Germany will not stage the season's curtain-raising League Cup competition next year, the German Football League (DFL) said in a statement yesterday.

The pre-season League Cup has been held every year since 1997, generally featuring the top few teams from the previous Bundesliga campaign plus the Cup (DFB Pokal) winners.

The DFL blamed the cancellation on scheduling difficulties due to Euro 2008, which runs from June 7-29 in Austria and Switzerland.

There has been speculation recently that the League Cup could be permanently consigned to the history books, giving the top clubs more time for lucrative foreign tours in the pre-season.

Bayern Munich have been the most successful club in the League Cup's brief history, winning six of the 11 editions.

Werder Bremen said yesterday they had suspended Boubacar Sanogo of the Ivory Coast and Carlos Alberto of Brazil for three days following a fight in training. Both will miss the Bundesliga match against Energie Cottbus tomorrow after being sent to the dressing room by coach Thomas Schaaf after "the altercation turned violent", the club said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.