The2025–26DFB-Pokal is the 83rd season of the annual Germanfootball cup competition. Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all teams from the previous year'sBundesliga and2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 15 August 2025 with the first of six rounds and will end on 23 May 2026 with the final at theOlympiastadion inBerlin, a nominally neutral venue, which has hosted the final since 1985.^[1] The DFB-Pokal is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by theGerman Football Association (DFB).VfB Stuttgart are the defending champions.

The winner of the DFB-Pokal earns automatic qualification for the group stage of the2026–27 edition of theUEFA Europa League. If they have already qualified for theUEFA Champions League through position in the Bundesliga, then the spot will go to the team in sixth, and the league'sUEFA Conference League play-off round spot will go to the team in seventh. The winners will also host the2026 edition of theDFL-Supercup at the start of the next season, and will face the champions of the2025–26 Bundesliga.

The following teams qualified for the competition:

The DFB-Pokal began with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of theBundesliga and2. Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the3. Liga automatically qualified for the tournament. Of the remaining slots, 21 were given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, theVerbandspokal. The three remaining slots were given to the three regional associations with the most men's teams, which were Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Westphalia. The best-placed amateur team of theRegionalliga Bayern was given the spot for Bavaria. For Lower Saxony, theLower Saxony Cup was split into two paths: one for3. Liga andRegionalliga Nord teams, and the other for amateur teams. The winners of each path qualified. For Westphalia, the spot rotated each season between the best-placed Westphalian team of theRegionalliga West and the best-placed amateur team of theOberliga Westfalen. For the 2025–26 DFB-Pokal, this spot was awarded to a team from the Regionalliga. As every team was entitled to participate in local tournaments which qualified for the association cups, every team could in principle compete in the DFB-Pokal. Reserve teams and combined football sections were not permitted to enter, along with no two teams of the same association or corporation.^[3]

The draws for the different rounds are conducted as follows:^[3]

For the first round, the participating teams were split into two pots of 32 teams each. The first pot contained all teams which qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3. Liga, and the bottom four teams of the 2. Bundesliga. Every team from this pot was drawn to a team from the second pot, which contained all remaining professional teams (all the teams of the Bundesliga and the remaining fourteen 2. Bundesliga teams). The teams from the first pot were set as the home team in the process.

The two-pot scenario was also applied for the second round, with the remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) in the first pot and the remaining Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga teams in the other pot. Once again, the 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) served as hosts. This time the pots did not have to be of equal size though, depending on the results of the first round. Theoretically, it was even possible that there could be only one pot, if all of the teams from one of the pots from the first round beat all the others in the second pot. Once one pot was empty, the remaining pairings were drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts.

For the remaining rounds, the draw will be conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) will be the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team will serve as hosts.

Teams meet in one game per round. Matches take place for 90 minutes, with two halves of 45 minutes each. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes ofextra time will be played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes each. If the score is still level after this, the match will be decided by apenalty shoot-out. A coin toss will decide who takes the first penalty.^[3][4] A maximum of nine players can be listed on the substitute bench, while a maximum of five substitutions are allowed. However, each team is only given three opportunities to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time.^[5] From the round of 16 onward, avideo assistant referee will be appointed for all DFB-Pokal matches. Though technically possible, VAR was not used for home matches of Bundesliga clubs prior to the round of 16 in order to provide a uniform approach to all matches.^[6]

If a player receives five yellow cards in the competition, he will then be suspended from the next cup match. Similarly, receiving a second yellow card suspends a player from the next cup match. If a player receives a direct red card, they will be suspended a minimum of one match, but the German Football Association reserves the right to increase the suspension.^[3]

The winners of the DFB-Pokal earn automatic qualification for the league stage of next year's edition of theUEFA Europa League. If they have already qualified for theUEFA Champions League through position in the Bundesliga, then the spot will go to the team in sixth place, and the league'sUEFA Conference League play-off round spot will go to the team in seventh place. The winners will also host theDFL-Supercup at the start of the next season, and will face the champions of the previous year'sBundesliga, unless the same team wins the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, completing a double. In that case, the runners-up of the Bundesliga will take the spot and host instead.

All draws will generally be held on a Sunday evening after each round (unless noted otherwise).^[7]

The rounds of the 2025–26 competition are scheduled as follows:^[1]

Times up to 26 October 2025 and from 29 March 2026 areCEST (UTC+2). Times from 27 October 2025 to 28 March 2026 areCET (UTC+1).

The draw took place on 15 June 2025, withOwen Ansah drawing the matches.^[8][9] The matches were played between 15 and 27 August 2025.

The draw took place on 31 August 2025 withFelix Brych drawing the matches.^[11][12] The matches took place on 28 and 29 October 2025.

The draw took place on 2 November 2025 with Felix van den Hövel drawing the matches.^[13][14] The matches take place on 2 and 3 December 2025.

The matches take place between 3 and 11 February 2026.

The matches take place on 21 and 22 April 2026.

The match takes place on 23 May 2026.

The following are the top scorers of the DFB-Pokal, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.

As of 29 October 2025^[15]

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	4
2	Dženan Pejčinović	VfL Wolfsburg	3
	Fabian Schleusener	Karlsruher SC
4	Twenty players		2

• Official website(in German)
• DFB-Pokal on kicker.de(in German)

• DFB-Pokal seasons
• 2025–26 in German football cups
• Current association football seasons

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Official website not in Wikidata
• Articles with German-language sources (de)