The Werkself are one of 48 teams qualified for the 48th season of this European club competition. Bayer 04 qualified by finishing fifth in the Bundesliga last season thus avoiding the play-offs that 31 clubs have been involved in over recent weeks – the final qualifiers will be played on Thursday.
In accordance with club coefficients, the 48 clubs will be divided into four pots. There will be 12 teams in each of the four pots. The 12 groups will consist of a team drawn from each of the pots. Bayer 04 will be in the first pot along with Arsenal, Chelsea and Villareal. Clubs from the same association (from Germany they are the cup winners Eintracht Frankfurt and possibly RB Leipzig) cannot meet at the group stage. The Werkself will be represented at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Friday by Fernando Carro (chairman of the board), Lennart Coerdt (assistant director sport) and Simon Pallmann (operational business section).
DAZN hold the rights to all 205 Europa League games from the current season to 2021 and the streaming service will broadcast the draw on Friday live from 13.00 CET. In addition, the two TV broadcasters RTL and RTL Nitro will broadcast 15 games on free TV. On each matchday, the TV contract with the RTL media group guarantees one exclusive live broadcast plus highlights from all the other games.
Matchday 1: 20 September
Matchday 2: 4 October
Matchday 3: 25 October
Matchday 4: 8 November
Matchday 5: 29 November
Matchday 6: 13 December
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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