Bundesliga

The Bundesliga is a professional association football (soccer) league in Germany. It includes associations, clubs, and members all over Germany. It has the world’s highest average stadium attendance, and games are broadcast on television in hundreds of countries. The Bundesliga is ranked first in Europe for attendance figures. For more than half a century, the league has been an essential element of German society.

The Bundesliga’s success is measured by German consistency in qualifying for the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. Germany has won four World Cup titles, as well as three European Championships. Nine Bundesliga players have been recognized as Europe’s Footballer of the Year. As of the 2024-2025 season, the league included eighteen teams and fifty-eight clubs.

Background

The Bundesliga began on August 24, 1963, in West Germany. At that time, as a result of World War II (1939-1945), modern Germany was still divided into two separate states, West Germany and the pro-Soviet Union East Germany. The formation of the Bundesliga was approved by the Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB) on July 28, 1962, by a vote of 102 to 26, following West Germany’s poor performance at the FIFA World Cup in Chile. Members of the DFB believed this loss was due to low pay for athletes, which was leading many professional football players to leave Germany for Italian teams, which offered better wages. The clubs that make up the league have existed for decades and, in some cases, more than a century.

The game of soccer was very different in the 1960s, with no sponsors and initially only eleven players per team until rule changes permitted more. Beginning in 1965, three games in the league appeared on television, although the broadcasts only provided highlights. For the first thirty years, the games were transmitted to fans on the radio. The athletes had other professions as significant sources of income.

The popularity of the league grew through the late twentieth century, even more so with the introduction of private television providers in Germany that focused attention on the league. The reunification of Germany in 1990 expanded the team's fan base to include all of the new Federal Republic of Germany. New modern stadiums introduced early in the twenty-first century, along with Germany hosting the 2006 World Cup, further boosted attendance.

Overview

Into the mid-2020s, the top professional Bundesliga league, the 1. Bundesliga, comprised eighteen teams. Each season, every team plays each other twice, one home game and one away game. The winner of each match gets three points, while the loser gets one. Each team gets one point for a tie game. At the end of the season, the club with the most points is named the Deutscher Meister. The three best teams from the second tier, the 2. Bundesliga, replace the three teams at the bottom of the 1. Bundesliga at the end of the season.

A big factor in the success of the Bundesliga is that fans are invested in the teams and clubs. Under DFL rules, only football clubs with commercial investors holding a 49 percent stake or less may be members of the league. The rule is known as the 50+1 rule. This means the clubs and their fans hold the majority of voting rights. Supporters maintain control of the clubs, and private investors are prevented from taking over them. The rule is regarded as necessary to ensure decisions are not made based primarily on potential profit. The 50+1 rule was introduced in 1998, the first year private ownership of clubs was permitted. Investors who have had an interest in a club for more than two decades are able to apply for an exemption from the rule. Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg are owned under exemptions. The former was founded by employees of Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company, in 1904. VfL Wolfsburg was founded in 1945, seven years after the city was founded to house employees of Volkswagen, the automobile manufacturer. In 2014, Dietmar Hopp, a software billionaire, was permitted to take majority share of Hoffenheim. Hopp had invested in the club for more than twenty years.

The Bundesliga has produced many top-notch players. The league itself has compiled a list of eighteen legendary athletes. Into the mid-2020s, the list comprised Jörg Albertz, Anthony Baffoe, Cha Bum-Kun, Steven Cherundolo, Makoto Hasebe, Jürgen Klinsmann, Philipp Lahm, Lothar Matthäus, Jay-Jay Okocha, Yasuhiko Okudera, Pável Pardo, Claudio Pizarro, Lukas Podolski, Wynton Rufer, Paulo Sergio, Shao Jiayi, Chen Yang and Zé Roberto.

Matthäus played in 464 Bundesliga games for two teams and scored 121 goals. He shared Bundesliga champion honors with teammates seven times, the German Football Association (DFB) Cup three times, a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup, a FIFA World Cup, and a European Championship. He was named World Footballer of the Year in 1991 and Germany’s Footballer of the Year in 1990 and 1999.

Shao was just the second player from China to take the field in the Bundesliga. He premiered during the 2002–2003 season and played sixty-seven games with the league, scoring four goals. Shao was named to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup All-Star Team in 2004.

Brazilian athlete Sergio scored sixty-eight goals in his 198 games with the league. His teams won the Bundesliga twice, and a DFB Cup, UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, and FIFA World Cup.

New Zealand native Rufer scored fifty-nine goals in his 174 games with two teams. His teams won the Bundesliga championship and took two DFB Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup, and the Bundesliga 2. Rufer was named Oceania Player of the Century and was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame and the Maori Sports Hall of Fame.

Pardo, a native of Mexico, played 71 games for one team, scoring four goals. With his teammates, he won the Bundesliga, a CONCACAF Champions Cup, two CONCACAF Gold Cups, and a FIFA Confederations Cup. He and Ricardo Osorio were the first Mexican players in the Bundesliga.

American athlete Cherundolo played 302 games with Hannover 96, scoring six goals. Hannover took a CONCACAF Gold Cup and Bundesliga 2 championship during those seasons. After his retirement, the all-time appearance maker worked for the club.

Cha, a native of South Korea, scored ninety-eight goals in his 308 games with three teams. The Asian Player of the 20th Century helped his teams to two UEFA Cups and a DFB Cup.

Baffoe played 74 games in the Bundesliga with five teams, scoring four goals. As the son of a diplomat, he also played for Ghana.

Albertz played 150 games for three teams. He made twenty-nine goals in his appearances. He scored twenty-two of those goals in his 99 games for Hamburg, where he was captain for three years.

Okudera, a native of Japan, left a successful career in his homeland for German fame. He scored twenty-six goals in his 234 games and helped his teams to a Bundesliga championship and a DFB Cup, both in the 1977–1978 season.

Okocha played 90 games with Eintracht Frankfurt, scoring eighteen goals. Among the honors he achieved were the African Cup of Nations and an Olympic Gold Medal in 1996, playing with the Nigerian Dream Team.

Bibliography

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