3. Liga current: Results, table & top scorers (7th matchday – 2025/26 schedule)

The 2025/26 3. Liga season kicked off on Friday, August 1, 2025. Rot-Weiss Essen (last season ranked 8th) and TSV 1860 Munich (last season ranked 11th) played the first match. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Winter break: After the 19th matchday – scheduled for the weekend of December 19-21, 2025 – the 3. Liga will enter its winter break as scheduled. This will last just under a month, with play expected to resume on January 16, 2026, with the 20th matchday.

The season ends with the 38th matchday on Saturday, May 16, 2026. This will be followed by the relegation play-offs for promotion and relegation.

A total of 20 teams will compete in the new third-division season. These include two teams that were directly relegated from the 2. Bundesliga: SSV Ulm 1846 and SSV Jahn Regensburg . 1. FC Saarbrücken failed to make it to the relegation play-offs against Eintracht Braunschweig and thus remains in the third division. Teams promoted from the regional leagues are MSV Duisburg (West), TSG 1899 Hoffenheim II (Southwest), 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 (Bavaria), and TSV Havelse (North).

All third division clubs of the 2025/26 season at a glance:

1. SSV Jahn Regensburg (relegated)
2. SSV Ulm 1846 (relegated)
3. 1. FC Saarbrücken
4. Alemannia Aachen
5. Energy Cottbus
6. FC Erzgebirge Aue
7. FC Ingolstadt 04
8. Hansa Rostock
9. Rot-Weiss Essen
10. SC Verl
11. SV Waldhof Mannheim
12. SV Wehen Wiesbaden
13. TSV 1860 Munich
14. VfB Stuttgart II
15. VfL Osnabrück
16. Victoria Cologne
17. 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 (promoted team)
18. MSV Duisburg (promoted team)
19. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (promoted team)
20. TSV Havelse (promoted team)

The 20 clubs in the 3. Liga will have a combined stadium capacity of just over 366,000 in the 2025/26 season. The largest stadiums by spectator capacity are in Aachen (32,960) and Duisburg (31,418). The smallest capacity can be found in the stadiums of SC Verl (5,207) and TSV Havelse, which plays its home games at the 5,001-seat Eilenriedestadion in Hanover.