About Bundesliga 2
Bundesliga 2 History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The 2.Bundesliga is the second tier of men’s professional football in Germany. Founded in 1974, it initially started out as a two-division competition featuring 20 clubs before being reduced to a one-division club in 1981. The 2.Bundesliga then briefly expanded to two divisions during the early 1990s due to East German clubs’ participation, but was reduced back to one division in 1994 and has featured 18 teams since the start of the 1994/95 campaign.
Like other leagues, the 2.Bundesliga operates on a relegation-promotion system. The two top teams in the 2.Bundesliga at the end of each season earn promotion to the Bundesliga, while the bottom two teams are relegated to the 3.Liga (since 2008). Meanwhile, the team who finishes in third has a chance to battle for a spot in the Bundesliga through the play-offs; likewise, the team who finishes third from the bottom in the 2.Bundesliga will face the third-placed 3.Liga team in the play-offs to battle for the chance to remain in the 2.Bundesliga.
SC Freiburg, FC Köln, Arminia Bielefeld, VfL Bochum, and FC Nürnberg are among the most successful sides in 2.Bundesliga history. During the 2022/23 2.Bundesliga season, an average of 22,000-plus spectators tuned into games, making it the most-watched non-top flight league in the world.
2.Bundesliga teams are also involved in the annual DFB-Pokal competition. To date, only one 2.Bundesliga side, Hannover 96, has won the DFB-Pokal, which happened in the 1991/92 season.
In Germany, the 2.Bundesliga was first covered by public networks ZDF and ARD from its inception in 1974 until the early 1980s. Afterwards, a variety of paid TV broadcasters secured media rights throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and part of the 2000s. These included Sat.1, DSF, Premiere, and Arena. In the mid 2000s, Sky Deutschland acquired TV broadcast rights in a multi-year deal that was renewed in the 2010s that now includes live-streaming and full TV coverage of all 2.Bundesliga matches.
Elsewhere, namely, in the USA, TV broadcasts of the 2.Bundesliga have been mostly limited to the 21st century, with beIN Sports first acquiring TV broadcast rights in 2013. In 2017, ESPN secured broadcast rights to the 2.Bundesliga in a multi-year deal with matches live-streamed on ESPN+.
