Bundesliga format 2026/27: relegation play-off explained

Germany's top division is a straight league with one twist at the bottom. Eighteen clubs play each other home and away, the side on top after 34 matchdays is champion, and the bottom two go down. The club in 16th is not relegated outright: it meets the third-placed team of the 2. Bundesliga over two legs, and the winner takes the last place in next season's Bundesliga.

The format at a glance

If you follow the Premier League, two things stand out: there are 18 clubs rather than 20, so the season is four matches shorter, and the third relegation place is decided on the pitch against a second-tier side. The Premier League format guide covers the English system for comparison.

This is the 64th Bundesliga season. The newcomers are FC Schalke 04, champions of the second tier, SV Elversberg, playing in the top flight for the first time, and SC Paderborn 07, who came up through the play-off.

The 2026/27 calendar

The season began a week later than usual because of the summer's World Cup.

A normal weekend opens with one match on Friday at 20:30. Saturday afternoon is the heart of it, with several games kicking off together at 15:30 and an evening match at 18:30, and Sunday completes the round. The league fixes exact kick-off times in blocks during the season, so later dates can still move. The winter break is a real pause: nothing between 20 December and 8 January.

Points and tiebreakers

The league's match regulations list the criteria in a fixed order when clubs finish level on points:

1. Goal difference
2. Goals scored
3. Aggregate result of the two matches between the clubs
4. Away goals scored in those two matches
5. Away goals scored in all matches
6. A deciding match at a neutral venue

During the season, while the two meetings between the clubs have not both been played, only the first two criteria are used; if they are equal as well, the clubs share a position in the table. Head-to-head therefore matters only late on, and goal difference does most of the work. Our guide to league table tiebreakers compares this with leagues that put head-to-head first.

Relegation and the play-off

The clubs in 17th and 18th drop straight into the 2. Bundesliga, whose top two come up automatically. The remaining place is settled by the Relegation, as the play-off is called in German:

• Who plays: 16th in the Bundesliga against 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga, home and away.
• No away-goals rule. If the aggregate score is level after the second leg, there are two 15-minute periods of extra time and then, if needed, a penalty shoot-out. See our guide to extra time and penalties.
• Who hosts the second leg: the club that had fewer rest days before the first leg under the season's fixture list; if equal, lots are drawn. In 2026 that was the second-tier club.
• Technology: video assistant referees and goal-line technology were used in every play-off match in 2026. The VAR guide explains when the video referee may step in.

The play-off returned for the 2008/09 season after a long absence. The top-flight club usually survives: in 18 editions since then, the league counts only four wins for the second-tier side - Nürnberg in 2009, Düsseldorf in 2012, Union Berlin in 2019 and Paderborn in 2026. Paderborn drew 0-0 away to VfL Wolfsburg and won the return 2-1 after extra time. Wolfsburg went down with 1. FC Heidenheim and FC St. Pauli.

Who qualifies for Europe

The standard allocation for German clubs:

• 1st to 4th: Champions League league phase
• 5th and the DFB-Pokal winners: Europa League league phase
• 6th: Conference League play-off round

If the cup winners have already finished in the top six, the Europa League place passes to 6th and the Conference League place to 7th; the beaten finalists inherit nothing. UEFA's rules for title holders and its extra place for the two best-performing associations can add to that; the allocation is always subject to UEFA's confirmation.

That is exactly what happened in 2026, when Bayern won both league and cup. In 2026/27 Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and VfB Stuttgart play in the Champions League, TSG Hoffenheim and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the Europa League, and SC Freiburg - seventh in the league and beaten 3-0 by Aston Villa in the 2026 Europa League final in Istanbul - reached the Conference League league phase through a play-off against Motherwell. The 2027 Europa League final will be played in Frankfurt on 26 May. For how those competitions work, see the Champions League format and Europa League format guides.

Cup and Supercup

The DFB-Pokal is a straight knockout cup that ends at Berlin's Olympiastadion. It matters to the league table because its winners earn a Europa League place. The first round of 2026/27 was played on 21-24 August 2026. Bayern won the 2026 final 3-0 against VfB Stuttgart, their 21st cup and their 13th league-and-cup double.

The Supercup, named after Franz Beckenbauer, brings together champions and cup winners and opened the season on 22 August 2026.

Following the Bundesliga on ScoreMondo

The Bundesliga table and fixtures page shows the standings and every matchday. On Saturday afternoons the simultaneous games update together in the live scores, and each match page has events, statistics and line-ups. Yesterday's results are listed by day, and all leagues leads to the 2. Bundesliga and other competitions. In the apps you can save clubs as favourites and switch on goal alerts.

A short history

The German FA voted to create a single national league on 28 July 1962 in Dortmund. The first season kicked off on 24 August 1963 with 16 clubs, and 1. FC Köln were the first champions. The league has had 18 clubs since 1965/66, apart from 1991/92, when it grew to 20 for one season after reunification.

FC Bayern München are the record champions with 34 titles in 63 Bundesliga seasons, eleven of them in a row from 2012/13 to 2022/23, plus a national championship from 1932. They won again in 2025/26 with 89 points, ahead of Borussia Dortmund on 73. Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach come next with five titles each. Thirteen different clubs have been champions; the newest, Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2023/24, were the first to finish a season unbeaten.

The trophy is the Meisterschale, a shield weighing 11 kg and engraved with every German champion since 1903. Another German particularity is the 50+1 rule: a club's members must keep the majority of voting rights in its professional football company, so an investor cannot take control alone.

Questions and answers

How many teams are in the Bundesliga?

Eighteen. Each plays 34 league matches, 306 in total.

How many clubs are relegated from the Bundesliga?

Two go down automatically, 17th and 18th. The club in 16th plays a two-legged play-off against the third-placed team of the 2. Bundesliga, so the total is two or three.

Does head-to-head decide ties in the Bundesliga?

Only as the third criterion. Goal difference comes first, then goals scored. During the season only those two are applied.

Do away goals count in the relegation play-off?

No. If the aggregate score is level after both legs, the tie goes to extra time and then penalties.