The new season of the Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship starts in less than two months. As the DFL announced, one club is once again missing. In addition, the new season will kick off a little earlier
Autumn is already casting its shadow – and with it the new season of the Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship. While many clubs are currently announcing transfers by the dozen, the German Football League is now also providing initial information about the upcoming season.
Unlike recently, the first matchday will kick off much earlier. The first points of the competition will be awarded on October 22 and 23. All three promoted teams from the second division will take part, with SSV Ulm 1846 making the headlines. The newcomers made two spectacular transfers in the form of former Nuremberg player Niklas Rank and Serhat Öztürk, the 2022 German club champion. The latter was even announced with a clip of Fabrizio Romano – including the iconic “Here we go.”
The divisions at a glance
North-West: 1. FC Köln, 1. FC Magdeburg, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eintracht Braunschweig, FC Schalke 04, FC St. Pauli, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hamburger SV, Hannover 96, Holstein Kiel, SC Paderborn, Preußen Münster (N), Werder Bremen, VfL Bochum, VfL Wolfsburg
South-East: 1. FC Heidenheim, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Nürnberg, 1. FSV Mainz 05, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Augsburg, FC Bayern München, Hertha BSC, Karlsruher SC, RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg, SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Jahn Regensburg (N), SSV Ulm 1846, SV Darmstadt 98, SV Elversberg, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, VfB Stuttgart
On paper at least, the Spatzen are one of the clubs in the South-East Division that can hope to finish in one of the top places. However, the field of participants in this season is largely evenly matched – RB Leipzig remains the top favorite with world and European champion Anders Vejrgang
Capital city club still missing
The new season will once again see a number of derbies, such as the prestigious clash between Schalke and Dortmund. However, there will still be one thing missing: The capital derby. Union Berlin will remain the only club to stay out of the competition in 2024/2025, thus accepting sanctions.
The VBL was included in the DFL statutes two years ago, making participation a B criterion for the awarding of licenses. This has no influence on the final granting of a player’s license for the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. However, non-compliance will result in a penalty
In November 2022, Union told eSport that “eSport is currently not part of our orientation”. This approach does not appear to have changed since then. As a result, there are once again 35 out of 36 possible clubs playing for the trophy. The defending champions are SC Paderborn
