2011–12 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.^[3]

Bundesliga

Season	2011–12
Dates	5 August 2011 – 5 May 2012
Champions	Borussia Dortmund 5th Bundesliga title 8th German title
Relegated	Hertha BSC (via play-off) 1. FC Köln 1. FC Kaiserslautern
Champions League	Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich Schalke 04 Bor. Mönchengladbach
Europa League	Bayer Leverkusen VfB Stuttgart Hannover 96
Matches played	306
Goals scored	875 (2.86 per match)
Top goalscorer	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (29 goals)
Biggest home win	Bayern Munich 7–0 Freiburg
Biggest away win	Hertha BSC 0–6 Bayern Munich
Highest scoring	Werder Bremen 5–3 Freiburg Bayern Munich 7–1 Hoffenheim B. Dortmund 4–4 VfB Stuttgart
Longest winning run	8 matches Borussia Dortmund[1]
Longest unbeaten run	28 matches by Borussia Dortmund[1]
Longest winless run	21 matches by 1. FC Kaiserslautern[1]
Longest losing run	6 matches by Hertha BSC 1. FC Kaiserslautern[1]
Average attendance	45,116[2]
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The league comprised eighteen teams: The best fifteen teams of the 2010–11 season, the best two teams from the 2010–11 2. Bundesliga, and the winners of the relegation play-off between the 16th-placed Bundesliga team and the third-placed 2. Bundesliga team.

Since Germany climbed from fourth to third place in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2010–11 season,^[4][5][6] 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 third-placed 2. 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Augsburg

Bayern Munich

Bremen

Dortmund

Freiburg

Hamburg

Hannover

Hertha BSC

Hoffenheim

Kaiserslautern

Köln

Mainz

Mönchengladbach

Nürnberg

Schalke

Stuttgart

Wolfsburg

Leverkusen

Locations of the 2011–12 Fußball-Bundesliga teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity[7]
FC Augsburg	Augsburg	SGL arena	30,660
Bayer Leverkusen	Leverkusen	BayArena	30,210
Bayern Munich	Munich	Allianz Arena	69,000
Borussia Dortmund	Dortmund	Signal Iduna Park	80,720
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Mönchengladbach	Stadion im Borussia-Park	54,057
SC Freiburg	Freiburg	Mage Solar Stadion	25,000
Hamburger SV	Hamburg	Imtech Arena	57,000
Hannover 96	Hanover	AWD-Arena	49,000
Hertha BSC	Berlin	Olympiastadion	74,244
1899 Hoffenheim	Sinsheim	Rhein-Neckar Arena	30,150
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Kaiserslautern	Fritz-Walter-Stadion	49,780
1. FC Köln	Cologne	RheinEnergieStadion	50,000
1. FSV Mainz 05	Mainz	Coface Arena	34,034
1. FC Nürnberg	Nuremberg	EasyCredit-Stadion	48,548
Schalke 04	Gelsenkirchen	Veltins-Arena	61,673
VfB Stuttgart	Stuttgart	Mercedes-Benz Arena	60,300
Werder Bremen	Bremen	Weserstadion	42,000
VfL Wolfsburg	Wolfsburg	Volkswagen Arena	30,000

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.^[9]

Team	Manager	Captain[10]	Kit manufacturer[9]	Shirt sponsor[9]
FC Augsburg	Jos Luhukay	Paul Verhaegh1	Jako	AL-KO
Bayer Leverkusen	Sami Hyypiä (caretaker)	Simon Rolfes	adidas	SunPower[11]
Bayern Munich	Jupp Heynckes	Philipp Lahm	adidas	T-Home (Home and Third), LIGAtotal (Away)
Borussia Dortmund	Jürgen Klopp	Sebastian Kehl	Kappa	Evonik
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Lucien Favre	Filip Daems	Lotto	Postbank
SC Freiburg	Christian Streich	Julian Schuster	Nike	Ehrmann
Hamburger SV	Thorsten Fink	Heiko Westermann	adidas	Emirates
Hannover 96	Mirko Slomka	Steve Cherundolo	Jako	TUI
Hertha BSC	Otto Rehhagel	Andre Mijatović	Nike	Deutsche Bahn
1899 Hoffenheim	Markus Babbel	Andreas Beck	Puma	Suntech
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Krasimir Balakov	Christian Tiffert	uhlsport	Allgäuer Latschenkiefer
1. FC Köln	Frank Schaefer	Pedro Geromel	Reebok	REWE
1. FSV Mainz 05	Thomas Tuchel	Nikolče Noveski	Nike	Entega
1. FC Nürnberg	Dieter Hecking	Raphael Schäfer	adidas	Areva
Schalke 04	Huub Stevens	Benedikt Höwedes	adidas	Gazprom
VfB Stuttgart	Bruno Labbadia	Serdar Tasci3	Puma	Gazi
Werder Bremen	Thomas Schaaf	Clemens Fritz2	Nike	Targobank
VfL Wolfsburg	Felix Magath	Christian Träsch	adidas	Volkswagen/Up!

Notes

1. FC Augsburg have determined Paul Verhaegh as new captain,^{[citation needed]} after incumbent Uwe Möhrle was transferred to Energie Cottbus during the 2011–12 winter transfer window.^[12]
2. Werder Bremen have determined Clemens Fritz as new captain^[13] 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.^[14]
3. VfB Stuttgart have determined Serdar Tasci as new captain^[15] after Matthieu Delpierre, who was captain since 1 December 2009, asked, not to be appointed as captain again.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Bayer Leverkusen	Jupp Heynckes	End of contract	30 June 2011[16]	Off-season	Robin Dutt	1 July 2011[17]
Bayern Munich	Andries Jonker	End of tenure as caretaker	30 June 2011[18]		Jupp Heynckes	1 July 2011[16]
SC Freiburg	Robin Dutt	Bayer Leverkusen purchased rights	30 June 2011[17]		Marcus Sorg	1 July 2011[19]
1899 Hoffenheim	Marco Pezzaiuoli	Mutual consent	30 June 2011[20]		Holger Stanislawski	1 July 2011[21]
1. FC Köln	Volker Finke	End of tenure as caretaker	30 June 2011[22]		Ståle Solbakken	1 July 2011[22]
Hamburger SV	Michael Oenning	Sacked	19 September 2011[23]	18th	Rodolfo Cardoso (caretaker)	19 September 2011[23]
FC Schalke 04	Ralf Rangnick	Resigned	22 September 2011[24]	9th	Huub Stevens	27 September 2011[25]
Hamburger SV	Rodolfo Cardoso (caretaker)	End of tenure as caretaker	10 October 2011[26]	18th	Thorsten Fink	13 October 2011[26]
Hertha BSC	Markus Babbel	Sacked	18 December 2011[27]	11th	Michael Skibbe	22 December 2011[28]
SC Freiburg	Marcus Sorg	Sacked	29 December 2011[29]	18th	Christian Streich	29 December 2011[29]
1899 Hoffenheim	Holger Stanislawski	Sacked	9 February 2012[30]	8th	Markus Babbel	10 February 2012[31]
Hertha BSC	Michael Skibbe	Sacked	12 February 2012[32]	15th	Otto Rehhagel	18 February 2012[33]
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Marco Kurz	Sacked	20 March 2012[34]	18th	Krasimir Balakov	22 March 2012[35]
Bayer Leverkusen	Robin Dutt	Sacked	1 April 2012[36]	6th	Sami Hyypiä (caretaker)	1 April 2012[36]
1. FC Köln	Ståle Solbakken	Sacked	12 April 2012[37]	16th	Frank Schaefer	12 April 2012[37]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Borussia Dortmund (C)	34	25	6	3	80	25	+55	81	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Bayern Munich	34	23	4	7	77	22	+55	73
3	Schalke 04	34	20	4	10	74	44	+30	64
4	Borussia Mönchengladbach	34	17	9	8	49	24	+25	60	Qualification to Champions League play-off round
5	Bayer Leverkusen	34	15	9	10	52	44	+8	54	Qualification to Europa League group stage[a]
6	VfB Stuttgart	34	15	8	11	63	46	+17	53	Qualification to Europa League play-off round[a]
7	Hannover 96	34	12	12	10	41	45	−4	48	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round[a]
8	VfL Wolfsburg	34	13	5	16	47	60	−13	44
9	Werder Bremen	34	11	9	14	49	58	−9	42
10	1. FC Nürnberg	34	12	6	16	38	49	−11	42
11	1899 Hoffenheim	34	10	11	13	41	47	−6	41
12	SC Freiburg	34	10	10	14	45	61	−16	40
13	FSV Mainz 05	34	9	12	13	47	51	−4	39
14	FC Augsburg	34	8	14	12	36	49	−13	38
15	Hamburger SV	34	8	12	14	35	57	−22	36
16	Hertha BSC (R)	34	7	10	17	38	64	−26	31	Qualification to relegation play-offs
17	1. FC Köln (R)	34	8	6	20	39	75	−36	30	Relegation to 2. Bundesliga
18	1. FC Kaiserslautern (R)	34	4	11	19	24	54	−30	23

Source: kicker
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The 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.

Results

Home \ Away	FCA	BSC	SVW	BVB	SCF	HSV	H96	TSG	FCK	KOE	B04	M05	BMG	FCB	FCN	S04	VFB	WOB
FC Augsburg	—	3–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	0–2	2–2	2–1	1–4	2–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–3	2–0
Hertha BSC	2–2	—	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	3–1	1–2	3–0	3–3	0–0	1–2	0–6	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–4
Werder Bremen	1–1	2–1	—	0–2	5–3	2–0	3–0	1–1	2–0	3–2	1–1	0–3	2–2	1–2	0–1	2–3	2–0	4–1
Borussia Dortmund	4–0	1–2	1–0	—	4–0	3–1	3–1	3–1	1–1	5–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	4–4	5–1
SC Freiburg	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–4	—	1–2	1–1	0–0	2–0	4–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	2–2	2–1	1–2	3–0
Hamburger SV	1–1	2–2	1–3	1–5	1–3	—	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–4	1–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–4	1–1
Hannover 96	2–2	1–1	3–2	2–1	0–0	1–1	—	2–1	2–1	4–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	4–2	2–0
1899 Hoffenheim	2–2	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–1	4–0	0–0	—	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–3	1–1	1–2	3–1
1. FC Kaiserslautern	1–1	1–1	0–0	2–5	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–2	—	0–1	0–2	3–1	1–2	0–3	0–2	1–4	0–2	0–0
1. FC Köln	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–6	4–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	—	0–2	1–1	0–3	1–4	1–2	1–4	1–1	0–3
Bayer Leverkusen	4–1	3–3	1–0	0–0	0–2	2–2	1–0	2–0	3–1	1–4	—	3–2	1–2	2–0	0–3	0–1	2–2	3–1
Mainz 05	0–1	1–3	1–3	1–2	3–1	0–0	1–1	0–4	4–0	4–0	2–0	—	0–3	3–2	2–1	2–4	3–1	0–0
Borussia Mönchengladbach	0–0	0–0	5–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	3–0	2–2	1–0	—	3–1	1–0	3–0	1–1	4–1
Bayern Munich	2–1	4–0	4–1	0–1	7–0	5–0	2–1	7–1	2–0	3–0	3–0	0–0	0–1	—	4–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
1. FC Nürnberg	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–0	2–1	1–4	3–3	1–0	0–1	—	4–1	2–2	1–3
Schalke 04	3–1	4–0	5–0	1–2	4–2	3–1	3–0	3–1	1–2	5–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	0–2	4–0	—	3–1	4–0
VfB Stuttgart	2–1	5–0	4–1	1–1	4–1	1–2	3–0	2–0	0–0	2–2	0–1	4–1	0–3	1–2	1–0	3–0	—	3–2
VfL Wolfsburg	1–2	2–3	3–1	1–3	3–2	2–1	4–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	3–2	2–2	0–0	0–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	—

Source: DFB
Legend: 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 2. Bundesliga.

Following the second leg, which was marred by several incidents of crowd disturbances, Hertha appealed the result.^[38] 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.^[39] On 25 May, the Federal Court of the German FA also rejected the appeal.^[40] On 19 June, Hertha BSC decided not to appeal the decision, marking their immediate return to the 2. Bundesliga.^[41]

10 May 2012 (2012-05-10)

20:30 CEST

Hertha BSC	1–2	Fortuna Düsseldorf
Hubník 19'	Report	Bröker 64' Ramos 71' (o.g.)

Olympic Stadium, Berlin

Attendance: 68,041

Referee: Marco Fritz (Korb)

---

15 May 2012 (2012-05-15)

20:30 CEST

Fortuna Düsseldorf	2–2	Hertha BSC
Beister 1' Jovanović 59'	Report	Ben-Hatira 22' Raffael 85'

Esprit Arena, Düsseldorf

Attendance: 51,000

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Ergolding)

Season statistics

Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals 1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Schalke 04 29 2 Mario Gómez Bayern Munich 26 3 Robert Lewandowski Borussia Dortmund 22 4 Claudio Pizarro Werder Bremen 18 Lukas Podolski Köln Marco Reus Borussia Mönchengladbach 7 Martin Harnik VfB Stuttgart 17 8 Stefan Kießling Bayer Leverkusen 16 9 Raúl Schalke 04 15 10 Vedad Ibišević 1899 Hoffenheim / VfB Stuttgart 13 Shinji Kagawa Borussia Dortmund