The DFB has presented a structural reform of the A and B junior Bundesliga from 2024/25 – and wants to try to do justice to the ideas of the professional clubs and the smaller clubs.
The pros would have liked to have had a closed league for their youth teams, in which talents could be trained without promotion or relegation – without the pressure of missing results or relegation battles. Smaller clubs as well as the regional and state associations in the DFB saw it differently: They wanted to be able to continue to be represented at the top level of German youth football. A compromise should now take both views into account.
Professionals without relegation, amateurs can continue to play
On Wednesday (06/28/2023), the DFB explained how the A-Junior and B-Junior Bundesliga should run from 2024/25:
- 56 clubs in Germany that have youth academies are present and cannot dismount. In the preliminary round, eight amateur clubs are to field on 64 teams fill up.
- Eight regional squadrons with eight teams each play the preliminary round.
- Then the field is divided in the main round according to sporting performance into a league A and a league B.
- Up to eleven amateur clubs from the second highest division can also qualify for League B of the main round. There it should be possible for the youth teams of the amateur clubs to stay in the sporting class.
- In league A there are four seasons with six teams each. The 16 best teams reach the round of 16 the knockout round.
- The leagues are renamed in “U19 Junior League” and “U17 Junior League”. The move away from the term “Bundesliga” is intended to focus on development.
The previous system, which was temporarily adjusted during the corona pandemic, is basically:
- 42 teams play in three regional divisions, each with 14 teams north/northeast, south/southwest and west.
- A semi-final and a final for the German championship follow.
- The same mode has so far been used in the B-Junior Bundesliga.
Panagiotis Chatzialexiou, sporting director of national teams at the DFB, spoke of “clear agreement” among those involved. The concept was worked out jointly by the DFB and DFL. “The hope is that we will have games in the future that will be even more at eye level,” said Chatzialexiou. He hopes that without the pressure of the relegation battle, coaches will change their style of play and no longer pursue a “failure avoidance strategy”. The focus is now on player development.
Fully criticized youth work in Germany
DFB sports director Rudi Völler had clearly criticized the youth system of the DFB. He said that he saw clear potential for improvement in the training of young footballers in Germany. “It’s a question of quality, we have to get it back. It starts in the youth sector,” said the DFB sports director at the U21 European Championships in Georgia and Romania: “But it’s not just the DFB, the clubs are also involved in the boat. They haven’t trained the way they should in the end.” He criticized the gap to other European countries, especially France.
The German national team was eliminated from the last two World Cups in the preliminary round, and the U21s are currently on the brink of being eliminated from the European Championship. However, the current reform is not a reaction to Völler’s criticism; the reform process was initiated years ago.
Juniors: Anger about the abolition of the B-Junior Bundesliga
There should also be changes for the juniors. From 2024/25, the B-Juniorinnen-Bundesliga with its three regional seasons will no longer be held. The DFB explained that the reform serves to promote girls’ football.
This also drew criticism. Hertha Zehlendorf, a club that has been successful in training young soccer players, spoke out against the measure. Obviously, the DFB has the idea that we only want to produce a very small, elite top team in girls’ and women’s football,” said coach Stefan Herm on Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.