The Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) celebrates its tenth anniversary this year: The VBL Open, part of the VBL competition, first started in 2012 in cooperation with the German Football League (DFL). To this day, it is the only EA SPORTS FIFA game directly integrated into competition of a professional football league. Now over 130,000 people from across Germany take part. All matches are played on the football simulation game FIFA 22 on the newest console generation, PlayStation 5 plus Xbox Series S/X.
The VBL Club Championship, the second competition in the VBL, is in its fourth season. Bayer 04, with its eSports team is one of the founders of this league. Participation in the VBL CC is open to all 36 German professional clubs and 26 teams from the top two football leagues have confirmed their participation this year. The only changes in composition are related to league status: The new second division clubs Hansa Rostock and FC Ingolstadt replace the relegated Würzburg Kickers and Eintracht Braunschweig.
"We very much welcome the commitment and the efforts of the DFL in the area of eSports and we are looking forward to being in the fourth year of the VBL Club Championship," explained Florian Dederichs, the head of eSports and internationalisation at Bayer 04. "With our new and deeper squad, we want to be more unpredictable for our opponents and build on the successful past seasons."
Fabian ‘B04_DUBZJE’ De Cae, Marc ‘MARC_LDW23’ Landwehr and Anna ‘B04_ANNA’ Klink are joined for the new VBL season by new signings Paul ‘B04_Paul’ Degner plus Furkan ‘FURKY’ Kayacik.
At the end of March next year, as part of the VBL Club Championship, the German club championship will be decided. In the VBL Grand Final at the start of June 2020 there will also be a champion of all participating individual players from the VBL Open and VBL CC competitions.
Under the motto ‘Sound of Dreams - #aCROSS Europe 2025/26’, Bayer 04 are turning this season's UEFA Champions League season into a festival. In addition to a Spotify playlist that fans can use to get in the mood for the Champions League nights, there is also a tour pass with stickers for the respective UCL matches exclusively for Bayer 04 Club members. These could be picked up in the respective weeks of the matches. The sticker for the final clash in the league phase (Villarreal, 28 January, 21:00 CET) is now available at the Fanwelt. The competition for all diligent sticker collectors is also now open. Read on for further information.
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This afternoon, Saturday 24 January (kick-off: 15.30 CET), Bayer 04 host SV Werder Bremen, who are winless in their last seven league games. Nevertheless, in their last outing, a 3-3 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt, where they conceded a late equaliser, the Green and Whites did show their team spirit. The Werkself, led by birthday boy Patrik Schick, will be looking to counter this and secure their first three points of the new year on this ‘!Never Again’ remembrance matchday to commemorate the victims of National Socialism. Read on for the latest information in today's matchday news.
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Happy birthday, Patrik Schick! On his special day, it's not just the Czech striker who can look forward to lots of presents and hopefully many more goals – Bayer 04 fans can also get their hands on a free number 14 print when they buy a Werkself jersey today, January 24! In addition, a match-worn jersey belonging to the now 30-year-old will be raffled off among all purchasers next week.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-1 win at 1. FC Union Berlin on the 15th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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