2017–18 3. Liga

The 2017–18 3. Liga was the tenth season of the 3. Liga. It began on 21 July 2017 and concluded on 12 May 2018.

3. Liga

Season	2017–18
Dates	21 July 2017 – 12 May 2018
Champions	1. FC Magdeburg
Promoted	1. FC Magdeburg SC Paderborn
Relegated	Werder Bremen II Chemnitzer FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt
Matches played	380
Goals scored	1,038 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer	Manuel Schäffler (22 goals)
Biggest home win	Paderborn 7–1 Bremen II
Biggest away win	Osnabrück 0−5 Paderborn
Highest scoring	Halle 4−4 Paderborn Paderborn 7–1 Bremen II Wiesbaden 6–2 Münster Rostock 5–3 Köln
Attendance	2,348,630 (6,181 per match)
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The fixtures were announced on 4 July 2017.^[1]

Teams

Aalen

Aspach

Bremen

Chemnitz

Erfurt

Halle

Jena

Karlsruhe

Köln

Lotte

Magdeburg

Meppen

Münster

Osnabrück

Paderborn

Rostock

Unterhaching

Wiesbaden

Würzburg

Zwickau

Locations of the 2017–18 3. Liga teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2016–17 Regionalliga	Relegated from 2016–17 2. Bundesliga	Promoted to 2017–18 2. Bundesliga	Relegated from 2016–17 3. Liga
Carl Zeiss Jena SV Meppen SpVgg Unterhaching	Karlsruher SC Würzburger Kickers	MSV Duisburg Holstein Kiel Jahn Regensburg	FSV Frankfurt Mainz 05 II

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
VfR Aalen	Aalen	Scholz-Arena	14,500
Chemnitzer FC	Chemnitz	Stadion an der Gellertstraße	18,712
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	Erfurt	Steigerwaldstadion	18,611
SG Sonnenhof Großaspach	Aspach	Mechatronik Arena	10,000
Carl Zeiss Jena	Jena	Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld	12,990
Hallescher FC	Halle	Erdgas Sportpark	15,057
Karlsruher SC	Karlsruhe	Wildparkstadion	29,699
Fortuna Köln	Cologne	Südstadion	14,800
Sportfreunde Lotte	Lotte	Sportpark am Lotter Kreuz	7,414
1. FC Magdeburg	Magdeburg	MDCC-Arena	27,500
SV Meppen	Meppen	Hänsch-Arena	16,500
Preußen Münster	Münster	Preußenstadion	15,050
VfL Osnabrück	Osnabrück	Stadion an der Bremer Brücke	16,667
SC Paderborn	Paderborn	Benteler Arena	15,000
Hansa Rostock	Rostock	Ostseestadion	29,000
SpVgg Unterhaching	Unterhaching	Alpenbauer Sportpark	15,053
SV Wehen Wiesbaden	Wiesbaden	BRITA-Arena	12,250
Werder Bremen II	Bremen	Weserstadion Platz 11	5,500
Würzburger Kickers	Würzburg	Flyeralarm Arena	14,500
FSV Zwickau	Zwickau	Stadion Zwickau	10,049

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
VfR Aalen	Peter Vollmann	Marc Endres	Saller	Prowin
Chemnitzer FC	David Bergner	Kevin Conrad	adidas	Ahorn Hotels
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	Stefan Emmerling	Jens Möckel	Jako	Thüringer Energie AG
SG Sonnenhof Großaspach	Sascha Hildmann	Daniel Hägele	Hummel	Urbacher Mineralquellen
Hallescher FC	Rico Schmitt	Royal-Dominique Fennell	Puma	Halplus
Carl Zeiss Jena	Mark Zimmermann	René Eckardt	Puma	Medipolis
Karlsruher SC	Alois Schwartz	Kai Bülow	Jako	Klaiber Markisen
Fortuna Köln	Uwe Koschinat	Hamdi Dahmani	Jako	HIT Handelsgruppe
Sportfreunde Lotte	Andreas Golombek	Tim Wendel	Puma	FRIMO Group
1. FC Magdeburg	Jens Härtel	Marius Sowislo	Uhlsport	FAM
SV Meppen	Christian Neidhart	Martin Wagner	Nike	KiK xxl
Preußen Münster	Marco Antwerpen	Adriano Grimaldi	Nike	Tuja Zeitarbeit
VfL Osnabrück	Daniel Thioune	Christian Groß	adidas	Sparkasse
SC Paderborn	Steffen Baumgart	Christian Strohdiek	Saller	Mediacom
Hansa Rostock	Pavel Dochev	Amaury Bischoff	Nike	kurzurlaub.de
SpVgg Unterhaching	Claus Schromm	Ulrich Taffertshofer	adidas	Alpenbauer
SV Wehen Wiesbaden	Rüdiger Rehm	David Blacha	Nike	Brita
Werder Bremen II	Sven Hübscher	Rafael Kazior	Nike	Wiesenhof
Würzburger Kickers	Michael Schiele	Sebastian Neumann	Jako	s.Oliver
FSV Zwickau	Torsten Ziegner	Toni Wachsmuth	Puma	Zwickauer Energieversorgung

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Chemnitzer FC	Sven Köhler[2]	Resigned	30 June 2017	Preseason	Horst Steffen[3]	1 July 2017
Hansa Rostock	Uwe Ehlers[2]	End of caretaker			Pavel Dochev[2]
Würzburger Kickers	Bernd Hollerbach[4]	Sacked			Stephan Schmidt[4]
SG Sonnenhof Großaspach	Oliver Zapel[5]	Resigned			Sascha Hildmann[6]
Sportfreunde Lotte	Ismail Atalan[7]	Signed by VfL Bochum	11 July 2017		Oscar Corrochano[8]	14 July 2017
	Oscar Corrochano[9]	Resigned	27 July 2017	18th	Marc Fascher[9]	27 July 2017
Karlsruher SC	Marc-Patrick Meister[10]	Sacked	20 August 2017	15th	Christian Eichner Zlatan Bajramović (joint caretakers)	20 August 2017
	Christian Eichner Zlatan Bajramović	End of tenure as caretakers	29 August 2017	16th	Alois Schwartz[11]	29 August 2017
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	Stefan Krämer[12]	Sacked	2 October 2017	20th	David Bergner[12]	2 October 2017
Würzburger Kickers	Stephan Schmidt[13]			17th	Michael Schiele[13][14]
VfL Osnabrück	Joe Enochs[15]		4 October 2017	19th	Daniel Thioune[16]	5 October 2017
Werder Bremen II	Florian Kohfeldt[17]	Promoted to Werder Bremen	30 October 2017	16th	Oliver Zapel[18]	13 November 2017
Sportfreunde Lotte	Marc Fascher[19]	Sacked	1 November 2017	16th	Andreas Golombek[19]	1 November 2017
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	David Bergner[20]		20 November 2017	20th	Stefan Emmerling[20]	20 November 2017
Preußen Münster	Benno Möhlmann[21]		10 December 2017	16th	Marco Antwerpen[22]	12 December 2017
Chemnitzer FC	Horst Steffen[23]		2 January 2018	19th	Sreto Ristić (interim)[23]	2 January 2018
	Sreto Ristić[24]	End of caretaker tenure	6 January 2018		David Bergner[24]	6 January 2018
Werder Bremen II	Oliver Zapel[25]	Sacked	5 February 2018	19th	Sven Hübscher[25]	5 February 2018
FSV Zwickau	Torsten Ziegner[26]	Sacked	25 April 2018	16th	Danny König (interim)[26]	25 April 2018

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	1. FC Magdeburg (C, P)	38	27	4	7	70	32	+38	85	Promotion to 2. Bundesliga and qualification for DFB-Pokal
2	SC Paderborn (P)	38	25	8	5	90	33	+57	83
3	Karlsruher SC	38	19	12	7	49	29	+20	69	Qualification for promotion play-offs and DFB-Pokal
4	Wehen Wiesbaden	38	21	5	12	76	39	+37	68	Qualification for DFB-Pokal
5	Würzburger Kickers	38	17	10	11	53	46	+7	61
6	Hansa Rostock	38	16	12	10	48	34	+14	60
7	SV Meppen	38	15	13	10	50	47	+3	58
8	Fortuna Köln	38	15	9	14	53	48	+5	54
9	SpVgg Unterhaching	38	16	6	16	54	55	−1	54
10	Preußen Münster	38	14	10	14	50	49	+1	52
11	Carl Zeiss Jena	38	14	10	14	49	59	−10	52
12	VfR Aalen	38	13	11	14	48	57	−9	50
13	Hallescher FC	38	13	10	15	52	54	−2	49
14	Sonnenhof Großaspach	38	12	11	15	55	60	−5	47
15	FSV Zwickau	38	10	11	17	38	55	−17	41
16	Sportfreunde Lotte	38	11	7	20	43	60	−17	40
17	VfL Osnabrück	38	8	13	17	47	67	−20	37
18	Werder Bremen II[a] (R)	38	6	13	19	39	62	−23	31	Relegation to Regionalliga
19	Chemnitzer FC[b] (R)	38	8	7	23	48	74	−26	22
20	Rot-Weiß Erfurt[c] (R)	38	5	8	25	26	78	−52	13

Source: DFB
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Reserve teams are ineligible for promotion or DFB-Pokal qualification.
2. On 23 April 2018, Chemnitzer FC was deducted nine points after filing for insolvency, where Chemnitz did not appeal against.^[27][28]
3. On 13 February 2018, Rot-Weiß Erfurt was deducted one point, which Erfurt appealed.^[29][30] It was denied on 23 February 2018 and confirmed on 13 March 2018.^[31][32] Another nine points were deducted, on 29 March 2018, after Erfurt filed for insolvency.^[33] It was made official on 6 April 2018 after Erfurt did not appeal against it.^[34]

Results

Home \ Away	AAL	BR2	CHE	ERF	GRO	HAL	JEN	KAR	KÖL	LOT	MAG	MEP	MÜN	OSN	PAD	ROS	UNT	WIE	WÜR	ZWI
VfR Aalen	—	1–0	3–2	1–1	4–1	2–1	3–1	0–2	1–1	3–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	0–5	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–3	2–2
Werder Bremen II	1–0	—	1–1	0–0	0–5	1–2	2–4	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–3	2–1	2–4	2–2	0–2	1–1	3–0	0–0	0–1	0–0
Chemnitzer FC	2–4	2–1	—	1–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	2–3	1–2	1–2	0–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–4	0–3	1–0
Rot-Weiß Erfurt	0–1	0–3	0–5	—	0–6	1–1	1–0	1–3	2–1	2–3	3–1	0–0	1–1	4–4	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–3	1–3	0–3
Sonnenhof Großaspach	0–0	2–2	3–1	1–0	—	0–3	0–0	1–0	1–3	1–1	4–1	2–3	2–2	0–1	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–3	1–3	2–0
Hallescher FC	3–2	1–0	0–3	3–0	3–0	—	0–2	0–1	0–3	1–0	0–2	2–0	3–0	1–0	4–4	0–2	1–2	2–1	1–3	2–0
Carl Zeiss Jena	3–2	2–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–1	—	0–0	0–2	2–2	1–5	2–2	2–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	2–1	4–3	1–2	2–1
Karlsruher SC	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	3–1	1–1	2–3	—	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	2–2	0–0	0–0	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–0
Fortuna Köln	1–0	2–1	3–0	2–0	1–3	1–1	1–0	4–0	—	0–3	1–2	0–2	2–4	3–0	2–4	0–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–1
Sportfreunde Lotte	2–0	3–2	3–1	1–0	0–2	2–1	4–0	1–1	0–2	—	0–1	2–2	0–0	2–3	1–2	0–2	2–1	0–1	1–3	1–0
1. FC Magdeburg	6–1	4–1	4–1	3–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	—	0–0	3–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–3	0–0	2–1	2–2
SV Meppen	1–1	2–2	3–2	3–0	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–2	—	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	1–3	2–2	4–0
Preußen Münster	1–1	0–1	1–0	5–0	1–4	1–2	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	0–1	3–0	—	4–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–2
VfL Osnabrück	4–1	1–1	6–1	0–1	2–1	3–3	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–0	0–2	2–2	0–1	—	0–5	1–1	2–0	0–4	1–1	4–0
SC Paderborn	3–0	7–1	3–2	0–1	5–0	0–0	6–0	0–2	3–1	5–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	3–0	—	2–1	3–0	3–1	0–0	2–0
Hansa Rostock	1–0	0–0	3–1	3–1	0–0	4–2	0–0	0–3	5–3	0–3	1–0	1–2	1–1	2–0	2–3	—	1–1	2–0	3–1	1–1
SpVgg Unterhaching	0–1	1–0	4–2	1–1	1–4	1–1	3–2	3–2	2–2	3–0	0–1	4–0	1–0	4–1	0–3	0–3	—	0–1	3–2	2–1
Wehen Wiesbaden	2–0	2–2	2–1	4–2	5–0	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	3–1	1–2	0–1	6–2	5–1	4–1	0–1	1–0	—	0–2	3–0
Würzburger Kickers	2–2	1–1	0–0	4–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	2–3	0–3	0–2	0–5	—	1–1
FSV Zwickau	2–2	1–0	3–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	2–4	1–0	1–1	3–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–1	—

Source: DFB
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[35]
1	Manuel Schäffler	Wehen Wiesbaden	22
2	Benjamin Girth	SV Meppen	19
	Stephan Hain	SpVgg Unterhaching
	Sven Michel	SC Paderborn
5	Fabian Schleusener	Karlsruher SC	17
	Philip Türpitz	1. FC Magdeburg
7	Stephan Andrist	Wehen Wiesbaden	15
	Adriano Grimaldi	Preußen Münster
	Daniel Keita-Ruel	Fortuna Köln
10	Christian Beck	1. FC Magdeburg	13
	Daniel Frahn	Chemnitzer FC
	Matthias Morys	VfR Aalen

Number of teams by state

Position	State	Number of teams	Teams
1	North Rhine-Westphalia	4	Fortuna Köln, Sportfreunde Lotte, Preußen Münster and SC Paderborn
2	Baden-Württemberg	3	VfR Aalen, SG Sonnenhof Großaspach and Karlsruher SC
3	Bavaria	2	SpVgg Unterhaching and Würzburger Kickers
	Lower Saxony	2	SV Meppen and VfL Osnabrück
	Saxony	2	Chemnitzer FC and FSV Zwickau
	Saxony-Anhalt	2	Hallescher FC and 1. FC Magdeburg
	Thuringia	2	Rot-Weiß Erfurt and Carl Zeiss Jena
8	Bremen	1	Werder Bremen II
	Hesse	1	Wehen Wiesbaden
	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	1	Hansa Rostock