The final of the VBL Club Championship will be played as an offline event in Cologne on 26 and 27 March. The groups have already been drawn
Since the start of the Corona pandemic just over two years ago, the DFL has not been able to host an offline event as part of the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL). The VBL Grand Finals 2020 and 2021 had to make way for the online environment, and the same fate befell the final of the VBL Club Championship 2021.
With the general national relaxations, the DFL now also dares to return to the live stage: the final round of the VBL Club Championship season 2021/22 has officially been declared an offline event, the final will be played on 26 and 27 March at Cologne’s Straßenkicker Base.
“Meeting in person at the consoles “
We are very much looking forward to the players meeting in person at the consoles for the first time in a long time to decide the German Club Championship in eFootball,” VBL boss Jörg Höflich is quoted as saying in the corresponding announcement.
That this measure has been decided subject to possible negative developments in the next two and a half weeks should be clear to everyone involved. Nevertheless, all signs point to the offline event, and planning is already in full swing. The field of participants has been complete since Wednesday evening.
Hansa against Ingolstadt, RB against Werder
But that’s not all: the groups for the preliminary round of the VBL Club Championship Finals have also been set. Group A will feature North-West winners Hansa Rostock, South-East runners-up FC Ingolstadt 04, defending champions 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 and 1. FC Köln.
Group B, on the other hand, consists of South-East winners RB Leipzig, North-West runners-up Hamburger SV, club record champions SV Werder Bremen and FC St. Pauli. For the very first time in the history of the competition, the DFL will award prize money, with €65,000 distributed among the strongest clubs.
18,000 euros prize money in the ideal case
A detailed breakdown of this pool is not yet known, but ideally up to 18,000 euros can flow to the German club champion. The virtual ball will roll on 26 March from 3.30 p.m. when Rostock and Cologne as well as Heidenheim and Ingolstadt open the finals with the first matchday of Group A.
