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 football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous ...

, a pre-season competition in Germany. The Ligapokal was an extended

Supercup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

, 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. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. It was won by

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

, 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 modus Every team played two games ...

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 thir ...

winners

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

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

References