No Ligapokal for Old Men

Ear­lier this year the Lig­apokal was can­celled due to fix­ture con­ges­tion in the after­math of Euro ’08, but was expected to return big­ger and bet­ter. Under­stand­able, if unfor­tu­nate. Now accord­ing to kicker the old men at the DFL* have already can­celled the 2009 edi­tion of the competition.

The rea­son­ing behind the move? Accord­ing to DFL pres­i­dent Rein­hard Rauball ques­tions regard­ing a pos­si­ble increase in the 1. and 2. Bun­desliga must be exam­ined and addressed first. The plans for the revamped com­pe­ti­tion cur­rently have all 36 mem­bers com­pete, but if the leagues were to expand to 20 teams apiece that would nat­u­rally alter things (the Lig­apokal being just one of them). This likely wouldn’t hap­pen until the 2012/2013 sea­son, when the cur­rent TV rights deal (in Ger­man/in google­fied Eng­lish) expires. In the mean­time there’ll be a fea­si­bil­ity study to exam­ine the pos­si­ble increase, which will last God knows how long.

The ques­tion is, will the Lig­apokal return in 2010? In 2013? Ever?

* The Deutsche Fussball-Liga, oper­a­tor of Germany’s pro­fes­sional leagues and not to be con­fused with the DFB (Deutscher Fussball-Bund), oth­er­wise known as the Ger­man FA. It doesn’t help that until 2004 the Lig­apokal was known as the DFB-Ligapokal, which makes keep­ing the two acronyms sep­a­rate and dis­tinct that much harder.

Tagged as: DFB, DFL, Ligapokal