The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), 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 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 received nine 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.Bundesliga 2024/25 » Zuschauer weltfussball.de, Spectator figures 2024–25. Retrieved 25 May 2025Premier League 2024/25 » Attendance weltfussball.de. Retrieved 25 May 2025
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 AugustGerman National Television 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.
History Origins
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 played in a tournament of between eight and sixteen teams to crown a national champion. On 28 January 1900, a national association, the Deutscher Fußball Bund (DFB) had been founded in Leipzig with 86 member clubs. The first recognized 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 single top-tier professional league for the country. Disadvantages to the tournament system included the fact that the top teams from different regions would play only once a year at most, and that single-elimination tournament meant that a less-deserving team could win if they hit a lucky streak during the tournament. Another concern was that professional leagues in other countries were drawing 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 doubled as a delegate to the DFB national assembly from Mannheim and wanted Germany to catch up with centralized systems of Italy, Spain, and England.
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.
Foundation
The defeat of the national team by Yugoslavia (0–1) in a 1962 World Cup quarter-final game in Chile was one impetus (of many) towards the formation of a national league. At the annual DFB convention under new DFB president Hermann Gösmann (elected that very day) the Bundesliga was created in Dortmund at the Westfalenhallen on 28 July 1962 to begin play starting with the 1963–64 season.
At the time, there were five Oberligen (premier leagues) in place representing West Germany's North, South, West, Southwest, and Berlin. East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain, maintained its separate league structure. 46 clubs applied for admission to the new league. 16 teams were selected based on their success on the field, economic criteria and representation of the various Oberligen. From Oberliga Nord: Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV From Oberliga West: Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln, Meidericher SV Duisburg, Preußen Münster, Schalke 04 From Oberliga Südwest: 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Saarbrücken From Oberliga Süd: Eintracht Frankfurt, Karlsruher SC, 1. FC Nürnberg, 1860 Munich, VfB Stuttgart From Oberliga Berlin: Hertha BSC
The first Bundesliga games were played on 24 August 1963. Early favorite 1. FC Köln was the first Bundesliga champion with second place clubs Meidericher SV and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Reunification Following German reunification in 1990, the East German leagues were merged into the West German system. Dynamo Dresden and FC Hansa Rostock were seeded into the top-tier Bundesliga division ahead of the 1991–92 Bundesliga, with other clubs being sorted into lower tiers.
21st century Gazprom became a major sponsor of Bundesliga football in 2006, with Gerhard Schröder's climb to the top of the company.
Competition format
The German football champion is decided strictly by play in the Bundesliga. Each club plays every other club once at home and once away, which makes a total of 34 matchdays per season. Originally, a victory was worth two points, with one point for a draw and none for a loss. Since the 1995–96 season, a victory has been worth three points, while a draw remains worth a single point, and zero points are given for a loss. The club with the most points at the end of the season becomes the German champion. Currently, the top four clubs in the table qualify automatically for the group phase of the UEFA Champions League. The two teams at the bottom of the table are relegated into the 2. Bundesliga, while the top two teams in the 2. Bundesliga are promoted. The 16th-placed team (third-last) in the 1. Bundesliga and the third-placed team in the 2. Bundesliga play a two-leg play-off match. The winner of this match plays the next season in the 1. Bundesliga, and the losing side in the 2. Bundesliga.
If teams are level on points, tie-breakers are applied in the following order: Goal difference for the entire season Total goals scored for the entire season Head-to-head results (total points) Head-to-head goals scored Head-to-head away goals scored Total away goals scored for the entire season
If two clubs are still tied after all of these tie-breakers 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.
In terms of team selection, matchday squads must have no more than five non-EU representatives. Nine substitutes are permitted to be selected, from which five can be used in the duration of the game.
Changes in league structure Number of teams: 1963–64 to 1964–65: 16 1965–66 to 1990–91: 18 1991–92: 20, while the East German league was being included after German reunification