On Friday, 15 August, a week before the Bundesliga starts its 2025/26 season, the German DFB Cup begins with its first round. There will be 30 matches in four days, followed by the final two opening round games scheduled for the end of August.
Defending DFB Cup winners VfB Stuttgart and Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich each have their opening cup match postponed, because on Saturday, August 16, they play each other in the now renamed Franz Beckenbauer Super Cup, named in honour of the late German legend.
Who Participates in the DFB Cup
Given that there are a total of 32 opening round match-ups, there are, of course, 64 teams that qualify for the DFB Cup proper. That includes the 36 teams that played in the top two divisions of German football last season, as well as the top four finishers in the third division.
Those 40 teams qualify for the competition directly; the remaining 24 teams make it either by winning their amateur state/regional cup competition or through a special rule carved out for amateur teams in their states.
For example, due to Bavaria’s enormous size within Germany, they get not one, but two amateur spots into the DFB Cup proper. Besides the state’s amateur cup winner FV Illertissen, the champions of the Bavarian regional league, 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 also qualify.
Home Field Advantage
Teams from the third-tier or lower get home-field advantage up until the semifinals, as the final has, in recent decades, always taken place in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. It is something that last season’s third-tier side Arminia Bielefeld took advantage of to perfection.
Last season’s beaten finalists have been promoted to Bundesliga 2, where they have won their opening two games, against two of the strongest sides in the division.
In any case, teams from the third-tier or below cannot face each other in either of the first two rounds of the DFB Cup. (In the rare case that these teams face each other in the Round of 16 or later, the side that is drawn first gets to play at home, just like any other tie.)
When a second division team plays a side from Bundesliga 1, they do not automatically get home-field advantage, except in round one, which is a controversial rule.
In the first round, the 32 highest-ranked teams from last season’s German football pyramid all go on away trips in the first round to either a team that finished in the bottom four of Bundesliga 2 or an amateur side.
For purposes of the Cup, teams from the third-tier or below are considered amateurs, even though, strictly speaking, that is no longer true nowadays. Most players in the DFB Cup play football for a living.
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Interesting First-Round Matchups This Season
The DFB Cup kicks off on Friday with 2024 title holders Bayer Leverkusen taking on fourth-tier village side SG Sonnenhof Großaspach. This is a typical David vs. Goliath first-round clash.
Later that day, last year’s shock finalists from Bielefeld play against Werder Bremen, a side they beat on their way to Berlin last year.
On Saturday, fourth-tier Eintracht Norderstedt take on Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli in a northern Derby of sorts. Meanwhile, on Sunday, fifth-tier FV Engers play Eintracht Frankfurt, while on Monday, Borussia Dortmund travel to Rot-Weiss Essen, a Third Division side with much history and fanfare.
Lastly, as noted above, Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart play their cup openers later, due to their participation in the Super Cup. Stuttgart play Eintracht Brunswick of the second Bundesliga on August 26, while Bayern travel to third-tier SV Wehen Wiesbaden on the 27th.
It is sure to be an interesting competition, because, as the Germans say, the Cup has its own laws, which means plenty of surprises are certain to happen.
Main Photo
Credit: IMAGO / Maximilian Koch
Recording Date: 15.08.2025