Actor Palina Rojinski will be helping to make the draw for the 32 first round ties at the German Football Museum in Dortmund from 22.00 CET (live on ARD). In the two draw bowls with professional and lower league clubs there will be 64 teams including Bayer 04 as well as sixth-tier BSC Hastedt and SV Linx the participants lowest in the league pyramid. DFB president Reinhard Grindel will be in charge of the draw and the presenters are Julia Scharf and Arnd Zeigler.
Bayer 04 are in Pot 1 for the first round draw amongst the pro teams, which means the Werkself will definitely play their first competitive match of next season (17 to 20 August) away to a lower league side – last season it was Karlsruher SC (3-0 a.e.t.). All the matches in the DFB Cup will be shown live on Sky. One match on the Monday night will be live on ARD from 20.45 CET.
FC Heidenheim (Bundesliga 2)
FC Köln (Bundesliga 2)
FC Nürnberg (Bundesliga)
FC Union Berlin (Bundesliga 2)
Arminia Bielefeld (Bundesliga 2)
Bayer 04
Bayern Munich (Bundesliga)
Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga)
Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)
Dynamo Dresden (Bundesliga 2)
Eintracht Frankfurt (Bundesliga, Cup winners)
FC Augsburg (Bundesliga)
FC Ingolstadt (Bundesliga 2)
FC St. Pauli (Bundesliga 2)
Fortuna Düsseldorf (Bundesliga)
FSV Mainz 05 (Bundesliga)
Hamburg SV (Bundesliga 2)
Hannover 96 (Bundesliga)
Hertha BSC (Bundesliga)
Holstein Kiel (Bundesliga 2)
Jahn Regensburg (Bundesliga 2)
MSV Duisburg (Bundesliga 2)
RB Leipzig (Bundesliga)
SC Freiburg (Bundesliga)
Schalke 04 (Bundesliga)
SV Darmstadt (Bundesliga 2)
SV Sandhausen (Bundesliga 2)
TSG Hoffenheim (Bundesliga)
VfB Stuttgart (Bundesliga)
VfL Bochum (Bundesliga 2)
VfL Wolfsburg (Bundesliga)
Werder Bremen (Bundesliga)
CfR Pforzheim (Oberliga, Finalist in Baden Cup)
FC Kaiserslautern (League 3)
FC Lok Stendal (Oberliga, Finalist in Sachsen Anhalt Cup)
FC Magdeburg (Bundesliga 2)
FC Schweinfurt 05 (Bavarian Regional League, Bavaria Cup winners)
BFC Dynamo (Regional League North, Berlin Cup winners)
BSC Hastedt (Oberliga, Bremen Cup winners)
BSG Chemie Leipzig (Oberliga, Saxony Cup winners)
Carl Zeiss Jena (League 3 Thüringen Cup winners)
Eintracht Braunschweig (League 3)
Energie Cottbus (League 3, Brandenburg Cup winners)
FC Erzgebirge Aue (Bundesliga 2)
Hansa Rostock (League 3, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Cup winners)
Karlsruher SC (League 3)
Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (Regional League West, Lower Rhine Cup winners)
SC Paderborn (Bundesliga 2)
SpVgg Greuther Fürth (Bundesliga 2)
SSV Jeddeloh (Regional League North, Finalists in Lower Saxony Cup)
SSV Ulm (Bavaria Regional League, Württemberg Cup winners)
SV Drochtersen/Assel (Regional League North, Finalists in Lower Saxony Cup)
SV Elversberg 07 (Regional League South West, Saarland Cup winners)
SV Linx (Verbandsliga, South Baden Cup winners)
SV Rödinghausen (Regional League West, play-off winners)
SV Wehen Wiesbaden (League 3)
TSV 1860 München (League 3, Bavarian Amateur champions)
TSV Steinbach (Regional League South West, Hessen Cup winners)
TuS Dassendorf (Oberliga, Hamburg Cup winners)
TuS Erndtebrück (Oberliga, Finalist in Westphalia Cup)
Rot-Weiß Koblenz (Oberliga, Rheinland Cup winners)
Viktoria Köln (Regional League West, Middle Rhine Cup winners)
Weiche Flensburg 08 (Regional League North, Schleswig-Holstein Cup winners)
Wormatia Worms (Regional League South West, Southwest Cup winners)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended youngster Montrell Culbreath's contract once again. Having only signed a deal with the Bundesliga club until 30 June 2030 in January, still as an U19 player, the attacking midfielder, who's since established himself in the first-team squad, has penned a new contract valid until 30 June 2031. Culbreath joined the Werkself academy in 2023 and made 16 first-team appearances in the 2025/26 season in the Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and Champions League, scoring one goal.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro will lead a club delegation to Brazil from July 2-6 for a program of partner engagement, community activities and football development initiatives across São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
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