The 1997 DFB-Ligapokal was the inaugural

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German association football, football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five t ...

, a pre-season competition in Germany. The Ligapokal was an extended Supercup, including the reigning League champions, Cup winners, plus the next four highest placed teams in the previous season's

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

. It was won by

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, the

1996–97 Bundesliga The 1996–97 Bundesliga was the 34th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 16 August 1996 and ended on 31 May 1997. Borussia Dortmund were the defending champions. Competition format Every team played two game ...

champions, who beat

1996–97 DFB-Pokal The 1996–97 DFB-Pokal was the 54th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams competed in the tournament of six rounds which began on 9 August 1996 and ended on 16 June 1997. In the final, VfB Stuttgart defeated third ...

winners

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

in the final.

Participating clubs

A total of six teams qualified for the competition. The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: *1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League position *CW: Cup winners

Participating clubs

Matches

Preliminary round

Semi-finals

Final

See also

References