The volunteers were welcomed during half-time and thanked again for their tireless commitment by Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO, and Uwe Richrath, mayor of the city of Leverkusen. The people involved not only took part in clear-up work but also offered overnight accommodation, and the distribution of donated clothes was also made using Bayer 04 vehicles and the same applied to food and drink. In addition, volunteers and people requiring help were brought together by the social media of the fan groups, fan liaison and Bayer 04.
The management at Bayer 04 and Bayer AG announced a donation of €600,000 to people affected in the region – including a €50,000 donation to the Leverkusen community foundation. Bayer 04 have supported the foundation for several years.
The regular donations from the club increased again against the background of the flood disaster. The money goes to the 'Leverkusen hilft!' campaign. This is primarily aimed at supporting sports facilities in and around Leverkusen that have been damaged by the floods.
Donations are still welcome via:
Account number: DE40 3755 1440 0100 1262 26
Reference: Leverkusen hilft
The Werkself were visibly affected at the training camp in Salzburger Land and they thanked the volunteers in the Rhineland for their commitment. Head coach Gerardo Seoane and the club management decided to organise a benefit match this season after discussion with the team. In addition, ticket receipts from the two friendlies against Utrecht and Oberhausen played at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium were also donated.
The Bayer 04 Veterans have already played in support for the flood victims. Jens Nowotny, Ramazan Özcan, Hanno Balitsch und Co. have been in action at Sportfreunde Neitersen and Leichlingen.
Volunteers from the following organisations watched the Bundesliga match against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday 21 August: The German Red Cross in Leverkusen, the Bundeswehr reconnaissance battalion 7, fire fighting units from Leverkusen-Schlebusch, Bergisch Neukirchen and Lützenkirchen, the fire brigades from Braunschweig, Bartolfelde, Bad Lauterberg im Harz and Leverkusen, THW Leverkusen, the volunteer fire brigade from Adelebsen, Scharzfeld and Lödingsen, the Flecken Gittelde local fire brigade and the Malteser emergency service.
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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