Germany 3. Liga

In January 2006, the discussion was made about a reorganization of the amateur leagues and the establishment of a single-track "3. Bundesliga". The aim of the reform was to create a great performance density for the substructure of the 2. Bundesliga with better support and development opportunities for talented players. In addition, better marketing of the third division should be achieved. A violent dispute broke out in the run-up to the decision scheduled for September 2006 at the DFB-Bundestag about the participation of second teams in the first and second division. After the U23 teams of the professional clubs were initially not supposed to take part in the newly created league for reasons of distortion of competition and low attendance, several Bundesliga clubs demanded, an unrestricted right to participate. Ultimately, a compromise was worked out that initially only allowed four-second substitutes to play in the inaugural season of the third division.

On 8 September 2006, the introduction of the single-track 3. Liga was finally decided at an extraordinary DFB Bundestag. Half of the clubs from the existing Regionalliga North and South were able to qualify for the premiere season, plus four relegated teams from the 2. Bundesliga. The German Football Association, the DFB, announced the formation of the 3. Liga. It was originally anticipated that the league's name would be 3. Bundesliga, but the DFB chose 3. Liga instead, as the league will be directly administered by the DFB, not by the German Football League DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) who runs both Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. On 10 April 2008, the DFB presented the logo for the new division to the public.

In contrast to the introduction of the 2. Liga in 1974 or the merging of the north and south seasons to form the single-track 2. Bundesliga for the 1981–82 season, there was no multi-year rating when determining the participants for the first season of the new 3. Liga. It was only the performance of the teams in the qualifying period of the Regionalliga relays were athletically qualified for the 3. Liga. In addition, there were four 2. Liga relegated teams in the 2007–08 season. The Regionalliga players who were not qualified for the new division after completing the admission process competed in the new three-pronged fourth division Regionalliga, provided they were granted a license for this.

The first match of the 3. Liga was played on 25 July 2008 between Rot-Weiß Erfurt and Dynamo Dresden at the Steigerwaldstadion in Erfurt. Dynamo Dresden won the match 1–0, with Halil Savran scoring the only goal in the closing stages of the first half. The first goal scorer in the 3. Liga was Halil Savran and the first table leader was SC Paderborn 07. The first champions of the 3. Liga were 1. FC Union Berlin on 9 May 2009, who received the eight-and-a-half-kilogram silver championship trophy.

In the 2018–19 season, four relegated teams were determined for the first time in the history of the 3. Liga, and for the first-time regular Monday games took place. Furthermore, for the first time no U23 team from a higher-class club was able to qualify for the league. With the relegation of the last founding member of the 3. Liga, FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt, in the preseason, for the first time, no team that been part of the league without interruption took part in the game. In addition, at the beginning of the 2018–19 season, the DFB and Adidas signed a partner contract that would run until the end of the 2021–22 season, according to which the company provides a uniform match ball; in all previous seasons each club had its own ball sponsor. The first ball provided by Adidas for all the clubs was the Telstar 18, which was also used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

For the 2019–20 season, as in the two national leagues, warnings for club officials were introduced in the form of cards. On the 13th match day, the DFB expanded the regulation by an addition – as with players, club officials are threatened with suspension of more than one game and yellow card suspensions after being sent off after being checked by the competent authority. In view of the global COVID-19 pandemic, game operations had to be temporarily suspended after 27 match days on 11 March 2020 and finally completely ceased on 16 March; the measure was initially valid until 30 April 2020. On 3 April, the DFB announced extensive changes to the game rules as a result. Among other things, it was possible to carry out seasonal operations beyond 30 June 2020, so the following season was opened later than the planned time. Ultimately, the final game day took place on 4 July 2020. In addition, a possible application to open insolvency proceedings within the 2019–20 season would no longer have resulted in a point deduction, in the following season only three points would be deducted instead of the usual nine; from the 2021–22 season onwards, the usual regulation should apply again. On 21 May, it was decided to resume game operations on 30 May, and the DFB and DFL had worked out a hygiene concept for all three leagues with the help of the "Task Force Sports Medicine/Special Game Operations". In parallel to the two national leagues, the DFB increased the substitutions quota per team from three to five player for the 3. Liga until the end of the season, and the third-highest German division was not allowed be played in front of spectators.

While small numbers of spectators were allowed from the start of the 2020–21 season under certain conditions, it was decided in an internal league survey to limit the substitution contingent to three players again.^[]