German professional football: Fan demand: simultaneous kick-off on the penultimate match day

“Back to the simultaneous scheduling of the games on the penultimate matchday in the three professional leagues,” said club chairman Jost Peter. If certain decisions have already been made, the fan organization fears that it might only be played for the “Golden Pineapple”. The penultimate matchday in the Bundesliga, the 2nd Bundesliga and the 3rd League takes place from Friday to Sunday. On the last match day, all games start at the same time.

“Our curve”: Spicy constellations in all three top leagues

In order to support the demands they have already made over the past three years, “Our Curve” has listed examples of possible preliminary decisions on the penultimate match day. Eintracht Frankfurt, eighth in the Bundesliga, will be playing for a place in the European Cup at Borussia Dortmund this Friday (8.30 p.m./Sky). Competitors SC Freiburg, in seventh place, knew in the event of a Frankfurt defeat that their own win on Sunday (3:30 p.m./DAZN) at Hamburger SV would secure their international starting place, it was said.

According to the fan association, SV Elversberg is “in the most comfortable situation” in the promotion battle of the 2nd Bundesliga because the second-placed team only plays at Fortuna Düsseldorf on Sunday (1:30 p.m./Sky) and already knows the results of their competitors SC Paderborn (Friday against Karlsruher SC) and Hannover 96 (Saturday at VfL Bochum). “If both opponents do not win, there will actually be a first match point for direct promotion in Düsseldorf on Sunday because of the significantly better goal difference,” says “Our Curve”.

The situation is similar in the 3rd league, where third-place MSV Duisburg is already playing at FC Erzgebirge Aue on Friday. The competitors Energie Cottbus, SC Verl, Hansa Rostock and Rot-Weiss Essen only have to play on Saturday. “Once again there are spicy constellations in all three leagues in which knowledge of the previous results of the competition brings an advantage or certainty. There is real competitive fairness only when the penultimate match days are scheduled at the same time,” emphasized the fans’ association.