The 2020–21 3. Liga was the 13th season of the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

. It began on 18 September 2020 and concluded on 22 May 2021. The season was originally scheduled to begin on 24 July 2020 and conclude on 15 May 2021, though this was delayed due to postponement of the previous season as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The fixtures were announced on 20 August 2020.

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

and

Hansa Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from ...

got promoted directly, while FC Ingolstadt won the promotion play-offs. Originally,

SV Meppen SV Meppen is a German association football club playing in Meppen, Lower Saxony. The club was founded on 29 November 1912 as ''Amisia Meppen'' and joined ''Männer-Turnverein Meppen'' on 8 February 1920 to form ''TuS Meppen 1912''. The football ...

Bayern Munich II FC Bayern Munich II (''FC Bayern Munich Amateure'' until 2005) are the German reserve football teams, reserve team of Football in Germany, German association football club FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich, currently playing in the Regionalliga B ...

VfB Lübeck VfB Lübeck is a German association football club playing in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, in the country's north. It is most known for reaching the semifinals of the German Cup in the 2003/2004 season. They played in the 2. Bundesliga from 199 ...

and

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

were relegated; however,

KFC Uerdingen KFC Uerdingen 05 was a German football club in the Uerdingen district of the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. The former Bundesliga side, which had its greatest successes in the 1980s, plays in the fourth-level Regionalliga. In 2025, t ...

was unable to obtain a 3. Liga license for the 2021–22 season and was therefore relegated, sparing SV Meppen from relegation.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Unlike other competitions organised by the

DFB DFB may refer to: Music * Dem Franchize Boyz, an Atlanta hip hop group * Dysfunctional Family BBQ, a New York festival Sport * DFB-Pokal, a football cup competition in Germany Organisations * Furka Steam Railway (), Switzerland * German Footbal ...

and DFL, the clubs of the 3. Liga initially voted to allow for only three substitutes during the 2020–21 season. Five substitutions were permitted in the 3. Liga at the end of the previous season to lessen the impact of fixture congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and competition organisers had the option to use the rule until 2021. On 11 January 2021, the DFB Executive Committee approved the use of five substitutions for the second half of the season from 22 January (matchday 20 onward), following a secondary vote by the 20 clubs. However, the number of players permitted on the bench remained at seven. Rescheduled matches from the first half of the season (matchday 19 and earlier) remained limited to three substitutions.

Teams

Team changes

Stadiums and locations

¹ Bayern Munich II will play their home match against 1. FC Magdeburg at FC Bayern Campus to take strain off the Grünwalder Stadion, since it is being used by three teams and would have to host four matches in one week otherwise.
² Türkgücü München will play up to eight of their home matches at the Olympiastadion and the remainder at the Grünwalder Stadion.
³ 1. FC Saarbrücken played their home match against VfB Lübeck at the PSD Bank Arena in Frankfurt and their home match against 1860 Munich at the Hermann-Neuberger-Stadion in Völklingen because their regular home stadium was rendered unusable due to snowfall.
⁴ KFC Uerdingen played their first ten home matches at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf while their home stadium, the

Grotenburg-Stadion The Grotenburg-Stadion () is a multi-use stadium in Krefeld, Germany. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home matches for former DFB-Pokal winner KFC Uerdingen 05 KFC Uerdingen 05 was a German football club in the Uerdi ...

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

, is being renovated. The club moved to the Stadion am Lotter Kreuz in Lotte for the rest of the season since they could no longer afford to pay the rent for the Merkur Spiel-Arena.
⁵ SC Verl will play their home matches at the Benteler-Arena since their home stadium, the Sportclub Arena in Verl, did not meet 3. Liga standards. As only a limited number of spectators was permitted, the DFB allowed Verl to play three matches in their home stadium.

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

League table

Results

Top scorers

Number of teams by state

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:3. Liga, 2020-21 2020–21 in German football leagues

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...