In addition to the professional teams in the VBL Club Championship, amateur teams can also take part in the DFBePokal powered by ERGO. These teams must register in advance, provided they fulfil the necessary participation requirements and conditions on the DFB website.
In the DFBePokal, the 95-team mode is always used - unlike in the VBL CC, where the Ultimate Team mode is used. In the ePokal, players can choose any team from the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 or Liga 3. However, VBL CC professional players must use their club team.
The DFBePokal is organised as follows: The amateur teams compete in community qualifiers from October to February. 256 teams can register for each qualifier, the ties are drawn and there is a winner at the end. There are a total of seven of these qualifiers and an additional qualifier exclusively for the winners of regional tournaments, the state association trophies.
Eight winners emerge there and play against each other online in a subsequent play-off round. Here too, the ties are drawn. Four teams remain.
These four teams qualify for the Pokal final event at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt, which will take place in 2026. Four teams from the VBL Club Championship will join them there, namely the winners of the first four showdowns that have been held since the 2025/26 season. The #B04eSports team have won the first showdown of the season and are therefore guaranteed a place in the DFBePokal.
The ties in the final event are drawn at random, and in the end one team can call themselves the Pokal winners!
Welcome back! On Tuesday morning, 11 August, Jarell Quansah and Exequiel Palacios – the last of the Werkself’s World Cup participants – returned to training. The two medallists and their team-mates are set to play their final two pre-season friendlies in England this week before the start of competitive fixtures.
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Bayer 04 have unveiled the new third kit for the 2026/27 season. The design, developed by kit supplier New Balance, combines the city’s colours with symbols that have defined Leverkusen and Bayer 04 for generations.
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Tickets for the first two Bayer 04 women’s team home games are now on general sale. A week after their league opener away at RB Leipzig, Roberto Pätzold’s side will face last season’s runners-up, VfL Wolfsburg, in the first home fixture on Sunday 30 August (kick-off: 16:00 CEST). Fifteen days later, on Monday night, 14 September (kick-off: 18:00 CEST), the Leverkusen Women host German champions Bayern Munich at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for a top-of-the-table league clash. You can now also select specific seats via the online shop. The latest information on match ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without Montrell Culbreath for the start of the 2026/27 season. The forward injured his foot injury in yesterday’s preseason friendly against Spanish top-flight side Sevilla (2–1), which rules him out of action for the time being. Culbreath’s diagnosis is not yet complete; further examinations are to follow in the coming days.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended midfielder Noah Mbamba’s contract by twelve months and sent the Belgian U21 international on loan to France. At FC Lorient, the 21-year-old – whose contract at Leverkusen now runs to 30 June 2029 – is set to gain playing time in Ligue 1 and, through strong performances and further development, put himself in the running for a future place in the Werkself squad.
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