BVB kick off Bundesliga campaign: The new season from A to Z | OneFootball

Bicycles At all home games, there will be 1,000 free-of-charge bicycle parking spaces available at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Private e-scooters can also be parked there. The ADFC bicycle guards start monitoring 105 minutes before kick-off and finish 60 minutes after the final whistle. The first parking area is located on the north-west side of the stadium in the Strobelallee/Rabenloh corner opposite the Fan World. The second parking area is situated in the north-east corner opposite the Helmut-Körnig-Halle and next to the Rosenterrassen. Parking area no. 3 is located in the south-east at Bolmker Weg/Schwimmweg corner near the swimming pool.

Champions League Like last year, all 36 participants will play in one league and contest four home games and four away matches each against eight different opponents. The draw will take place on 28 August. The teams ranked first to eighth will qualify directly for the round of 16, while the clubs ranked ninth to 24th will compete for the remaining eight spots in the round of 16.

DFB-Pokal The pairings for the second round will be drawn on Sunday 31 August. The second round will be held on 28 and 29 October. The next round will then be the last 16 on 2/3 December. The quarter-final matches will be spread across four dates (3/4/10/11 February), with the semi-finals to take place on 21 and 22 April 2026. The final will be in Berlin on 23 May 2026.

Digital ticket All match tickets are also available in digital form. Season ticket holders were able to choose between the usual plastic card or a digital subscription. Before each home game, the individual match ticket is added to your mobile phone as a 'mobile ticket' or can be downloaded as a PDF. This means that the (digital) ticket can be forwarded to third parties at any time without having to hand over the season ticket. It is still possible for digital season ticket holders to use the Secondary Ticket Market.

English weeks The Bundesliga schedule once again includes only one midweek matchday – immediately after the winter break. What is new is that these matches are now spread over three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) instead of two like they used to be.

Fixtures The first five matchdays have been precisely scheduled. The next batch of fixtures is set to be announced in the first week of September.

Kick-off times A new TV rights period begins this season, but the kick-off times will all remain the same: one game on a Friday evening (20:30), usually five on a Saturday afternoon (15:30), the top match on a Saturday at 18:30, one game on a Sunday at 15:30, one game on a Sunday at 17:30, plus a total of 10 games throughout the season at 19:30 on Sunday evenings to ensure that all the European participants have at least two days to recover.

Individual tickets 55,000 of the 81,365 places are reserved for season ticket holders, with a 10% allocation (8,137 places) available to the visitors. This means that 18,228 tickets will initially go on sale to members, with any tickets not used up by the opposing team possibly being made available later. In blocks 66 to 68 (north-west corner), discounted seated tickets are available to young people under the age of 18 for €20. Individual tickets will continue to be sold exclusively online (print@home or mobile ticket).

Internationals As per usual, domestic football will pause on four occasions: on the first weekend in September, the second weekend in October, the third weekend in November and the last weekend in March.

Interventions If players who are not allowed to be on the pitch (substitutes warming up, for example) touch the ball without any malicious intent before it goes out of play, the punishment will only be an indirect free kick from now on. Previously, referees had to award a penalty kick when such situations occurred inside the penalty area if a substitute from the defending team stopped the ball (accidentally!) just before it went out of play.

Local public transport The match ticket for SIGNAL IDUNA PARK entitles the holder to travel to and from the stadium throughout the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This also applies to holders of plastic season tickets. Holders of a 'print@home ticket' or a 'mobile ticket' (e.g. Apple Wallet) must – in addition to their match ticket – carry a ticket for local public transport (ÖPNV), which can be ordered free of charge online.

Offsides The semi-automatic offside technology is intended to facilitate the work of the VAR. In so-called "factual offside situations", a time reduction of 30% is expected – along with an overall increase in acceptance and clarity in cases of VAR intervention.

Parking Please switch off your SatNavs and follow the directions of the parking guidance system, as various access roads are closed on matchdays. The car parks directly at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK are only available to holders of pre-issued parking permits. Please note: the exits from car parks A8, B Luftbad, B Süd and B West will be closed from around the 80th minute of the match until around 40 minutes after the final whistle to ensure that spectators can leave the stadium on foot. There are over 10,000 paid parking spaces in the surrounding area that are available to all visitors. Parking tickets must be purchased in advance online.

Park & Ride

The uni shuttle runs between the university and the Theodor-Fliedner-Heim stop. Parking is available there and the bus will take you on your onward journey to the stadium. The car park is located on Otto-Hahn-Straße (A45 exit Eichlinghofen or B1 exit Barop). The parking fee on Otto-Hahn-Straße is €2.

Penalties If the taker accidentally touches the ball twice when shooting – for example, by kicking it against his own standing leg – and scores a goal, the penalty will no longer be considered to have been missed and will instead be retaken. If the ball does not go in the goal after the double contact, an indirect free-kick will be awarded to the opposing team, as was previously the case.

Pitch During the summer break, the playing surface at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK was completely relaid. To this end, a special technical procedure was implemented: three so-called 'tufting machines' processed the surface strip by strip, embroidering synthetic artificial turf fibres into the existing natural turf.

Season tickets All 55,000 available season tickets were sold prior to the start of the season. Like last year, around 300 people on the waiting list were allocated a regular spot at the ground.

Secondary Market Bought a ticket but then can't go? Borussia Dortmund offer buyers of individual match tickets and season ticket holders a very simple way to legally resell their tickets by listing them on the Secondary Ticket Market. These tickets are put up for sale at the purchase price of the ticket in the BVB Ticket Shop. The season ticket is then electronically blocked for the match in question. The seller receives a refund of the ticket price from BVB, minus a processing fee.

Sportschau In future, ARD's Sportschau programme will be broadcast on Friday evenings from 23:10 and will show highlights from the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. Until now, only second-tier coverage was available on Fridays via the special-interest channel One.

Tickets for young members Since 2023, there has been an advance ticket sale exclusively for young BVB members. For club members aged 14 to 17, there is a separate ticket contingent for all BVB home games that is allocated separately from the normal member sale. This increases the chances of young members getting tickets. All members aged between 14 and 17 can apply for up to two tickets, at least one of which must be a discounted youth ticket. All eligible members will be informed in good time about the start of each advance sale via the newsletter.

Time wastingGoalkeepers are allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms for eight seconds. The referee must indicate the last five seconds with a countdown using their hand so that it is visible to everyone. If the goalkeeper is still holding the ball without being prevented from playing it, a corner-kick is awarded to the opposing team.

Transfer window Players can move clubs up until 1 September 2025 (20:00). The reason for this is that the final qualifying matches for the European club competitions will only be completed shortly before then. After that, only players without a club can be signed in Germany up until the winter break.

TV rights The Bundesliga simulcast for the 15:30 matches on Saturday afternoons is moving from Sky to DAZN. In return, Sky will now show the Friday matches again, as well as all individual matches on Saturday, including the top match at 18:30. Sunday games remain with DAZN.

Wheelchair users Since last season, additional seats have been available in the wheelchair areas so that wheelchair users are able to bring a friend – in addition to an accompanying person – with them to the stadium. Wheelchair users can participate in the ticket lottery via the online tool in their BVB account. The ticket costs €15.

Winter break There will be a break of just under three weeks from 22 December 2025 to 8 January 2026. After that, the action will resume with Matchday 16. The winter champion will be crowned on 15 January.