Bundesliga league wiki

Bundesliga wiki The Bundesliga (German pronunciation: [ˈbʊndəsˌliːɡa], Federal League) is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga A total of 50 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding. Since the 1970s, FC Bayern Munich has dominated the championship, winning the title 21 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Hamburger SV, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart being the most prominent ones. The Bundesliga is one of the top national leagues, currently ranked 3rd in Europe according to UEFA's league coefficient ranking, based on recent European performances. It is the number one football league in terms of average attendance and its average of 41,802 fans per game during the 2009–10 season was in fact only beaten by the Indian Premier League and the National Football League (NFL).

Germany was unusual, in that, unlike in most other countries, a unified national league structure was quite late in developing. The Bundesliga was not formed until 1963 and the structure and organisation of the nation's football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The league was originally founded by the German Football Association, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga.

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 (Second 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 is also 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 2 Bundesligen, by the German Football League (DFL).

Below the level of the 3rd league, leagues are generally often subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord (North), Süd (South) and West divisions, and the Oberligen (upper leagues) are composed of nine divisions representing 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 leagues of East and West 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 38,000 per game — more than 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 organisationally and financially, and reflecting an increasingly higher standard of professional play.

Internationally, the most well-known German clubs include Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen, Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart. Hamburger SV is the only team to have played continuously in the Bundesliga since its foundation.

In the 2008–09 season, the Bundesliga reinstated an earlier German system of promotion and relegation:

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 place.
The third-from-bottom club in the Bundesliga will play a two-legged match with the third-place team from the 2. Bundesliga, with the winner taking up the final place in the following season's Bundesliga.

For several years, a different system had been used in which the bottom three finishers of the Bundesliga had been automatically relegated, to be replaced by the top three finishers in the 2. Bundesliga. (Before 1974–75 it was only four clubs that changed places instead of six).
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 beginning at 3:30 pm) and Sundays (two games beginning at 5:00 pm). A new television deal in 2006 reintroduced a Friday game (beginning at 8:30 pm) in place of one of the Saturday matches.

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