The 2025–26 DFB-Pokal was the 83rd season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 15 August 2025 with the first of six rounds and ended on 23 May 2026 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, a nominally neutral venue, which has hosted the final since 1985. The DFB-Pokal is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the German Football Association (DFB).
Bayern Munich won a record 21st title, and a first title since 2020, after defeating defending champions VfB Stuttgart 3–0 in the final.
The winner of the DFB-Pokal would normally have earned automatic qualification for the league phase of the 2026–27 edition of the UEFA Europa League. However, Bayern had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League as winners of the Bundesliga, so their spot went to the team in sixth place, while the league's UEFA Conference League play-off round spot went to the seventh-placed team. Bayern also qualified for the 2026 edition of the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at the start of the next season, where they will face the runners-up of the 2025–26 Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund.
Participating clubs The following teams qualified for the competition:
Bundesligathe 18 clubs of the 2024–25 season 2. Bundesligathe 18 clubs of the 2024–25 season 3. Ligathe top 4 clubs of the 2024–25 season FC Augsburg Union Berlin VfL Bochum Werder Bremen Borussia Dortmund Eintracht Frankfurt SC Freiburg 1. FC Heidenheim TSG Hoffenheim Holstein Kiel RB Leipzig Bayer Leverkusen Mainz 05 Borussia Mönchengladbach Bayern Munich FC St. Pauli VfB Stuttgart VfL Wolfsburg Eintracht Braunschweig Hertha BSC Darmstadt 98 Fortuna Düsseldorf SV Elversberg Greuther Fürth Hamburger SV Hannover 96 1. FC Kaiserslautern Karlsruher SC 1. FC Köln 1. FC Magdeburg Preußen Münster 1. FC Nürnberg SC Paderborn Jahn Regensburg Schalke 04 SSV Ulm Arminia Bielefeld Dynamo Dresden 1. FC Saarbrücken Energie Cottbus Representatives of the regional associations24 representatives of 21 regional associations of the DFB, qualified (in general) through the 2024–25 VerbandspokalBaden SV Sandhausen Bavaria FV Illertissen () 1. FC Schweinfurt () Berlin BFC Dynamo Brandenburg RSV Eintracht Bremen SV Hemelingen Hamburg Eintracht Norderstedt Hesse Wehen WiesbadenLower Rhine Rot-Weiss Essen Lower Saxony Blau-Weiß Lohne () Atlas Delmenhorst () Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Hansa Rostock Middle Rhine Viktoria Köln Rhineland FV Engers Saarland FC 08 Homburg Saxony Lokomotive LeipzigSaxony-Anhalt Hallescher FC Schleswig-Holstein VfB Lübeck South Baden Bahlinger SC Southwest FK Pirmasens Thuringia ZFC Meuselwitz Westphalia Sportfreunde Lotte () FC Gütersloh () Württemberg Sonnenhof Großaspach
Format Participation The DFB-Pokal began with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the 3. Liga automatically qualified for the tournament. Of the remaining slots, 21 were given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokal. The three remaining slots were given to the three regional associations with the most men's teams, which were Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Westphalia. The best-placed amateur team of the Regionalliga Bayern was given the spot for Bavaria. For Lower Saxony, the Lower Saxony Cup was split into two paths: one for 3. Liga and Regionalliga Nord teams, and the other for amateur teams. The winners of each path qualified. For Westphalia, the spot rotated each season between the best-placed Westphalian team of the Regionalliga West and the best-placed amateur team of the Oberliga Westfalen. For the 2025–26 DFB-Pokal, this spot was awarded to a team from the Regionalliga. As every team was entitled to participate in local tournaments which qualified for the association cups, every team could in principle compete in the DFB-Pokal. Reserve teams and combined football sections were not permitted to enter, along with no two teams of the same association or corporation.
Draw The draws for the different rounds were conducted as follows:
For the first round, the participating teams were split into two pots of 32 teams each. The first pot contained all teams which qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3. Liga, and the bottom four teams of the 2. Bundesliga. Every team from this pot was drawn to a team from the second pot, which contained all remaining professional teams (all the teams of the Bundesliga and the remaining fourteen 2. Bundesliga teams). The teams from the first pot were set as the home team in the process.
The two-pot scenario was also applied for the second round, with the remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) in the first pot and the remaining Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga teams in the other pot. Once again, the 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) served as hosts. This time the pots did not have to be of equal size though, depending on the results of the first round. Theoretically, it was even possible that there could be only one pot, if all of the teams from one of the pots from the first round beat all the others in the second pot. Once one pot was empty, the remaining pairings were drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts.
For the remaining rounds, the draw was conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) was the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team served as hosts.
Match rules Teams met in one game per round. Matches took place for 90 minutes, with two halves of 45 minutes each. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time was played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes each. If the score was still level after this, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out. A coin toss decided who took the first penalty. A maximum of nine players could be listed on the substitute bench, while a maximum of five substitutions were allowed. However, each team was only given three opportunities to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time. From the round of 16 onward, a video assistant referee was appointed for all DFB-Pokal matches. Though technically possible, VAR was not used for home matches of Bundesliga clubs prior to the round of 16 in order to provide a uniform approach to all matches.
Suspensions If a player received five yellow cards in the competition, he was then suspended from the next cup match. Similarly, receiving a second yellow card suspended a player from the next cup match. If a player received a direct red card, they were suspended a minimum of one match, but the German Football Association reserved the right to increase the suspension.
International qualification The winners of the DFB-Pokal earned automatic qualification for the league stage of next year's edition of the UEFA Europa League. If they had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League through position in the Bundesliga, then the spot went to the team in sixth place, and the league's UEFA Conference League play-off round spot went to the team in seventh place. The winners will also host the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at the start of the next season, and will face the champions of the previous year's Bundesliga, unless the same team won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, completing a double. In that case, the runners-up of the Bundesliga took the spot and hosted instead.
Schedule
All draws were generally held on a Sunday evening after each round (unless noted otherwise).
The rounds of the 2025–26 competition were scheduled as follows:
Round Draw date Matches First round 15 June 2025 15–18 August & 26–27 August 2025 Second round 31 August 2025 28–29 October 2025 Round of 16 2 November 2025 2–3 December 2025 Quarter-finals 7 December 2025 3–4 February & 10–11 February 2026 Semi-finals22 February 2026 22–23 April 2026 Final 23 May 2026 at Olympiastadion, Berlin
Matches Times up to 26 October 2025 and from 29 March 2026 are CEST (UTC+2). Times from 27 October 2025 to 28 March 2026 are CET (UTC+1).
First round The draw took place on 15 June 2025, with Owen Ansah drawing the matches. The matches were played between 15 and 27 August 2025.
Second round The draw took place on 31 August 2025 with Felix Brych drawing the matches. The matches took place on 28 and 29 October 2025.
Round of 16 The draw took place on 2 November 2025 with Felix van den Hövel drawing the matches. The matches took place on 2 and 3 December 2025.
Quarter-finals The draw took place on 7 December 2025, with Friedhelm Funkel drawing the matches. The matches took place between 3 and 11 February 2026.
Semi-finals The draw took place on 22 February 2026, with Max Langenhan drawing the matches. The matches took place on 22 and 23 April 2026.
Final
The match took place on 23 May 2026.
Top goalscorers The following were the top scorers of the DFB-Pokal, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.
RankPlayerTeamGoals1 Harry KaneBayern Munich102 Christoph BaumgartnerRB Leipzig4 Leopold QuerfeldUnion Berlin4 Luis DíazBayern Munich3 Dženan PejčinovićVfL Wolfsburg Fabian SchleusenerKarlsruher SC Deniz UndavVfB Stuttgart828 players2
Notes
References
External links
DFB-Pokal on kicker.de