Football Association Cup
The current 22 cup competitions of the 21 national associations of the DFB , which are held every season, are commonly referred to as association cups in Germany . If the area of an association coincides with that of a federal state, the designation state cup is common. The association and state cups , in which only clubs from the 3rd division and lower divisions participate, derive their sporting importance primarily from the fact that the cup winners are qualified for the DFB Cup in the following season , where they compete with teams measure the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga . Each of the 21 regional associations thus has at least one fixed cup starting place for "lower class" clubs. The three associations with the largest number of members (currently Bavaria, Westphalia and Lower Saxony) have a second place in the cup; In Lower Saxony this is played out through a second state cup competition for teams below the regional league , in Bavaria and Westphalia these additional participants are determined in different ways via the championship game.
Association trophies for men
Number of participants
Only clubs in the 3rd league and amateur teams in the divisions below are eligible to participate .
The number of participants varies from association to association. Usually the teams of the top leagues (3rd league, regional league , upper league ) are automatically entitled to participate, while the clubs in the lower leagues have to qualify via district, district or city cups. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, the upper, association and state leagues compete in the association cup. Then there are the teams from the lower leagues who qualified for the state cup by winning the district cup. In Hamburg, on the other hand, the field of participants is very broad with over 200 clubs. In Bavaria, on the other hand, the cup games take place in three stages: First, four or eight teams at (football) district level qualify for the games at district level, from which a total of eight participants qualify for the final round. This is where the actual state cup is played.
Game mode
The cup games are usually played in the knockout system , which also applies to the DFB Cup ; Clubs from lower leagues usually have home rights against higher leagues.
There are also differences in the game mode: in Bremen instead of extra time after a draw there is an immediate penalty shoot-out after 90 minutes. If there is a tie between two teams from different divisions after extra time in Südbaden, the lower class team will advance one round.
The association cup finals usually take place in May or June, so that when the first main round of the DFB Cup is drawn, it is known which amateur representatives will take part. In the three “big” associations this “time pressure” does not apply, so that the final in Bavaria traditionally takes place in July. In the 2004/05 season, the Hessian cup final was not scheduled until August, as finalist Offenbach, as champions of the Regionalliga Süd, was automatically qualified for the national cup and thus the other finalist Eschborn participated as a Hessian amateur representative.
Since the 2015/16 season, most of the finals have taken place at the end of May on a single final day for the amateurs , which is broadcast in three consecutive conferences on the first .
For the 2018/19 season, the 21 national cup finals will take place on the day of the DFB Cup final, May 25, 2019. The first again shows the finals of all 21 national cups in a large live conference, spread over three different kick-off times, before the DFB Cup final in the evening.
Significance for the DFB-Pokal
The winners of the association cups are entitled to participate in the first round of the DFB Cup of the following season, provided they are not second representatives of the licensed clubs that are already qualified for the DFB Cup (i.e. the 1st or 2nd Bundesliga). The three associations with the most men's teams in play - currently Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Westphalia - each send one additional participant. Two cup competitions are therefore held in Lower Saxony (one for teams from the 3rd and regional leagues and one for teams from lower divisions). In Bavaria, the champions of the Regionalliga Bayern (no second substitutes) receive the additional starting place, in Westphalia the winner of a game between the champions of the Oberliga Westfalen and the best Westphalian team in the Regionalliga West (second teams also excluded). This means that each season 22 clubs qualify for the national cup competition via the association cups. If an association cup winner achieves one of the first four places in the 3rd division, the losing finalist or the winner of a game moves up for 3rd place, etc.
Reigning cup winners and record cup winners
Web links
- DFB.de - Official explanation of the DFB Cup
- DFB.de - Overview of the regional and state associations
- Football.de - FAQ: All information about the final day of the amateurs
Individual evidence
- ↑ Membership statistics 2019. dfb.de, accessed on August 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Kick-off times for the final day of the amateurs 2019 are set. dfb.de, accessed on April 27, 2019 .
- ↑ The FSA cancels the state cup , fsa-online.de, accessed on July 16, 2020