2023–24 3. Liga

The 2023–24 3. Liga was the 16th season of the 3. Liga. It started on 4 August 2023 and concluded on 18 May 2024.^[1]

3. Liga

Season	2023–24
Dates	4 August 2023 – 18 May 2024
Champions	SSV Ulm
Promoted	SSV Ulm Preußen Münster Jahn Regensburg
Relegated	Hallescher FC MSV Duisburg SC Freiburg II VfB Lübeck
Matches played	380
Goals scored	1,066 (2.81 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jannik Mause (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Dresden 7–2 Lübeck Ingolstadt 6–1 Lübeck
Biggest away win	Essen 0–5 Verl Lübeck 0–5 Dortmund II
Highest scoring	Dresden 7–2 Lübeck Sandhausen 6–3 Regensburg
Longest winning run	10 games Regensburg
Longest unbeaten run	18 games Ulm
Longest winless run	15 games Freiburg
Longest losing run	6 games Freiburg
Highest attendance	31,834 Dresden v Aue
Lowest attendance	815 Freiburg v Verl
Attendance	3,662,893 (9,639 per match)
← 2022–23 2024–25 →

The fixtures were announced on 7 July 2023.^[2]

Teams

Aue

Bielefeld

Dortmund

Dresden

Duisburg

Essen

Freiburg

Halle

Ingolstadt

Cologne

Lübeck

Mannheim

Munich

Münster

Regensburg

Saarbrücken

Sandhausen

Ulm

Unterhaching

Verl

Locations of the 2023–24 3. Liga teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2022–23 Regionalliga	Relegated from 2022–23 2. Bundesliga	Promoted to 2023–24 2. Bundesliga	Relegated to 2023–24 Regionalliga
VfB Lübeck Preußen Münster SSV Ulm SpVgg Unterhaching	Arminia Bielefeld SV Sandhausen Jahn Regensburg	SV Elversberg VfL Osnabrück Wehen Wiesbaden	SpVgg Bayreuth FSV Zwickau SV Meppen VfB Oldenburg

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Erzgebirge Aue	Aue-Bad Schlema	Erzgebirgsstadion	15,711
Arminia Bielefeld	Bielefeld	Schüco-Arena	27,300
Borussia Dortmund II	Dortmund	Stadion Rote Erde Signal Iduna Park	9,999 81,365
Dynamo Dresden	Dresden	Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion	32,085
MSV Duisburg	Duisburg	Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena	31,500
Rot-Weiss Essen	Essen	Stadion an der Hafenstraße	20,650
SC Freiburg II	Freiburg im Breisgau	Dreisamstadion	24,000
Hallescher FC	Halle	Leuna-Chemie-Stadion	15,057
FC Ingolstadt	Ingolstadt	Audi Sportpark	15,000
Viktoria Köln	Cologne	Sportpark Höhenberg	8,343
VfB Lübeck	Lübeck	Stadion Lohmühle	17,849
Waldhof Mannheim	Mannheim	Carl-Benz-Stadion	25,667
1860 Munich	Munich	Grünwalder Stadion	15,000
Preußen Münster	Münster	Preußenstadion	14,300
Jahn Regensburg	Regensburg	Jahnstadion Regensburg	15,210
1. FC Saarbrücken	Saarbrücken	Ludwigsparkstadion	16,003
SV Sandhausen	Sandhausen	GP Stadion am Hardtwald	15,414
SSV Ulm	Ulm Aalen	Donaustadion Centus Arena1	19,500 14,500
SpVgg Unterhaching	Unterhaching	Uhlsport Park	15,053
SC Verl	Verl	Sportclub Arena	5,207

¹ SSV Ulm played five games in Aalen because their own stadium had no under-soil heating.^[3]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
				Front	Sleeve	Back
Erzgebirge Aue	Pavel Dochev	Martin Männel	Nike	Medical Beauty Research	Erzgebirgssparkasse	G&K Innenausbau
Arminia Bielefeld	Michél Kniat	Fabian Klos	Macron	Schüco	JAB Anstoetz Textilien	holz4home
Borussia Dortmund II	Jan Zimmermann	Franz Pfanne	Puma	1&1	GLS Group	None
Dynamo Dresden	Heiko Scholz	Stefan Kutschke	Umbro	ALL-INKL.COM	Sonnenstrahl Dresden	Brandible.de
MSV Duisburg	Uwe Schubert	Sebastian Mai	Capelli	Trinkgut	Zoxs	Duisburg CityCom
Rot-Weiss Essen	Christoph Dabrowski	Felix Bastians	Jako	ifm Electronic	ifm Electronic	sportwetten.de
SC Freiburg II	Thomas Stamm	Sandrino Braun-Schumacher	Nike	JobRad	BABISTA	None
Hallescher FC	Stefan Reisinger	Jonas Nietfeld	Puma	MobileBet	Saalesparkasse	ISIHOME
FC Ingolstadt	Sabrina Wittmann	Lukas Fröde	Puma	SI Electronics	Audi Schanzer Fußballschule	PROSIS GmbH
Viktoria Köln	Olaf Janßen	Moritz Fritz	Capelli	Peynooş	Wintec Autoglas	ETL
VfB Lübeck	Jens Martens	Tommy Grupe	Capelli	HanseBelt	Mayo Feinkost	Iperdi
Waldhof Mannheim	Marco Antwerpen	Marcel Seegert	Uhlsport	CrazyBuzzer	None	None
1860 Munich	Argiris Giannikis	Jesper Verlaat	Nike	Die Bayerische	Bet3000	Pangea Life
Preußen Münster	Sascha Hildmann	Marc Lorenz	Jako	FIEGE	Stadtwerke Münster	Gieseke
Jahn Regensburg	Joe Enochs	Andreas Geipl	Hummel	Netto	Wolf GmbH	Netto
1. FC Saarbrücken	Rüdiger Ziehl	Manuel Zeitz	Adidas	Victor's Group	Saarland-Sporttoto	Victor's Group
SV Sandhausen	Gerhard Kleppinger	Dennis Diekmeier	Macron	Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl	Goelz Paletten	Service Pitzler
SSV Ulm	Thomas Wörle	Johannes Reichert	Uhlsport	Husqvarna Group	B-ITE E-Recruiting	UZIN UTZ
SpVgg Unterhaching	Marc Unterberger	Josef Welzmüller	Uhlsport	Alpenbauer	Lupse & Lupse	None
SC Verl	Alexander Ende	Mael Corboz	Joma	Beckhoff	EGE GmbH	None

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Exit date		Position in table	Incoming	Incoming date		Ref.
			Announced on	Departed on			Announced on	Arrived on
SpVgg Unterhaching	Sandro Wagner	Resigned	23 March 2023	30 June 2023	Pre-season	Marc Unterberger	27 March 2023	1 July 2023	[4][5]
SV Sandhausen	Gerhard Kleppinger (interim)	End of caretaker	10 April 2023			Danny Galm	19 June 2023		[6][7]
Waldhof Mannheim	Christian Neidhart	Mutual consent	28 May 2023			Rüdiger Rehm	12 June 2023		[8][9]
Arminia Bielefeld	Uwe Koschinat	End of contract	9 June 2023			Michél Kniat	13 June 2023		[10][11]
SC Verl	Michél Kniat	Signed for Arminia Bielefeld	13 June 2023			Alexander Ende	30 June 2023		[11][12]
MSV Duisburg	Torsten Ziegner	Sacked	16 September 2023		19th	Engin Vural (interim)	18 September 2023		[13][14]
	Engin Vural	End of caretaker	9 October 2023		20th	Boris Schommers	9 October 2023		[15]
SV Sandhausen	Danny Galm	Sacked	22 October 2023		10th	Jens Keller	23 October 2023		[16][17]
1860 Munich	Maurizio Jacobacci		5 December 2023		15th	Frank Schmöller (interim)	5 December 2023		[18]
VfB Lübeck	Lukas Pfeiffer		11 December 2023		17th	Bastian Reinhardt (interim)	11 December 2023		[19]
	Bastian Reinhardt (interim)	End of caretaker spell	28 December 2023		18th	Florian Schnorrenberg	28 December 2023		[20]
1860 Munich	Frank Schmöller (interim)		10 January 2024		15th	Argiris Giannikis	10 January 2024		[21]
Waldhof Mannheim	Rüdiger Rehm	Sacked	31 January 2024		17th	Marco Antwerpen	31 January 2024		[22]
VfB Lübeck	Florian Schnorrenberg		11 March 2024		19th	Bastian Reinhardt (interim)	11 March 2024		[23]
	Bastian Reinhardt (interim)	End of caretaker spell	26 March 2024		19th	Jens Martens	26 March 2024		[24]
Hallescher FC	Sreto Ristić	Sacked	1 April 2024		17th	Stefan Reisinger	1 April 2024		[25]
Dynamo Dresden	Markus Anfang		20 April 2024		3rd	Heiko Scholz (interim)	20 April 2024		[26]
MSV Duisburg	Boris Schommers		23 April 2024		18th	Uwe Schubert (interim)	23 April 2024		[27]
FC Ingolstadt	Michael Köllner		2 May 2024		11th	Sabrina Wittmann (interim)	2 May 2024		[28]
SV Sandhausen	Jens Keller	Mutual consent	13 May 2024		8th	Gerhard Kleppinger (interim)	13 May 2024		[29]

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	SSV Ulm (C, P)	38	23	8	7	65	38	+27	77	Promotion to 2. Bundesliga and qualification for DFB-Pokal
2	Preußen Münster (P)	38	19	10	9	68	49	+19	67
3	Jahn Regensburg (O, P)	38	17	12	9	51	42	+9	63	Qualification for promotion play-offs and DFB-Pokal
4	Dynamo Dresden	38	19	5	14	58	40	+18	62	Qualification for DFB-Pokal
5	1. FC Saarbrücken	38	15	15	8	60	43	+17	60
6	Erzgebirge Aue	38	16	12	10	51	47	+4	60
7	Rot-Weiss Essen	38	17	8	13	60	53	+7	59
8	SV Sandhausen	38	15	11	12	58	57	+1	56
9	SpVgg Unterhaching	38	16	7	15	50	49	+1	55
10	FC Ingolstadt	38	14	12	12	65	51	+14	54
11	Borussia Dortmund II[a]	38	14	12	12	58	53	+5	54
12	SC Verl	38	14	11	13	59	56	+3	53
13	Viktoria Köln	38	13	10	15	59	65	−6	49
14	Arminia Bielefeld	38	11	13	14	48	47	+1	46
15	1860 Munich	38	13	7	18	40	42	−2	46
16	Waldhof Mannheim	38	11	10	17	51	60	−9	43
17	Hallescher FC (R)	38	11	7	20	50	68	−18	40	Relegation to Regionalliga
18	MSV Duisburg (R)	38	8	10	20	41	65	−24	34
19	VfB Lübeck (R)	38	6	14	18	37	77	−40	32
20	SC Freiburg II[a] (R)	38	8	6	24	37	64	−27	30

Source: DFB
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored; 6) Away goals scored; 7) Play-off.^[30]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Reserve teams are ineligible for promotion or DFB-Pokal qualification.

Results

Home \ Away	AUE	BIE	DOR	DRE	DUI	ESS	FRE	HAL	ING	KÖL	LÜB	MAN	MUN	MÜN	REG	SAA	SAN	ULM	UNT	VER
Erzgebirge Aue	—	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–2	2–3	0–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–1	1–2
Arminia Bielefeld	2–2	—	2–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	0–0	4–0	0–2	0–0	3–1	2–0	4–0	1–1	2–6	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–0
Borussia Dortmund II	2–2	0–2	—	0–2	1–0	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–2	3–0	2–3	1–0	1–1	1–2	1–2	2–2	5–2
Dynamo Dresden	2–1	3–1	1–2	—	4–0	2–2	2–0	2–1	2–0	0–2	7–2	2–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–1
MSV Duisburg	2–2	0–1	2–1	2–4	—	1–2	4–2	2–3	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–3	0–0	0–1	2–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–3
Rot-Weiss Essen	1–1	2–1	4–0	3–1	3–1	—	4–3	3–2	4–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–1	1–2	0–2	1–3	0–5
SC Freiburg II	0–1	0–3	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	—	1–2	1–4	1–0	3–0	1–0	1–0	2–2	3–1	0–4	0–2	1–2	0–0	0–1
Hallescher FC	2–3	2–2	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	—	3–1	2–1	3–0	1–4	0–2	1–4	1–2	0–2	4–1	0–2	0–1	1–0
FC Ingolstadt	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	2–1	2–3	4–0	—	1–3	6–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–4	2–2	4–0	4–0	3–0	0–1
Viktoria Köln	2–2	1–1	1–3	1–5	2–0	0–0	2–0	4–2	1–0	—	1–0	2–2	2–1	3–5	1–1	2–5	2–1	1–3	2–1	3–1
VfB Lübeck	1–1	2–2	0–5	0–1	5–3	3–3	0–1	2–2	0–4	3–2	—	2–1	1–1	0–3	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–3	0–0
Waldhof Mannheim	3–0	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–0	0–2	3–1	3–2	1–1	1–1	2–2	—	1–0	2–2	3–1	0–2	4–2	0–2	6–1	1–2
1860 Munich	1–2	0–2	1–2	0–0	4–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	3–1	3–1	1–2	2–0	—	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0
Preußen Münster	4–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	3–3	1–1	1–3	1–1	—	1–3	4–1	1–1	3–2	2–0	3–1
Jahn Regensburg	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–3	3–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	—	0–1	1–2	2–0	1–1	1–1
1. FC Saarbrücken	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	0–1	0–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	2–3	0–0	2–2	—	4–1	2–1	2–1	4–3
SV Sandhausen	1–0	1–2	3–2	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	3–3	1–2	3–0	3–0	0–2	6–3	2–2	—	1–2	1–0	2–2
SSV Ulm	2–2	1–0	1–1	2–3	2–2	2–1	2–1	2–3	0–0	2–0	3–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	—	2–0	4–2
SpVgg Unterhaching	0–0	1–2	3–4	1–2	1–0	4–0	1–0	2–0	0–3	2–1	4–1	3–0	2–0	3–2	1–2	0–0	0–0	3–2	—	1–0
SC Verl	3–1	3–1	2–3	1–0	1–3	1–1	3–2	3–2	2–2	1–1	4–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	4–4	0–3	0–0	—

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

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[31]
1	Jannik Mause	FC Ingolstadt	18
2	Malik Batmaz	Preußen Münster	17
	Joel Grodowski	Preußen Münster
4	Dominic Baumann	Hallescher FC	15
5	Stefan Kutschke	Dynamo Dresden	14
	Lars Lokotsch	SC Verl
	Luca Marseiler	Viktoria Köln
8	Marcel Bär	Erzgebirge Aue	13
	Patrick Hobsch	SpVgg Unterhaching
	Ole Pohlmann	Borussia Dortmund II

Hat-tricks

Player	Club	Against	Result	Date
Malik Batmaz	Preußen Münster	Erzgebirge Aue	4–0 (H)	5 October 2023
Mathias Fetsch4	SpVgg Unterhaching	Rot-Weiss Essen	4–0 (H)
Oliver Batista Meier	SC Verl	Rot-Weiss Essen	5–0 (A)	7 October 2023
Stefan Kutschke	Dynamo Dresden	Viktoria Köln	5–1 (A)	10 November 2023
Ole Pohlmann	Borussia Dortmund II	SpVgg Unterhaching	4–3 (A)	24 February 2024
Maximilian Breunig	SC Freiburg II	VfB Lübeck	3–0 (A)	9 March 2024
Leonardo Vonić	Rot-Weiss Essen	VfB Lübeck	3–3 (A)	18 May 2024

⁴ Player scored four goals.

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[32]
1	Christian Ortag	SSV Ulm	16
2	René Vollath	SpVgg Unterhaching	14
3	Nikolai Rehnen	SV Sandhausen	11
4	Jonas Kersken	Arminia Bielefeld	10
	Luca Unbehaun	SC Verl
6	Marius Funk	FC Ingolstadt	9
	Jakob Golz	Rot-Weiss Essen
	Marco Hiller	1860 Munich
	Martin Männel	Erzgebirge Aue
	Tim Schreiber	1. FC Saarbrücken
	Maximilian Schulze Niehues	Preußen Münster

Attendances

Dynamo Dresden drew the highest average home attendance in the 2023-24 edition of the 3. Liga.

#	Football club	Home games	Average attendance[33]
1	Dynamo Dresden	19	28,732
2	Arminia Bielefeld	19	18,640
3	RW Essen	19	16,652
4	1860 München	19	15,000
5	MSV Duisburg	19	12,119
6	1. FC Saarbrücken	19	10,910
7	Preußen Münster	19	10,783
8	Waldhof Mannheim	19	10,389
9	SSV Ulm 1846	19	10,350
10	Jahn Regensburg	19	9,725
11	Erzgebirge Aue	19	8,720
12	Hallescher FC	19	7,837
13	FC Ingolstadt 04	19	5,638
14	VfB Lübeck	19	5,485
15	SpVgg Unterhaching	19	5,136
16	Viktoria Köln	19	4,095
17	SV Sandhausen	19	4,060
18	Borussia Dortmund II	19	3,324
19	SC Verl	19	2,632
20	SC Freiburg II	19	2,334