[Oliver_Kahn]

We have the fixture schedule for the 2007-08 season. But which factors play a role in the planning? bundesliga.de explains the complicated procedure.


Today, Thursday June 28, the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH disclosed the fixture schedule for the 2007-08 Bundesliga und 2. Bundesliga season at a press conference.

"Attention must be paid to a few things"

Two professional leagues, 36 clubs, a total of 612 games, plus the international framework calendar with international games and the European club competitions such as the Champions League and the UEFA Cup - how do you juggle all this? How does the fixture schedule come into being?

"Before the concrete planning, attention must be paid to a few things", explains Holger Hieronymus, DFL Vice-CEO and Member of the Executive Board for Competition.

"First of all, the world body FIFA enters its dates into our national calendar. That means time slots for the international games are set aside", says Hieronymus. "Then UEFA does the same for the Champions League and UEFA CUP matches."

Keeping the EURO 2008 in mind

And so the planners face a "ready-made plan, in which we, in consultation with the German Football Association (DFB) over the DFB Cup, finalize our dates", says Hieronymus, who presented the fixture schedule in Frankfurt together with Tom Bender, Member of the Executive Board for Marketing and Communications.

The upcoming EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland also has a bearing on the fixture planners' deliberations. In order to provide the National Team with sufficient preparation time, "we will have to play three English weeks, one more than in past seasons. And so we have arranged that the DFB Cup Final will take place after the 29th week of play and not after the end of the season", says Hieronymus.

Of course the planners have to await the sporting qualification of the clubs for their respective leagues, as well as the June 15 deadline "when it is decided whether the licensing requirements have been met," according to the Member of the Executive Board for Competition.

Double Use, Security Concerns, Other Events

Only then can the concrete planning begin. But even here the specific demands of the fixtures play a role. "For example, in Munich one must take into account that the stadium is used by both FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München," explains Hieronymus.

"Security factors also play a role, and this keeps us in ongoing communication with the ZIS (Zentrale Informationsstelle Sporteinsätze), the organization that keeps track of hooligans.

The differing holiday schedules in various German states complicate the planning, as do the wishes of the clubs, for example when other events are planned for their stadiums or a festival is taking place at the same time.

Huge Coordination Effort

"Germany's costly stadium infrastructure must of course be refinanced. And so we are responsive to the wishes of the clubs," Hieronymus points out.

All in all, it's an extremely difficult process, in which so many interests and guidelines have to be coordinated.