While the opening seminar in the middle of March in Madrid with Mario Gomez (RB Leipzig technical director) and Paul Mitchell (Newcastle United sporting director) was held with the title of Football Governance and Sports Strategies, this time in Leverkusen the main subject area covered was Legal Framework and Business Skills.
The second of a total of three sessions that was held at the BayArena included the long-serving England manager Gareth Southgate, the former DFB official Oliver Bierhoff plus former players Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Tamás Hajnal. Other participants came from clubs including AS Monaco (France), Feyenoord (Netherlands), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) and Ferencváros (Hungary).
"The sessions offer very interesting input from completely different angles," said Bayer 04 director of football Kim Falkenberg, who officially welcomed the participants to Leverkusen and then reported on the structure and operating methods plus the development of recent years at the German double winners. Falkenberg is also a participant on the course.
The third and final seminar with the title of Evolution of Football and new Technologies will be held next month in Nyon at the UEFA headquarters.
The Sporting Director Programme:
The Sporting Director Programme (SDP) was developed to give sporting directors practical and strategic skills plus leadership qualities needed for modern football management. The programme consists of three face-to-face seminars at the UEFA headquarters and at top European clubs plus two online master classes covering all aspects of running a successful football operation from squad planning to recruitment and making crucial decisions. Further information is available HERE.
Video game developer Electronic Arts (EA), in collaboration with the Bundesliga, has announced the six nominees for the Bundesliga Player of the Month award for October 2026 – and Bayer 04’s Ibrahim Maza is among them. Fans of the Black and Reds can vote from now until Sunday 8 November (23:59 CET).
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On Tuesday night, the Leverkusen e-sports team played the first three of their six group stage matches in the second round of the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship. They were unable to secure more than a draw in either of their matches against FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The match against Bayern Munich ended in defeat.
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Once again, several Werkself players are set to represent their respective national teams during the final international break of the calendar year. Here is an overview of the Leverkusen players called up for international duty and the match dates. This will be updated regularly.
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The Bundesliga has announced the nominees for the ‘Top Goal of the Month’ award for October. Fans of the Werkself can now vote for, amongst others, Robert Andrich’s stunning volley from the match against Mainz 05 or Moussa Diaby’s curling shot into the top corner from the same fixture. Voting, exclusively on the Bundesliga app, remains open until Sunday, 8 November (23:59 CET).
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