The Bundesliga is reformed: This makes the championship fight more exciting!

The Bundesliga is reformed: This makes the championship fight more exciting!

Today the focus is on developments in Austrian football, where the Bundesliga has announced a far-reaching reform. From the 2018/19 season, the top division will be expanded to 12 teams and after a round trip, the league will be divided into two groups: the champion group and the qualification group, with both groups comprising 6 teams each. In this new format, each club will start the decisive games after the basic round with halved points, but at the same time creates exciting competitions for the international starting places, as by laola1.at reported.

The reform also provides for special regulations for player management: yellow cards will be carried into the final round, but not into the playoff games, which should mean that the clubs' best players can be on the pitch in these crucial moments. Bundesliga President Hans Rinner expressed his confidence about the new measures: “I think we have made good decisions that will help us advance economically, sportingly and infrastructurally in the future,” he is quoted as saying, while league board member Christian Ebenbauer expects the reform to bring promising improvements, such as krone.at reported.

A race for international space

The new playoff format will also significantly change the path to international competitions. The situation will be attractive for the champions and runners-up as well as the cup winners, as they play directly in the European Cup. An additional European starting place will be awarded via an exciting knockout duel between the winner of the lower playoff group and the fourth place in the master group. The relegation between the leagues is also clearly structured and ensures that the competition remains exciting until the last game.