
The DFB have appointed Tobias Reichel as the referee at the Sportpark Ronhof. The 36-year-old has previously taken charge of two Werkself fixtures this season, the 1-1 draw at Union Berlin on the opening weekend and also the reverse fixture as Leverkusen recorded their highest home win in Bundesliga history by beating Fürth 7-1 at the BayArena in December.
Reichel’s assistants are Benedikt Kempkes and Sascha Thielert. Dr. Matthias Jöllenbeck is the VAR.
For everyone who can’t be cheering on the team from Fürth today, they can tune into the Werkself Radio as usual. It’s available on bayer04.de and in the new Bayer 04 app.
The Bayer 04 fan support has all you need to know on the game at the Sportpark Ronhof. Blocks O (standing) and P (seated) are the areas for away fans and can only be reached via Flurstraße. They cannot be reached from Laubenweg. More info HERE.
If today’s hosts fail to win, their relegation from the Bundesliga will be confirmed. Fürth are currently bottom on 17 points, 11 off the play-off place with four games to go. Greuther may have conceded by far the most goals in the division, but Stefan Leitl’s side have also kept clean sheets in three of their last four matches.
Bayer 04’s 1993 DFB Cup winner Franco Foda turns 56 today. He had moved to Leverkusen from Kaiserslautern three years earlier, going on to make 113 Bundesliga appearances for the Werkself (10 goals, six assists). He was head coach of the Austria national team until recently. Happy birthday!

After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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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 personalised 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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"In every ending lies a new beginning" is a well-known saying. This phrase has probably never been more apt at Bayer 04. After winning the Bundesliga in 2023/24 and finishing as runners-up in 2024/25, the summer was the most eventful ever in terms of transfers. Over ten players and the coach, including the coaching staff, left the club. A lot of the heroes of the double-winning side began a new chapter. It was the end of an era. And at the same time the beginning of a new, very exciting and promising chapter for Leverkusen. The Werkself welcomed more than a dozen new arrivals, including experienced title-winners and young talents, to build a new "foundation for a successful team capable of winning titles" under the Bayer Cross, as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. A new spirit, a new hunger, a new story was to be created. Bayer04.de looks back at the first few months of this story and the final act of the preseason.
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43 points at the end of the last Bundesliga season were not only more than ever before for the Bayer 04 Women, but also led to a record fourth-place finish. That was followed by a Hinrunde with many more victories, but also some setbacks. In an interview with bayer04.de, sporting director Achim Feifel takes stock at the end of the year.
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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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