Season 2011–12 Goals scored 875 | Dates 5 Aug 2011 – 5 May 2012 Matches played 306 | |
 | ||
Champions Borussia Dortmund
5th Bundesliga title
8th German title Champions League Borussia Dortmund
Bayern Munich
Schalke 04
Bor. Mönchengladbach Europa League Bayer Leverkusen
VfB Stuttgart
Hannover 96 Top goalscorer Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
(29 goals) Biggest home win Bayern Munich 7–0 Freiburg Relegated Hertha BSC, 1. FC Köln, 1. FC Kaiserslautern Similar 2010–11 Bundesliga, 2012–13 Bundesliga, 2009–10 Bundesliga, 2008–09 Bundesliga, 2007–08 Bundesliga | ||
The 2011–12 Bundesliga was the 49th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on 5 August 2011 with the opening match involving defending champions Borussia Dortmund and ended with the last games on 5 May 2012. The traditional winter break was held between the weekends around 17 December 2011 and 20 January 2012.
Contents
- Teams
- Stadiums and locations
- Personnel and kits
- League table
- Positions by round
- Results
- Relegation play offs
- References
The league comprised eighteen teams: The best fifteen teams of the 2010–11 season, the best two teams from the 2010–11 2nd Bundesliga and the winners of the relegation play-off between the 16th-placed Bundesliga team and the third-placed 2nd Bundesliga team.
Since Germany climbed from fourth to third place in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2010–11 season, the league gained an additional group stage berth for the UEFA Champions League.
Teams
The league comprised eighteen teams: Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St. Pauli were directly relegated after finishing the 2010–11 season in the bottom two places. Frankfurt ended a six-year tenure in the Bundesliga, while St. Pauli only made a cameo one-year appearance in the top flight and directly returned to the second level.
The relegated teams were replaced by Hertha BSC, champions of the 2010–11 2. Bundesliga, and runners-up FC Augsburg. The Bavarian side made their debut at the highest level of football in Germany, while Hertha directly returned to the Bundesliga after just one year at the second tier.
A further place in the league was decided through a two-legged play-off between Borussia Mönchengladbach, the 16th-placed team of the 2010–11 Bundesliga, and VfL Bochum, the 3rd-placed 2nd Bundesliga team. Mönchengladbach won the series 2–1 on aggregate and therefore retained its Bundesliga spot.
Stadiums and locations
The most prominent change regarding stadiums occurred at Mainz, where FSV Mainz 05 moved from Stadion am Bruchweg into their newly built Coface Arena. Other changes included the completion of works at Mercedes-Benz Arena, which was converted to a football-only stadium during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons, and the renaming of Impuls Arena, the ground of promoted team FC Augsburg, to SGL Arena effective from the beginning of the season after SGL Carbon acquired the naming rights for the structure in May 2011.
Personnel and kits
In addition to the individual sponsorships of each club listed below, all teams used a league-wide ball named "Torfabrik" (goal factory), provided by Adidas; the ball was updated to a new design for the 2011–12 season.
- FC Augsburg have determined Paul Verhaegh as new captain, after incumbent Uwe Möhrle was transferred to Energie Cottbus during the 2011–12 winter transfer window.
- Werder Bremen have determined Clemens Fritz as new captain after Per Mertesacker, who was assigned by coach Thomas Schaaf at the beginning of the season, was transferred to Premier League side Arsenal on 31 August 2011.
- VfB Stuttgart have determined Serdar Tasci as new captain after Matthieu Delpierre, who was captain since 1 December 2009, asked, not to be appointed as captain again.
League table
Updated to games played on 5 May 2012.
Source: kicker
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
1The 2011–12 DFB-Pokal champions (Borussia Dortmund) and runners-up (Bayern Munich) qualified for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, thus the three Europa League places were distributed through league positions.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Positions by round
Last updated: 5 May 2012
Source: kicker.de
Results
Updated to games played on 28 April 2012.
Source: Bundesliga official website
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Relegation play-offs
Hertha BSC as 16th-placed team faced third-placed 2011–12 2. Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf in a two-legged play-off. Fortuna Düsseldorf won 4–3 on aggregate and thus were promoted for the 2012–13 Bundesliga season. Hertha BSC were relegated to the 2012–13 2nd Bundesliga.
Following the second leg, which was marred by several incidents of crowd disturbances, Hertha appealed against the result. On 21 May the DFB Sports Court rejected this appeal, having considered that these crowd disturbances did not psychologically impinge the Hertha players and that the referee's handling of the situation was sound. However, Hertha appealed again, this time to the Federal Court of the German FA. On 25 May, the Federal Court of the German FA also rejected the appeal. On 19 June, Hertha BSC decided not to appeal the decision, marking their immediate return to the 2. Bundesliga.