The 2009–10 Fußball-Bundesliga is the 47th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions VfL Wolfsburg and VfB Stuttgart.^[1] The last games will be played on 8 May 2010. There will be a winter break between 21 December 2009 and 14 January 2010, though the period has been reduced from six to three weeks.^[2]

[edit] Promotion and relegation from 2008–09

Karlsruher SC and Arminia Bielefeld were directly relegated for finishing in the bottom two places. Karlsruhe ended a two-year stint in Germany's top flight, while Arminia were relegated for the sixth time since the introduction of the Bundesliga, a current record, after five years.

The relegated teams were replaced by SC Freiburg, champions of the 2. Bundesliga 2008–09, and runners-up 1. FSV Mainz 05. Freiburg returned to the Bundesliga after four years, Mainz began a second tenure in the top division after being relegated in the 2006–07 season.

A further place in the league was decided through a two-legged play-off. FC Energie Cottbus as 16th-placed Bundesliga team had to face 1. FC Nuremberg, who finished third in 2. Bundesliga. Nuremberg won both matches by an aggregated score of 5–0 and thus earned their seventh promotion to the Bundesliga since its introduction, also a current record. Their opponents ended a second three-year top flight tenure and left the Bundesliga without a club from former East Germany for only the second time since East German teams were included before the 1991–92 season, with the other time being in 2005–06.

[edit] Team information

[edit] Stadia and locations

BayArena, home of Bayer Leverkusen, was expanded from 22,500 to 30,000 spectators during the first half of 2009. Other stadia which are recently undergoing renovation or expansion are Weserstadion in Bremen, HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg and Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart.

FC Bayern

Bremen

Dortmund

Frankfurt

Freiburg

Hamburg

Hannover

Hertha BSC

Hoffenheim

Köln

Mainz

Mönchengladbach

Nuremberg

Schalke

Stuttgart

Wolfsburg

Bochum

Leverkusen

Locations of teams in the Fußball-Bundesliga 2009–10

Notes

1. Weserstadion will be increased in capacity during the season.^[3]
2. HSH Nordbank Arena will be expanded to a capacity of 61,000 from January 2010.^[3]
3. Mercedes-Benz Arena will be converted to a football-only stadium during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. As a consequence, the usual capacity of 58,000 is currently reduced to 42,101.^[3]

[edit] Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Head coach	Team captain[5]	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Bayer 04 Leverkusen	Jupp Heynckes	Simon Rolfes	Adidas	TelDaFax
FC Bayern Munich	Louis van Gaal	Mark van Bommel	Adidas	T-Home
VfL Bochum	Heiko Herrlich	Marcel Maltritz	Do You Football	Netto
Borussia Dortmund	Jürgen Klopp	Sebastian Kehl	Kappa	Evonik
Eintracht Frankfurt	Michael Skibbe	Christoph Spycher	Jako	Fraport
SC Freiburg	Robin Dutt	Heiko Butscher	Nike	Duravit
Hamburger SV	Bruno Labbadia	David Jarolím	Adidas	Emirates
Hannover 96	Andreas Bergmann	Vacant	Under Armour	TUI
Hertha BSC	Friedhelm Funkel	Arne Friedrich	Nike	Deutsche Bahn
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim	Ralf Rangnick	Per Nilsson	Puma	TV Digital
1. FC Köln	Zvonimir Soldo	Vacant	Reebok	REWE
1. FSV Mainz 05	Thomas Tuchel	Dimo Wache	Nike	Entega
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Michael Frontzeck	Filip Daems	Lotto	Postbank
1. FC Nuremberg	Dieter Hecking	Andreas Wolf	Adidas	Areva
FC Schalke 04	Felix Magath	Heiko Westermann	Adidas	Gazprom
VfB Stuttgart	Christian Gross	Matthieu Delpierre[6]	Puma	EnBW
SV Werder Bremen	Thomas Schaaf	Torsten Frings	Nike	Citibank
VfL Wolfsburg	Armin Veh	Josué	Adidas	Volkswagen

[edit] Managerial changes

Eight teams underwent coaching changes during the off-season, among them champions VfL Wolfsburg and runners-up Bayern Munich. Christoph Daum made use of a unilateral contract option to terminate his contract at Köln.

Team	Outgoing manager(s)	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Eintracht Frankfurt	Friedhelm Funkel	Resigned	21 May 2009[7]	off-season	Michael Skibbe	1 July 2009[8]
Hamburg	Martin Jol	AFC Ajax purchased rights	26 May 2009[9]		Bruno Labbadia	1 July 2009[10]
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Hans Meyer	Retired	28 May 2009[11]		Michael Frontzeck	1 July 2009[12]
Köln	Christoph Daum	Contract terminated	2 June 2009[13]		Zvonimir Soldo	1 July 2009[14]
Bayer Leverkusen	Bruno Labbadia	Hamburg purchased rights	5 June 2009[10]		Jupp Heynckes	1 July 2009[15]
Bayern Munich	Jupp Heynckes	End of caretaker contract	30 June 2009[15]		Louis van Gaal	1 July 2009[16]
Schalke 04	Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder & Oliver Reck	End of tenure as caretakers	30 June 2009[17]		Felix Magath	1 July 2009[17]
Wolfsburg	Felix Magath	End of contract	30 June 2009[17]		Armin Veh	1 July 2009[18]
Mainz	Jørn Andersen	Sacked	3 August 2009[19]	pre-season	Thomas Tuchel	3 August 2009[20]
Hannover 96	Dieter Hecking	Resigned	19 August 2009[21]	14th	Andreas Bergmann	30 August 2009[22]
VfL Bochum	Marcel Koller	Sacked	20 September 2009[23]	17th	Frank Heinemann (caretaker)	20 September 2009[23]
Hertha BSC	Lucien Favre	Sacked	28 September 2009[24]	18th	Friedhelm Funkel	3 October 2009[25]
VfL Bochum	Frank Heinemann (caretaker)	End as caretaker	27 October 2009	17th	Heiko Herrlich	27 October 2009[26]
VfB Stuttgart	Markus Babbel	Sacked	6 December 2009[27]	16th	Christian Gross	6 December 2009[27]
1. FC Nuremberg	Michael Oenning	Sacked	21 December 2009[28]	17th	Dieter Hecking	22 December 2009[29]

[edit] League table

Updated to games played on 20 December 2009
Source: bundesliga.de
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goals scored.
¹Winners of the 2009–10 DFB-Pokal competition will qualify for the play-off round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (Q) = Qualified to respective phase of tournament; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

[edit] Results

Updated to games played on 20 December 2009
Source: www.bundesliga.de
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

[edit] Statistics

Including matches played on 20 December 2009

[edit] Awards

[edit] Player of the Month

Month	Player	Team
August[30]	Stefan Kießling	Bayer Leverkusen
September[31]	Thomas Müller	Bayern Munich
October[32]	Lucas Barrios	Borussia Dortmund
November[33]	Mesut Özil	Werder Bremen

[edit] See also

• 2009–10 Second Fußball-Bundesliga
• 2009–10 3rd Liga
• 2009–10 DFB-Pokal
• List of German football transfers summer 2009

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site (German) (English)
• Bundesliga on DFB page (German) (English)
• Kicker magazine (German)