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!
Former Werkself star Michael Ballack, who won the German Footballer of the Year award in 2002 while playing in Leverkusen, celebrates his 50th birthday on Saturday. Bayer 04 sends him its best wishes!
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Attention Werkself fans: In addition to tickets for the floodlit home match against Werder Bremen, tickets are now also available for the Bayer 04 women’s team’s two subsequent fixtures against Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburger SV at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Both matches in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga will take place at family-friendly kick-off times on Saturday afternoons. Here is the latest information on matchday ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen welcomes a new official member to the Sponsors’ Club at the start of the 2026/27 campaign. KKV Kabelverlegung GmbH & Co. KG is expanding its existing partnership and will, with immediate effect, act as a supporter of the Bundesliga club at the second-highest partner level, just below the premium tier. As an official partner in the Sponsors’ Club, KKV will now enjoy significantly enhanced visibility during Werkself matches at the BayArena. The new contract is initially valid until 30 June 2028.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen has extended the existing partnership agreement with EDO Personalservice GmbH and, at the same time, expanded its collaboration with the Cologne-based company. The official partner in the Business Club has been upgraded within Bayer 04’s partner network. The revised and enhanced support for the club has initially been agreed for two years, running until 30 June 2028.
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Video games developer Electronic Arts (EA), in collaboration with the Bundesliga, has announced the six nominees for the Bundesliga ‘Player of the Month’ award for September – Bayer 04’s Miguel Gutiérrez has made it into this select group after just four Bundesliga matches. Fans of the Black and Reds can vote from now until Sunday 27 September (23:59 CEST).
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