Paderborn win VBL Club Championship by WOW

Playing on EA SPORTS FC™ 24, Paderborn finished the division phase of the VBL Club Championship in second place in the North-West Division. At the finals tournament, the eventual winners finished the group phase fourth and went on to beat F.C. Hansa Rostock in the quarter-final and SV Werder Bremen in the semi-final.

The VBL Club Championship trophy was pesented to the team by Jörg Höflich, the DFL Head of Virtual Bundesliga. At the presentation, Höflich said, “Our congratulations go to the entire team of SC Paderborn 07, the new German Club Champions of the WOW Virtual Bundesliga! At the end of the VBL Club Championship, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all participating clubs, their players and club representatives for their commitment. Together, we have successfully completed the season with the largest field of participants to date. In co-operation with EA SPORTS, we were able to successfully introduce numerous innovations and raise the competition to a higher level.”

Watch: Final joy for Paderborn in Cologne 

The VBL Club Championship is a competition within the Virtual Bundesliga and is organised by DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga. In total, 35 clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 took part during the season. The ten best clubs after the division phase and the playoffs faced off in the final tournament on Saturday and Sunday. A prize money pool totalling 87,500 euros will be distributed to the clubs in the competition.

Next up: the Playoffs of the VBL Open by WOW and the VBL Grand Final by WOW

As in previous years, the VBL Club Championship has also provided a route enabling players to qualify for the subsequent competitions that decide which individual player will be the German Champion. The Playoffs of the VBL Open will be held on 6 and 7 April with places in the VBL Grand Final at stake. The VBL Grand Final will take place from 19 - 21 April as an offline event in Cologne.

Photos and video footage for editorial use

· Photos are available vie the DFL photo database: https://photo.bundesliga.com/vbl/vbl_mediakit (click on “I have a guest password“, the password is VBL2324)

· A highlight clip for editorial use can be downloaded from Sunday evening here: Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship 23/24 - Finale- Clips  

· TV news material (roughcut) can be downloaded from Sunday evening here: Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship 23/24 - Finale- News

For the download, please register here: https://www.4msports-server.com/topnav/sign-in-register/

Watch: the top 5 goals from Day 2

About the Virtual Bundesliga

The VBL, which was founded in 2012 as a partnership between the DFL and EA SPORTS, remains to this day the only competition of a professional football league to be directly integrated into the EA SPORTS FIFA game series in order to enhance and professionalise the VBL.