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Bundesliga

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The official Bundesliga logo.

In German football, the Bundesliga is the highest level league club competition where play determines the national champions. The term also applies to football in Austria and is used to refer to the highest level league competitions in several other sports in those two countries.

Germany was unusual in that, unlike in other countries, a unified national league structure was quite late in developing. The Bundesliga was not formed until 1963 and the structure and organization of the nation's football leagues have undergone frequent change right up to the present day. Until 2001, the Bundesliga was directly under the control German football's governing body the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB or German Football Association). This changed with the formation of the Deutsche Fußball-Liga (DFL or German Football League) when the Bundesligen came under the auspices of this new body. The DFL, while remaining subordinate to the DFB, manages Germany's professional leagues and is responsible for the issuing of licences to clubs, general fiscal oversight of the Bundesligen, and marketing rights for the two upper leagues.

Overview

The Bundesliga is comprised of two divisions, the First Bundesliga, and below that, the Second Bundesliga. The First Bundesliga is called simply the "Bundesliga" in common usage, while the tier II league is referred to as the Second Bundesliga, 2.Bundesliga, or Zweite Liga (Second League) to distinguish it from the premier league. The Second Bundesliga has been the division below the First Bundesliga since 1974. The Bundesligen are professional leagues, while the leagues below these top two tiers are amateur. A measure of professionalism has begun to creep into the Regionaliga (III) from above as teams sign and then farm out prospects to have them gain playing experience.


German Football League Structure / 1903 to Present

Germany West Germany West Germany West Germany Germany Germany East Germany
Class 1994 - present 1974-1994 1963-1974 1946-1963 1933-1945 1903-1932 DDR 1949-1991
I Bundesliga Bundesliga Bundesliga Oberliga Gauliga Verbandsliga DDR Oberliga
II 2.Bundesliga 2.Bundesliga Regionalliga 2.Oberliga Bezirksliga Bezirksliga DDR Liga
III Regionalliga Am.Oberliga 1.Amateurliga ▼ ??? ▼ ??? ▼ ??? DDR 2.Liga
IV Oberliga Verbandsliga 2.Amateurliga Bezirksliga
V Verbandsliga Landesliga ▼ ???
VI Landesliga ▼ ???
VII Bezirksoberliga
VIII Bezirksliga
IX Kreisliga
X Kreisklasse A
XI Kreisklasse B
XII Kreisklasse C


Below the level of the 2.Bundesliga, leagues are most often subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionaliga is currently made up of a Nord (North) and Sud (South) division, and the Oberliga is comprised of divisions representing states, or large urban and geographical areas. League structure has shifted frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 90's, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany and the subsequent intregration of the national leagues of East and West Germany.

Every team in the Bundesliga must have a license to play in the league, or else they get relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a license teams must be financially healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organizations.

As in other national leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division:

  • A greater share of televsion broadcast license revenues goes to Bundesliga sides.
  • Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support. Average attendance in the upper class league is 30,000 per game – twice the average of the 2.Bundesliga.
  • Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships.
  • 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 hold skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first class stadium facilities.

The Bundesliga is a financial powerhouse and the 2.Bundesliga has begun to evolve in a similar direction, becoming more stable organizationally and fiscally, and reflecting an increasingly higher standard of professional level play.

Internationally the most well-known German clubs include Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, FC Schalke 04, and Werder Bremen, all currently in the First Bundesliga.

Presently, at the end of the season, the bottom three teams of the First Bundesliga are relegated to the Second Bundesliga, and the top three finishers of the Second Bundesliga are promoted into the First, where they will compete in the next season.

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). In recent years, games have been played on Saturdays (seven games) and Sundays (two games). A new television deal in 2006 will re-introduce a Friday game in place of one of the Saturday matches.

History

Early History

Local sports associations or clubs are a longtime feature of the culture of German athletics. Each club would participate in, and field teams from, one or more sports depending on local interest and resources. Football was a popular game from early on and the German sports landscape was dotted with hundreds of local sides.

Prior to the formation of the Bundesliga, German football was played at an amateur level in a large number of regional leagues. Oberliga (Upper League) champions played a series of playoff matches for the right to compete in a final game for the national championship. On January 28, 1900, a national association, the Deutscher Fussball Bund (DFB) or German Football Association, was founded in Leipzig. The first recognized national championship team was VfB Leipzig who beat DFC Prague 7:2 in a game played in Hamburg on May 31, 1903.

From 1903 to 1944, teams played for the Viktoria Meisterschaftstrophaee (Victoria Championship Trophy) donated by Crown Prince Wilhelm. The trophy was originally intended to be awarded on an annual alternating basis to the championship team of the DFB and Germany's rugby league. Football became the more dominant sport and the trophy stayed with the DFB. The last team to win the Viktoria was Dresdner SC who beat Luftwaffen SV Hamburg in Berlin's Olympiastadion 4:0. In the confusion at the end of World War II, the trophy disappered. It was re-discovered decades later in a bank safe-deposit box where it had been placed by a Dresden supporter for safekeeping. It has since been returned to the DFB. In the meantime, a new championship trophy, the Meisterschale, was created in 1949.

In 1919, there were 150,000 registered football players in Germany; by 1932 there were more than a million. In spite of the formation of a national association German football held to an ideal of amateurism built around local sports associations which felt that professionalism would diminish sportmanship and local participation in the game. In the early 1930's, the DFB's president, Felix Linnemann, pushed for the creation of a professional league, or Reichsliga, in which the country's best teams would compete for the national championship. The idea was rebuffed by the regional federations dominating the sport.

German Football Under the Third Reich

The reach of Germany's totalitarian Nazi regime stretched into social institutions at all levels, including even sports clubs, their football teams and the leagues they played in. Most sports and football associations were disbanded or replaced by Nazi-sponsored organizations. To join a DFB club a player required recommendations from two "non-Marxists" to be permitted to play. The DFB gradually lost its independence as it was assimilated into the Deutscher Reichsausschuss für Leibesübungen (DRA) or Reich Committee for Physical Education.

Under Heinz von Tschammer und Osten as Reichssportsführer appointed by the Nazis, formerly independant sports organizations became departments of a new organization which replaced the DRA — Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL, later NSRL or National Socialist Reichsbund für Leibesübungen). Shamefully, as in most of German society at the time, sports associations and football teams took part in the purge of Jews from their organizations, and so contributed to their deaths. A very few clubs, such as Alemannia Aachen, moved to protect their members in the face of the actions of the regime.

Football's Oberligen were re-organized into sixteen Gau, or political regions, in the Gauliga, which was in place from 1933 to 1945. Ironically, the overall effect of this was positive for German football. Prior to 1933, nearly 600 clubs competed at the "top flight". League re-organization reduced this to about 170 sides and significantly raised the level of competition, which helped to increase attendance levels at games. This was the beginning of a process of consolidation of the myriad of small regional leagues that would culminate in a stronger, unified national league structure.

The pre-war period saw the return of a number of German sides that played in a rump league set up in the Saarland, a German state occupied by the French since the end of World War I. Some of these teams played in the French 2nd Division, including FV Saarbruecken, which won that division handily but was not permitted play in the premier division.

FC Schalke 04 dominated German football during the Nazi era, leading the team to be held up for propaganda purposes as an example of the "new Germany". As the Reich expanded through conquest, teams from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg were incorporated into the Gauliga. After the Anschluss, or Germany's union with Austria, Vienna's Rapid Wien captured the German Cup in 1938 and the German national championship in 1941. That championship was a 4:3 win over Schalke who had been ahead 0:3 with just fifteen minutes to play in the game.

During the war, football was used as a morale booster for the population and was supported by the regime. Many teams were sponsored by the Luftwaffe, the SS or other branches of the miltary. As the tide turned against Germany, the Gauliga began to crumble as players were called away to military service or were killed in the conflict, stadiums were bombed and travel became difficult. The original sixteen Gau broke up into smaller, more local, circuits. The level of play deteriorated and lopsided scores became common, the record being a 32:0 win by Germania Mudersbach over FV Engen. The 1943-44 championship was initially cancelled, but eventually went ahead after widespread protest. The 1944-45 season began less than two weeks later, rather than after the usual three month summer break. The last recorded match in the Third Reich was on April 23, 1945 as FC Bayern defeated TSV 1860 3:2. Less than three weeks later, Germany surrendered unconditionally.

Postwar Football

Under Allied occupation all organizations, including sports clubs and associations, were initially banned. However, within a year, sports-only organizations without political affiliation were permitted, and most pre-war clubs were reconstituted. Oberliga play resumed in 1946-47 on a regional basis and, in 1948, 1. FC Nürnberg defeated FC Kaiserlauten 2:1 to become the first post-war national champions.

Interestingly, at the time, there was no "prize" to play for. The Viktoria trophy traditionally awarded to the nation's best side had gone missing in the chaos of post-war Germany. In 1949, Nürnberg and each winning side since Vfb Leipzig in 1903, would have their names engraved on the newly created Meisterschale. The new trophy is nicknamed "the salad bowl" for it's shape.

Through the 1950's, 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 amateur 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."

Inspite of this, Germany (as West Germany) managed to win its' first World Cup in 1954 defeating heavily favoured Hungary (3:2), the only "amateur" side ever to do so. The unexpected victory was called "the miracle of Bern" by a delighted nation. An oddity of the 1954 World Cup preliminary rounds was the fielding of a separate side by the German state of Saarland, which was occupied by the French and did not become a part of West Germany again until after a plebicite and treaty negotiation. The Saarlanders acquited themselves well, finishing second in their group ahead of Norway and behind group winner West Germany.

Meanwhile, in East Germany, a separate league was established with the formation of the DS-Oberliga (Deutscher Sportausschuss Oberliga or German Sports Association) in 1950. The league was re-named 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 2 relegation spots.

The Formation of the Bundesliga

The defeat of the national team by Yugoslavia (0:1) in a 1962 World Cup quarter final game in Chile was the impetus to the formation a national league. Under DFB president Hermann Neuberger the Bundesliga was created in Dortmund on July 28, 1962 to begin play starting with the 1963-64 season. The new German professional league was modelled on the long-established English league, which had been set up in 1888.

At the time, there were five Oberligen (Upper Leagues) in place representing the West Germany's North, South, West, Southwest and Berlin. East Germany, under Russian occupation, maintained its' separate league structure. Forty-six clubs applied for admission to the new league. Sixteen teams were selected based on their success on the field, economic criteria and representation of the various Oberligen.

The first Bundesliga games were played on August 24, 1963. Early favorite 1. FC Köln (45:19) was the first Bundesliga champion over second place clubs Meidericher SV and Eintracht Frankfurt (both 39:25).


The 60's

The new league was met with enthusiasm early on and large crowds came out to watch the nation's top teams. No single team was able to dominate through the 60's — in seven seasons from 1963-64 through to 1969-70, seven different teams won the championship. The 1965-66 season saw the promotion of Bayern Munchen to the top league and in 1968-69 they won their first championship on their way to becoming the most dominant side in Bundesliga history.

The 60's also saw one of the strangest incidents in the history of the Bundesliga. The license of Hertha BSC Berlin was revoked for the 1964-65 season and the team relegated to the Regionalliga Berlin (Regional leagues being the leagues below the Bundesliga at the time) for breaking the league's player salary rules. The last place clubs, Karlsruher SC and FC Schalke 04, tried to avoid being demoted by laying claim to Hertha's place. It was decided to suspend relegation for one season and increase the number of teams in the league from 16 to 18 to accomodate the two teams which would normally be promoted from the Regionalligen. The politics of the Cold War era led to a space being held open for a team from the former capital city to replace Hertha and the debacle of the promotion of Tasmania 1900 Berlin, which went on to the worst season in league history.

West Germany made another appearance in the World Cup final in 1966, losing (4:2) to England in overtime.

The 70's

The young league got off to a difficult start in the decade as a scandal broke with Kickers Offenbach admiting to trying to bribe players to affect the outcome of games. Allegations followed that other clubs, including Bielefeld, Hertha, Schalke, and Köln, were also involved. The scandal caused a disastrous loss of confidence in the Bundesliga and game attendance plummeted. Investigations by the DFB led to the banning of many players, although most of these sentences were commuted. Arminia Bielefeld, identified as the club central to the scandal, was stripped of all points they had earned during the 1971-72 season and then relegated to the league below.

Enthusiasm for the sport was restored by host West Germany's win in the 1974 World Cup and the first wins by Bundesliga sides in the European Champions Cup (a triple by Bayern Munchen in 1974, 1975 and 1976) and the UEFA Cup (Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1975). Attendance rose steadily after the end of the bribery scandal, putting some teams on solid enough financial footings to be able to attract the first foreign stars to the league in the 1977-78 season.

The Bundesliga was dominated by two sides through the 70's. Borussia Mönchengladbach became the first team to successfully defend it's title with it's win in 1970-71. Bayern Munchen became the first three-time champion with wins in 1971-72, 1972-73 and 1973-74. Borussia Mönchengladbach then turned a triple of it's own over the following three seasons. After wins by Koln and Hamburg, Bayern closed out the decade by matching Mönchengladbach's four titles.

The 80s

In the 80s there was a general decline in attendances in the federal league. This was, among other things, because several Germans stars were transferred to foreign leagues and, in addition, the increasing problem of hooliganism.

Bayern Munich began and ended the 80's with championships, two of a half dozen titles they would take in the decade.

The 90s

In 1991, a year after German reunification, East Germany's Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR, or Football Federation of the German Democratic Republic, was merged into West Germany's DFB. East German sides were seeded and assigned to various levels within the West German league structure, which was itself modified to accomodate the influx of new clubs. To facilitate the union with the eastern league the Bundesliga temporarily expanded to 20 clubs in the 1991-92 season and added the DDR-Oberliga's top two sides, Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock. The Bundesliga returned to an 18 team slate in the following season with Dresden managing to stick in the top league, while Rostock was relegated. These two teams continued to make appearances in the Bundesliga through the 90's. The only other former East German sides to earn promotion to the Bundesliga to date are FC Energie Cottbus and VfB Leipzig, while a half dozen others of these clubs have played in 2.Bundesliga.

Since the beginning of the 90s, the Bundesliga again enjoyed increasing popularity in Germany. This was on one hand due to the success of the German national football team (third World Cup title in 1990 and third European Championships title in 1996). The Bundesliga also began to take a more deliberate approach to marketing and promoting itself and its' member clubs, following the example of other more widely recognized European leagues.

The 2000s

The 40th Anniversary of the Bundesliga

The first game of the newly formed Bundesliga was played on August 24, 1963; since that time, 48 clubs have played in the Bundesliga. It is probably no coincidence that on the 40th anniversary of the launch of the current Bundesliga, two clubs with a very special meaning for the league met in a game: Hamburger SV, the "dinosaur"—i.e. the only club which has played in the first league in every season of its existence, and "German record champion" Bayern Munich, which had just won their 17th premiership title (the first title of 1932 not taken into consideration).

2004

The honor of "verdienter Meistervereine" (championship trophy) was introduced, following international custom, with golden stars on the crest: Starting from ten German championships since existence the Bundesliga there are three stars (Bayern München), for five to nine titles two stars (Borussia Mönchengladbach) and for three or four championships a star (Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund).

2005

The 42nd Bundesliga season was overshadowed by the revelation of the Bundesliga scandal of 2005 involving the then DFB-referee, Robert Hoyzer. During the scandal, Hoyzer confessed that matches in the Second Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokals and the Regionalliga had been fixed. In February 2005, Hoyzer was arrested because of a risk of him absconding, after he admits that the confessing referee had not admitted all manipulated matches to him, and a maximum sentence of up to 10 years was threatened. In the course of the match fixing scandal several referees, who were involved in the scandal, were suspended by the DFB. After disputed referee decisions in the Bundesliga of the disconcerted impartial ones video evidence is again discussed and an introduction is speculated.

Despite all the scandal, attendances in the 2004/05 season a new record. The 306 games of the 42nd season saw a total attendance of over 11.56 million spectators (on average, 37,781 spectators attended each match). Most, on the average 77,235 spectators visited the home matches of Borussia Dortmund, followed by FC Schalke 04 (61,341 spectators),FC Bayern München (53,294), Borussia Mönchengladbach (49,183) and Hamburger SV (48.927). The interest in the Bundesliga in the 2006 World Cup enormous in the own country. Due to the again built, in the year 2005, the most modern stadiums in the world, like for example the Veltins-Arena, the Allianz Arena or the upgraded Westfalenstadion there has been some disruption to Bundesliga matches in the stadiums.

League Rules

The German football champion is decided strictly by play in the Bundesliga. Each club plays every other club once at home and once away. Originally, a victory was worth 2 points, with a draw worth 1 point and a loss no points. Since the 1995/96 season, a victory has been worth 3 points, with no change in the value of a draw or loss. The club with the most points at the end of the season becomes the German champion. Currently, the top two clubs in the table qualify automatically for the group phase of the UEFA Champions League, while the third-place team enters the Champions League at the third qualifying round (see overview). The three teams at the bottom of the table are relegated into the 2nd Bundesliga, while the top three teams in the 2nd Bundesliga are promoted (see overview).

If teams are level on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

  1. Goal difference for the entire season.
  2. Total goals scored for the entire season.
  3. Head-to-head results (total points).
  4. Head-to-head goal difference.

If two clubs are still tied after all of these tiebreakers have been applied, a single match is held at a neutral site to determine the placement. However, this has never been necessary in the history of the Bundesliga.

Changes In League Structure

  • Number of teams:
  • Number of teams relegated (automatic relegation except as noted):
    • 1963-1974: 2, determined by a relegation round
    • 1981-1991: 2 automatic; the 16th-place team in the First Bundesliga played a test match against the third-place team of the Second Bundesliga for the final spot in the First Bundesliga
    • 1991/92: 4
    • Since 1992: 3

Overview: European Qualification (as of 2005/06)

  • 1st place: German football champion
  • 1st and 2nd place: Group phase of UEFA Champions League
  • 3rd place: Third qualifying round of Champions League. Winners at this stage enter the group phase; losers enter the UEFA Cup.
  • DFB-Pokal (German Cup) winner: Qualifies for UEFA Cup, regardless of league position.
    • If the Cup winner has qualified for the Champions League, the losing finalist will enter the UEFA Cup. For example, although the Second Bundesliga side Alemannia Aachen lost to Werder Bremen in the 2004 DFB-Pokal final, Alemannia secured an entry in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup, because Werder qualified for the Champions League as First Bundesliga champions.
  • 4th - 5th place: Qualify for UEFA Cup
    • If both Cup finalists have qualified for the Champions League, an extra UEFA Cup place is granted on the basis of First Bundesliga position. Since the 2005 DFB-Pokal final pitted champions Bayern München against runners-up Schalke 04 (with Bayern winning), sixth-place Bayer Leverkusen received a berth in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup.
  • 16th - 18th place: Relegated to 2nd Bundesliga.

Up to three other First Bundesliga clubs can participate in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, with priority for entry dependent on league position. The number of German clubs which may participate in UEFA competitions is determined by a formula that takes into account the results of a particular nation's clubs in UEFA competitions over the preceding five years (known as the UEFA coefficients ranking list).

European qualification: History

  • European Cup/Champions League:
    • Up to and including 1996/97: German champion only
    • 1997-99: Top two teams
    • 1999-present: Top two teams automatically into first group phase (only one group phase starting in 2003/04). Depending on the DFB's standing in the UEFA coefficients ranking list, either one or two other clubs enter at the third qualifying round; winners at this level enter the group phase.
  • UEFA Cup:
    • Starting with the 1999/2000 season, the DFB-Pokal winner automatically qualifies. Depending on the DFB's standing in the UEFA coefficients ranking list, anywhere from 0 to 3 extra participants can enter. Since the Cup Winners' Cup was folded into the UEFA Cup after 1999, the DFB has always been entitled to enter a minimum of three clubs in the UEFA Cup, and has been able to enter as many as four (the maximum for any European federation). Teams that enter via the Intertoto Cup or UEFA's Fair Play mechanism do not count against the national quota. The DFB's current UEFA coefficients ranking allows as many as three First Bundesliga sides to enter the Intertoto Cup, with as many as three UEFA Cup berths available. For the 2005/06 season, the DFB earned an extra UEFA Cup place via the Fair Play draw; this place went to Mainz 05 as the highest-ranked club in the Fair Play table of the First Bundesliga not already qualified for Europe.
  • Cup Winners' Cup (abolished after 1999):
    • DFB-Pokal winner entered the Cup Winners' Cup. Today, that club will enter the UEFA Cup.


German Champions (1903-2005)

1. FC Bayern München 19
2. BFC Dynamo 10
3. 1. FC Nürnberg 9
4. Dynamo Dresden 7
4. Hamburger SV 7
4. Schalke 04 7
7. Borussia Dortmund 6
8. Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt 5
8. Borussia Mönchengladbach 5
10. Vorwärts Berlin 4
10. Werder Bremen 4
10. 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4
10. VfB Stuttgart 4
14. VfB Leipzig 3
14. SpVgg Fürth 3
14. 1.FC Köln 3
17. Viktoria Berlin 2
17. Chemie Leipzig 2
17. Turbine Erfurt 2
17. Carl Zeiss Jena 2
17. Magdeburg 2
17. Dresdener SC 2
17. Hannover 96 2
17. Hertha BSC Berlin 2

One German championship:

Records

Top Ten Highest Goalscorers

  1. Gerd Müller (1965 - 1979) 365 Goals
  2. Klaus Fischer (1968 - 1988) 268 Goals
  3. Jupp Heynckes (1965 - 1978) 220 Goals
  4. Manfred Burgsmüller (1969 - 1990) 213 Goals
  5. Ulf Kirsten (1990 - 2003) 182 Goals
  6. Stefan Kuntz (1983 - 1999) 179 Goals
  7. Klaus Allofs (1975 - 1993) 177 Goals
  8. Dieter Müller (1973 - 1986) 177 Goals
  9. Hennes Löhr (1964 - 1977) 166 Goals
  10. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1974 - 1984) 162 Goals

Top Ten Players With Most Appearances

  1. Karl-Heinz Körbel (1972 - 1991) 602 Games
  2. Manfred Kaltz (1971 - 1991) 581 Games
  3. Klaus Fichtel (1965 - 1988) 552 Games
  4. Mirko Votava (1976 - 1996) 546 Games
  5. Klaus Fischer (1968 - 1988) 535 Games
  6. Eike Immel (1978 - 1995) 534 Games
  7. Willi Neuberger (1966 - 1983) 520 Games
  8. Michael Lameck (1972 - 1988) 518 Games
  9. Uli Stein (1978 - 1997) 512 Games
  10. Stefan Reuter (1985 - 2004) 500 Games

Other Records

  • Most own goals scored: 6 by Manfred Kaltz of Hamburger SV.
  • The oldest player was Klaus Fichtel of Werder Bremen (43 years old).
  • Most red cards received so far: Jens Nowotny (8), Stefan Effenberg and Torsten Kracht (7 each).
  • Most goals scored by penalties: Manfred Kaltz (53 with 7 missed penalties).
  • Most goals conceded by a goalkeeper: 829 by Eike Immel (in 534 games).
  • Most clean sheets by a goalkeeper: 173 by Oliver Reck (in 471 games).
  • Most championships won as player: 7 by Lothar Matthäus, Klaus Augenthaler, Alexander Zickler and Mehmet Scholl.
  • Most championships won as coach: 8 by Udo Lattek.
  • Most games as coach: 820 by Otto Rehhagel, followed by Erich Ribbeck with 569.
  • Worst team: Tasmania Berlin (1965/1966 season) with an impressive list of negative records:
    • Last (49th) place in eternal Bundesliga ranking: (8:60 points (10 points in new system))
    • Worst season: Least goals scored (15), most goals conceeded (108), least points (8), least games won (2), most games lost (28), most games lost on home ground (12))
    • Lost 82.3 percent of their Bundesliga games
    • Only Bundesliga team without a single away-game won
    • Longest time without a win (31 games)
    • Most consecutive losses on home ground (8, tied with Hansa Rostock 2004/2005 season)
    • Most consecutive losses (10 games, tied with Arminia Bielefeld 1999/200 season, their fans chanted "Tasmania Bielefeld" afterwards)
    • Highes loss on home ground (0:9 against Meidericher SV)
    • Worst attendance at a Bundesliga game (824, their first Bundesliga game had attracted 81,500)

Members of the Current Bundesliga (2005/2006 season)

In the above list, Köln, Duisburg and Eintracht Frankfurt have just moved into the First Bundesliga, replacing VfL Bochum, FC Hansa Rostock and SC Freiburg who finished at the bottom 3 spots of the table at the end of the 2004/05 season and thus were relegated to the Second Bundesliga.

The promoted teams since 1995

The sports club Fortuna Köln was one of the most consistent clubs in the Second Bundesliga. Until 2000 it played 26 years continuously in the Second Bundesliga.

See also



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