Bundesliga 2026-27 European places and relegation rules explained: what our six numbers mean

Union Berlin can win all 30 of their remaining matches, finish on 91 points, and our table will still print nothing in their safety column. That is not a gap in the data. Mathematical safety in the Bundesliga sits at 91 points as of the September 20 update, Union Berlin's ceiling is exactly 91, and when a club is level on points with a rival we count the tie against the club being asked about. Reaching the line is not the same as clearing it. Their row is the shortest lesson in how these numbers are built.

Every figure here comes from the September 20 update of our Bundesliga table. The last result in the data is Dortmund's 1-0 win at Stuttgart. Leverkusen against Leipzig is listed for the same day and has not been played, so this is the state of the table as of the September 20 update rather than a completed day of football. Thirty-three of the season's 306 matches are in. Twelve clubs have played four and six have played three.

The competition itself is simple to state. Eighteen clubs play each other home and away, 34 matches each, three points for a win and one for a draw. Our table ranks the 18 on points and marks two lines across it. The top four take the European qualifying places, the bottom two go down. Clubs level on points are printed in goal difference order, and that order is the only thing goal difference decides here. Bayern Munich have scored 14 and conceded 2, Freiburg 12 and 3, both are on 10 points, and all six of their numbers are identical: 89 and 81 in the guarantee columns, 30 in the title elimination column, blanks in the other three. Bayern are printed second on plus 12 against Freiburg's plus 9. Nothing in this arithmetic separates them. Only the tiebreak does. Two lines across 18 clubs leave three questions for every club. Will it finish first, will it finish in the top four, will it stay out of the bottom two. Each question is asked in both directions, guarantee and elimination, and those six answers are the six numbers on every club's row.

The three guarantee numbers are counted in points still to be collected. The top-four guarantee line is 99. Take any club that still has a top-four clinch number, add it to that club's current points, and the answer is 99 every time. Dortmund have 12 and need 87 more. Bayern and Freiburg have 10 and need 89. Leipzig and SV Elversberg have 6 and need 93. Those five are also the only clubs whose remaining schedule can still reach 99, which is exactly why the column is blank for the other 13. Augsburg, Mainz and Werder Bremen have 7 points and 30 matches left, 30 matches are worth 90, and 7 plus 90 is 97. The title column is stricter again, and only one club has a line in it: Dortmund's 88, which is 29 wins and a draw from 30 matches, one point above their own top-four number. Each of these totals is the worst case written out in full, the figure that holds under every combination of results still open to a club's rivals.

The safety column works the same way and lands on 91. Add current points to the safety number and 16 of the 18 clubs come to 91, from Dortmund's 12 and 79 to Frankfurt's 5 and 86 to Paderborn's 1 and 90. The two clubs with no safety number are the two that cannot reach 91 and clear it. Union Berlin's ceiling is exactly 91, reached only by winning all 30, and level on points the tie is counted against them. Mönchengladbach have 0 points from four matches and a ceiling of 90, a point short of the line. Neither club is relegated. Neither can settle the question by its own results alone today.

The three elimination numbers are counted in defeats, not points. Mönchengladbach carry the fullest set in the table: 28 for the top four, 27 for the title, 30 for relegation. Twenty-eight further defeats would put a top-four finish out of reach for them, 27 would do it for the title, and 30, which is every match they have left, would make relegation certain. That 30 is the only relegation number printed anywhere on the table, and their 28 is the lowest top-four number in the league. Bayern and Freiburg carry a title tragic number of 30, again every match they have left. Leipzig and Elversberg sit at 31 for the top four, which is also every match they have left. Dortmund have no number in any of the three elimination columns.

A blank is not a zero and it does not mean one thing. In the guarantee columns it means out of reach. Augsburg would need 92 more points from a maximum of 90, so nothing they do on their own settles a top-four place, and the title column is blank for 17 clubs for the same reason. In the elimination columns it means the opposite, that the question cannot be closed by losing. Dortmund, Bayern, Freiburg, Augsburg, Mainz and Werder Bremen could lose every remaining match and our arithmetic would still not declare a top-four finish impossible for them. In the safety column, as Union Berlin and Mönchengladbach show, a blank means the club cannot put the answer beyond doubt by itself. A zero would mean a question is already answered, and there is not a zero anywhere on this table.

One thing the table deliberately does not do is adjust for matches played, so the points column is not a like-for-like comparison at the moment. Augsburg's 7 points came from four matches and Leipzig's 6 from three, and it is Leipzig, the club with fewer points, that still has a top-four line. The rank range columns settle the rest in one line: every one of the 18 clubs can still finish first, and every one can still finish 18th. Three fixtures level the schedule out. Leverkusen host Leipzig on Sunday, and Monday brings Paderborn against Hoffenheim and Schalke against Elversberg. Those three games account for all six clubs that have played three matches, so once they are done every club in the league will have played four and have 30 left, and the points column becomes directly comparable for the first time this season. Against today's line of 99, a Leipzig win keeps their top-four number at 90 points from 30 matches and anything else removes it, in the same way it is already missing for Augsburg. The next fixtures in the data are on Saturday, October 10: Dortmund host Werder Bremen, Augsburg host Bayern, Mainz host Leverkusen, Paderborn host Stuttgart and Union Berlin host Elversberg.

How to read these numbers. A clinch number is the minimum a club must still collect for the outcome to hold under every combination of results still open to its rivals. A tragic number is the further defeats after which the outcome is impossible even if that club wins everything else. A rank range is the highest and lowest final position still arithmetically reachable. A blank means no run of that club's own results settles the question today, and a zero would mean it is already settled. Ties are counted against the club in question, so our clinch can trail an official announcement by a day. Our arithmetic models four qualifying places and two relegation places and nothing below them. The live table is at, the remaining fixtures at, the qualification and relegation rules at, and each club's own six numbers at its page, such as. To enter results yourself and watch the lines move, use.