If you're interested in football, whether as a player or as a spectator, just stop by at training or at one of the upcoming league games. In football, the size and position of the shirt number is usually precisely regulated. From the 2018/2019 season to the 2021/22 season, a new contract will come into force, with which SportA and Telekom will jointly hold the media rights to the 3rd league. In addition, at the beginning of the 2018/2019 season, the DFB and Adidas concluded a partner agreement that is valid until the end of the 2021/2022 season, cool football kits according to which the company provides a uniform match ball; in all previous seasons each club had its own ball sponsor. The club with the most – thirteen – seasons in the 3rd league is SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The number of spectators varies greatly in the third league. Only the third-tier English Football League One has similarly high or higher attendance figures. In the first leg against Schalke 04, they converted a 1:2 deficit into a 4:2 within the last twenty minutes. The team was defeated 3-0 by league rivals Atlético Madrid in the final of the UEFA Europa League under their Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa.

With an annual turnover of 186 million euros (as of 2017/18), the 3rd league was ahead of the Austrian Bundesliga, the Swedish Fotbollsallsvenskan, the Scottish Premiership and the Greek Super League and well ahead of the German Ice Hockey League, the handball Bundesliga and the Basketball Bundesliga (see: List of sports leagues according to sales). In the 2014/15 season, for the first time, there were more spectators per game in the 3rd league than in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). In parallel to the two Bundesligas, the DFB also announced for the 3rd league before the first games. In the league, the substitution quota per team was increased from three to five players by the end of the season, and in the third highest German league, no games were allowed in front of spectators. Traditional big city clubs such as Dynamo Dresden, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1. FC Magdeburg, Hansa Rostock, MSV Duisburg, Arminia Bielefeld, Karlsruher SC, Alemannia Aachen, Eintracht Braunschweig, 1860 Munich and Fortuna Düsseldorf, but also the ambitious newcomer RB Leipzig often had one Average attendance of well over 10,000 spectators per game. In the 2018/19 season, more than three million spectators were registered for the first time, with an average of over 8,000, and six clubs achieved a five-digit average audience. However, in the first three seasons there were never more than four secondary representatives in the league at the same time. Emotional differences are difficult to measure, but the existing changes can be represented in other ways.

This package of measures reduces the particularly controversial capacity requirement to 5,000 places, but on the other hand sets the requirements for equity capital, financial fair play, floodlights and media equipment higher than before. Stadium capacity of more than 10,000 seats. For the 13th matchday, the DFB added an addition to the regulation – as with players, club officials are threatened with suspensions for more than one game, as well as yellow suspensions, after being sent off after review by the responsible authority. The Hildesheim silver treasure was already interpreted by Höfler as Varus' tableware and Arminius's spoils of victory. In 2020, for the only time so far, a second team became third division champion, namely FC Bayern Munich. They then traveled there as favorites, also because they had already defeated the Soviet Union 4-1 on May 26, 1972 at the inauguration of the Olympic Stadium in Munich. The second division relegated TSV 1860 Munich did not apply for a license for the third division season 2017/18. SC Paderborn 07, which was relegated as 18th in the table, remained in the 3rd league. This requirement repeatedly caused potential newcomers from the lower regional leagues not to submit licensing documents; For example, SV Rödinghausen or Berliner AK 07, both of which play in stadiums that are significantly too small.

The Chilean team, which faced strong protests because of the military junta in their home country, was also heavily guarded in their quarters in Berlin's Glienicke Castle, which were surrounded by barbed wire and police. VfB Oldenburg, SpVgg Bayreuth and Rot-Weiss Essen were represented in the league for the first time in the 2022/23 season, and SSV Ulm 1846 appeared in the league for the first time in the 2023/24 season. The last club that has been in the 3rd division continuously since it was founded in 2008. The league was represented by FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt, who were relegated in 2018. The first ball Adidas provided for all clubs was the Telstar 18, which was also used at the 2018 World Cup. After eleven years, the role of the club that has remained in the third division for the longest time is now held by Hallesche FC, which has been playing in this division continuously since 2012. Due to the regulations of the Hessian Football Association, FV Breidenbach was automatically promoted as runner-up when a second team was promoted.