Different than on Tuesday
Why does the DFB Cup start earlier today?
October 29, 2025 – 11:21 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
On Tuesday, the DFB Cup game started for Eintracht and BVB fans at 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday the early kick-off time is different.
First Cup Tuesday, now Cup Wednesday. After teams like Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV were in action yesterday, Tuesday, fans of Bayer Leverkusen, VfB Stuttgart and 1. FC Kaiserslautern will get their money’s worth this Wednesday. But: While the early games were on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. – including the free TV game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund – the broadcast on Wednesday starts at 6 p.m. There is an organizational reason for this.
On Tuesday evening, following the encounter between Frankfurt and Dortmund, ZDF showed the second leg of the Nations League semi-final between the DFB women and France (kick-off at 9:10 p.m.). In order to have as little “idle time” as possible and a clean program flow between the games, the kick-off of the cup game was scheduled for 6.30 p.m. ZDF had not expected that extra time and a penalty shootout would ultimately follow in Frankfurt.
Because of the women’s game, the top game of the cup on Tuesday between Eintracht and BVB was not shown at 8:45 p.m.
On Wednesday, ARD will show the cup game between 1. FC Cologne and FC Bayern Munich. Kick-off is at 8:45 p.m., the public broadcaster starts the broadcast with pre-game coverage at 8:15 p.m. None of the games that start at 6 p.m. will be broadcast on free TV. However, football fans can watch them on the pay TV channel Sky.
Alex Schlüter is a presenter on ARD. He is supported by former Bayern star and 2014 World Champion Bastian Schweinsteiger as an expert. The duel between the Bundesliga teams will be commented on by Tom Bartels.