German Football Ups & Downs 2025-26: Promotions, Relegations & European Places

Here are the German Football Promotions, Relegations & European Places for the 2025-26 season.

Updated May 27, 2026. You can skip ahead to this season’s results here.

After every season, as it is all over Europe, German football clubs go up, go down, and get into Europe. Here’s an explainer of how that works and what happened after the 2025-26 season.

Meanwhile, here is a post all about promotion and relegation in the top European football leagues.

League Structure in German Football

As in all countries, Germany has tiers of leagues in its football structure. At the top is the Bundesliga, including all the famous clubs like Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and the rest. Just below that is 2. Bundesliga, and below that is 3. Liga. Beneath that in the fourth tier are five regional leagues called Regionalliga. Clubs in that tier are semiprofessional and amateur, and from the fifth tier down it’s all amateur.

Connecting all of this, as in England, is a system of promotion and relegation.

This map shows the locations of clubs in the top two tiers. Blue is Bundesliga and red is 2. Bundesliga.

German Football Clubs Qualifying For Europe

At the top of the Bundesliga, as in the Premier League, the top four clubs qualify for the next season’s Champions League. No. 5 goes to the Europa League, and 6 goes to  the Europa Conference League. The winner of the domestic cup competition, the DFB-Pokal, also goes to the Europa League — and if that team also qualifies for Champions League or Europa League elsewhere, their spot in Europa goes to the next-highest finisher in the table who didn’t otherwise qualify for Europe.

How Does Promotion and Relegation Work in German Football?

Promotion and relegation in German football is generally similar to English football, but there are some differences. Here we will break it all down for you.

The two clubs at the bottom of the Bundesliga, nos. 17 and 18, are automatically relegated to 2. Bundesliga.

Meanwhile, in 2. Bundesliga, the top two teams are automatically promoted to the Bundesliga.

But this is where the difference between England and Germany emerges.

Bundesliga Promotion / Relegation Playoff

The final German Bundesliga relegation spot is actually determined by a playoff. The club finishing 16th in the Bundesliga plays a two-legged playoff with the team finishing third in 2. Bundesliga. The winner plays in the Bundesliga the following season.

In the 2. Bundesliga, there is a corresponding playoff with teams from 3. Liga. The club finishing 16th in 2. Bundesliga goes into a playoff with the third-place team from 3. Liga, while nos. 17 and 18 go down automatically. The top two clubs in 3. Liga go up to 2. Bundesliga.

Learn How To Buy Bundesliga Tickets Here

2025-26 Promotions, Relegations and European Places in Germany

Here is the top of the 25-26 Bundesliga final table. Links are to our profiles of each club.

1. Bayern Munich: Champions League (Buy Bayern Munich Tickets)
2. Borussia Dortmund: Champions League (Buy Dortmund Tickets)
3. RB Leipzig: Champions League
4. Stuttgart: Champions League
5. Hoffenheim: Europa League
6. Bayer Leverkusen: Europa League because Bayern also won the DFB-Pokal. (Buy Leverkusen Tickets)
7. Freiburg: Conference League

Relegated from Bundesliga to 2. Bundesliga:

• Heidenheim
• St. Pauli
• Wolfsburg via the relegation playoff

Promoted from 2. Bundesliga to Bundesliga:

• Schalke
• Elversberg
• Paderborn via the relegation playoff

The relegation playoff provided drama! Wolfsburg of Bundesliga and Paderborn of 2. Bundesliga drew the first leg, 0-0, at Wolfsburg. And then Paderborn won promotion with a 99th-minute winner at home!

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