Following the series of friendly games in May and the season closer in Hamburg, the VfB players will finally begin their hard earned summer holidays on May 18^th. Even before that though, plans were already afoot for the preparations ahead of the 50^th Bundesliga season.

As part of a closed session on July 2^nd, VfB will begin their planning for the 2012/2013 season with a performance test. The VfB players will head off for a training camp in Donaueschingen, where they will work intensively from July 24^th through 26^th, before putting in another week of preparations on the VfB training grounds (August 6^th through 10^th). Although the Bundesliga doesn’t get going again until the weekend on August 24^th/26^th, there will be plenty of previous action – with the FIFA release period from August 3th to 15^th and the DFB Cup first round (August 17^th through 20^th). Labbadia’s men will play their first leg of their UEFA Europa League qualifier on August 23^rd.

The schedule in brief: