The 2011–12 Bundesliga was the 49th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on 5 August 2011 with defending champion Borussia Dortmund hosting Hamburger SV, 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.

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, 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. 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.

Team Location Stadium CapacityAugsburgSGL arena30,660Bayer LeverkusenLeverkusenBayArena30,210Bayern MunichMunichAllianz Arena69,000Borussia DortmundDortmundSignal Iduna Park80,720Borussia MönchengladbachMönchengladbachStadion im Borussia-Park54,057FreiburgMage Solar Stadion25,000Hamburger SVHamburgImtech Arena57,000Hannover 96HanoverAWD-Arena49,000Hertha BSCBerlinOlympiastadion74,244SinsheimRhein-Neckar Arena30,150KaiserslauternFritz-Walter-Stadion49,780CologneRheinEnergieStadion50,000MainzCoface Arena34,034NurembergEasyCredit-Stadion48,548Schalke 04GelsenkirchenVeltins-Arena61,673StuttgartMercedes-Benz Arena60,300Werder BremenBremenWeserstadion42,000WolfsburgVolkswagen Arena30,000

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. TeamManagerCaptainKit manufacturerShirt sponsor 1 Jako AL-KOBayer Leverkusen (caretaker) adidas SunPowerBayern Munich adidas T-Home (Home and Third), LIGAtotal (Away)Borussia Dortmund Kappa EvonikBorussia Mönchengladbach Lotto Postbank Nike EhrmannHamburger SV adidas EmiratesHannover 96 Jako TUIHertha BSC Nike Deutsche Bahn Puma Suntech uhlsport Allgäuer Latschenkiefer Reebok REWE Nike Entega adidas ArevaSchalke 04 adidas Gazprom 3 Puma GaziWerder Bremen 2 Nike Targobank adidas Volkswagen/Up!

Notes 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.

Managerial changes Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointmentBayer Leverkusen Jupp HeynckesEnd of contract30 June 2011Off-season Robin Dutt1 July 2011Bayern Munich Andries JonkerEnd of tenure as caretaker30 June 2011 Jupp Heynckes1 July 2011SC Freiburg Robin DuttBayer Leverkusen purchased rights30 June 2011 Marcus Sorg1 July 20111899 Hoffenheim Marco PezzaiuoliMutual consent30 June 2011 Holger Stanislawski1 July 20111. FC Köln Volker FinkeEnd of tenure as caretaker30 June 2011 Ståle Solbakken1 July 2011Hamburger SV Michael OenningSacked19 September 201118th Rodolfo Cardoso (caretaker)19 September 2011FC Schalke 04 Ralf RangnickResigned22 September 20119th Huub Stevens27 September 2011Hamburger SV Rodolfo Cardoso (caretaker)End of tenure as caretaker10 October 201118th Thorsten Fink13 October 2011Hertha BSC Markus BabbelSacked18 December 201111th Michael Skibbe22 December 2011SC Freiburg Marcus SorgSacked29 December 201118th Christian Streich29 December 20111899 Hoffenheim Holger StanislawskiSacked9 February 20128th Markus Babbel10 February 2012Hertha BSC Michael SkibbeSacked12 February 201215th Otto Rehhagel18 February 20121. FC Kaiserslautern Marco KurzSacked20 March 201218th Krasimir Balakov22 March 2012Bayer Leverkusen Robin DuttSacked1 April 20126th Sami Hyypiä (caretaker)1 April 20121. FC Köln Ståle SolbakkenSacked12 April 201216th Frank Schaefer12 April 2012

League table

Results

Promotion/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 while 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. 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.

Season statistics

Top scorers Rank Player Club Goals1 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Schalke 04292 Mario Gómez Bayern Munich263 Robert Lewandowski Borussia Dortmund224 Claudio Pizarro Werder Bremen18 Lukas Podolski Köln Marco Reus Borussia Mönchengladbach7 Martin Harnik VfB Stuttgart178 Stefan Kießling Bayer Leverkusen169 Raúl Schalke 041510 Vedad Ibišević 1899 Hoffenheim / VfB Stuttgart13 Shinji Kagawa Borussia Dortmund

Attendances Source:

No. Team Matches Total Average 1 Borussia Dortmund 17 1,368,860 80,521 2 Bayern München 17 1,173,000 69,000 3 Schalke 04 17 1,040,714 61,218 4 VfB Stuttgart 17 936,524 55,090 5 Hamburger SV 17 908,910 53,465 6 Hertha BSC 17 908,630 53,449 7 Borussia Mönchengladbach 17 881,376 51,846 8 1. FC Köln 17 807,200 47,482 9 Hannover 96 17 762,035 44,826 10 1. FC Kaiserslautern 17 721,382 42,434 11 1. FC Nürnberg 17 713,463 41,968 12 Werder Bremen 17 693,733 40,808 13 Mainz 05 17 559,470 32,910 14 FC Augsburg 17 514,406 30,259 15 Bayer Leverkusen 17 484,397 28,494 16 1899 Hoffenheim 17 476,450 28,026 17 VfL Wolfsburg 17 469,446 27,614 18 SC Freiburg 17 385,500 22,676

References

External links

Official website Bundesliga on DFB page