's first-ever title and ending FC Bayern Munich's run of over a decade. Alex