BERLIJN/MÜNCHEN - The highest league in the German Bundesliga three cushion will start this year with 10 teams, of which only the top six teams will retain their position and four teams will be relegated. From the following season onwards, the league will be played with eight teams instead of 10. The defending champion is BC Munich, the competition starts with a double weekend on 25 and 26 September. Martin Horn with International Berlin is one of the top favourites for the title. The team, showing up at a new location, has among others Nikos Polychronopoulos, Cengiz Karaka, Jean van Erp, Gökhan Salman, Norbert Röstel and Hakan Celik in the line-ups. ''We are aiming for the top three'', is Martin Horn's prognosis. Horn also will play in the Dutch league (Bousema), the French league (Soissons) and the Austrian league (Pottendorf) this year.
The German frontrunner in the Berlin team, who wants to play all 18 matches as far as international tournaments allow, assures that team spirit is the most important strength for the team, which is the reigning cup champion in Germany. Horn thinks Munich, Elversberg and Bottrop as the main competitors in the title race. ''We play with International Berlin in a nice, new ambiance, where I think the fans will come and watch good matches. Of course, it depends for the title race on which foreigners can play and which tournaments will be played. I hope to participate in all matches myself, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Jean van Erp will also play in some matches.'' The Greek star Polychronopoulos has been committed for at least 8 matches.
In the last season, 2019/2020, BC Munich was the frontrunner when the competition was stopped. The team was declared champion after 9 games with Lütfi Cenet, Kostas Kokkoris, Johann Schirmbrand and Christos Christodoulidis. BC Magdeburg, with Dick Jaspers and Dion Nelin among others, was dethroned as the defending champion.
The COVID pandemic then caused a long stop, both internationally and nationally, so that for the 2020/2021 season there were no champions and no relegated teams.
Next month, German billiards will enter a new season that will hopefully look better than it did a year ago. The highest team league in Germany lost BC Stuttgart. ATSV Erlangen has been promoted to the first division to make up for the loss of Stuttgart. The defending champion is of course BC München, who will defend its title for the first time in a new sports hall.
BC St. Wendel has strengthened itself for the new season with Dick Jaspers, the world number one and four-time world champion, who became German champion for the first time in 2019 with BC Magdeburg and transferred to BC Stuttgart in 2020/2021. Jaspers now finds a new sporting challenge with the team where Jérôme Barbeillon, among others, also will perform. Lütfi Cenet has not received a new offer from the champion team BC München.
The teams in the 1st Bundesliga (with the most known players):
BCC Witten (Jakob Haack Sörensen, Ronny Lindemann, Dave Christiani)
BC Weywiesen, Bottrop (Torbjörn Blomdahl, Roland Forthomme, Christian Rudolph, Brian Knudsen, Thorsten Frings)
BSV Velbert (Eddy Merckx, Barry van Beers, Jean Paul de Bruijn)
BC AGB Xanten (Huub Wilkowski, Ramazan Durdu)
BC St.Wendel (Dick Jaspers, Jérôme Barbeillon, Jeffrey Jorissen)
BC München (Kostas Kokkoris, Arnhim Kahofer)
ATSV Erlangen (Andreas Efler, Martin Bohac)
BC Elversberg (Ruben Legazpi, Murat Naci Coklu, Peter Ceulemans, Jef Philipoom, Carlos Crespo)
BC International Berlin (Martin Horn, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jean van Erp, Gökhan Salman, Cengiz Karaka)
BC Magdeburg (Dion Nelin, Ömer Karakurt, Radek Novak, Markus Schönhoff)
Dick Jaspers, frontrunner in the St Wendel team