SOCCER
Bayern and Dortmund Await DFB Cup Draw on Sunday With No Seeded Teams
The DFB Cup round-of-16 draw is scheduled for Sunday’s Sportschau, with Bayern, Dortmund and eight other Bundesliga clubs among the 16 survivors.
Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will learn their next German Cup opponents on Sunday, with the round-of-16 draw scheduled during Sportschau’s broadcast beginning at 1:15 p.m. EST. All 16 clubs enter a single pot without seeded protection.
The draw takes place at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. Markus Gaugisch, coach of Germany’s women’s national handball team, is scheduled to draw the balls, according to the German Football Association and host broadcaster ARD.
There are ten Bundesliga clubs left, alongside six second-division teams. The top-flight contingent includes Bayern, Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Augsburg, Cologne and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Hertha Berlin, Kaiserslautern, Holstein Kiel, Bochum, Dynamo Dresden and Darmstadt complete the field. The last clubs from below the second division were eliminated in the previous round, so none can claim the automatic home advantage reserved for those lower-league teams.
A single pot allows Bundesliga teams to be paired with each other. The first club drawn receives home advantage, subject to the competition’s rules. Sunday’s ceremony therefore determines both the opponents and the home advantage, rather than a seeded bracket separating the strongest clubs.
The matches are scheduled for December 1 and 2. The draw does not itself assign every kickoff: the association coordinates the detailed schedule with clubs, broadcasters and security authorities after the pairings are known.
ARD’s announcement confirms German television and streaming coverage of the ceremony. That is a German-market listing, rather than confirmation that the stream is available in the United States or Canada.
The quarterfinals are spread across February 2, 3, 9 and 10, with semifinals on April 20 and 21. The final is scheduled for May 29, 2027, at Berlin’s Olympiastadion. The next confirmed step for the surviving clubs is Sunday’s unseeded draw, followed by the publication of December kickoff times.
