ESPN has announced a new multi-year extension with the German Football Association for exclusive broadcast rights to Germany’s top domestic sports cup tournament, the DFB-Pokal.
Every season, a conservative estimate of 40 DFB-Pokal games will be exclusively available on ESPN+ in English. All games will be streamed on ESPN+, with select games accessible on ESPN networks and ESPN+ in English and Spanish throughout the season. The Semifinals and Final of the German Cup are also included in the rights.
ESPN+ owns the U.S. rights to three of the world’s top four local cup tournaments, such as England’s Emirates FA Cup and Spain’s Copa del Rey.
Sonia Gomez, ESPN Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions, commented, “The multi-year agreement for the German Cup further cements ESPNPlus’s position as the country’s leading soccer platform, and having the top-three domestic soccer cup competitions in one place demonstrates our commitment to serve soccer fans in the U.S.”
The DFB-Pokal joins an unrivalled bunch of nearly 2,000 yearly football games on ESPN+, including LaLiga, Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, the Emirates FA Cup, Carabao Cup, EFL, Liga MX and others.
The DFB-Pokal, organised by the German Football Association, is Germany’s premier football knockout cup tournament, with 64 teams taking on each year. The DFB-Pokal, like its counterparts in England (Emirates FA Cup) and Spain (Copa del Rey), is regarded as the second-most significant club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. With 20 titles, FC Bayern München have been the most successful franchise in the tournament.