and 26 against. Parallel to this, new guidelines for professionalism were approved, too, raising the permissible monthly income to DM 1,200, including bonuses. For certain, specially gifted players, exceptions could be applied for and granted to pay them more. In particular, 1. FC Nürnberg, which had been a strong opposing force to the Bundesliga, was ironically the first to apply for this exception for 12 of its players. On 24 August 1963, the first round of the new Bundesliga was played, enthusiastically welcomed as "finals atmosphere every weekend" by kicker Sportmagazin. The qualifying process for the Bundesliga Qualifying system The DFB received 46 applications from clubs from the five Oberligen to fill the 16 available spots in the new league, which had to be submitted by 1 December 1962. Clubs from the sixth German Oberliga, the highest league in East Germany, could not and would not have been permitted to apply. Those would join the Bundesliga only after the German reunion, in 1991. Of the 46, two soon withdrew their application. The rest were judged by financial criteria as well as by on-the-field performance over the previous ten seasons. In January 1963, the applications of 15 clubs were rejected, leaving 29 in the running. The weeding out of the last 13 that would not get a Bundesliga place in 1963 was fiercely contested, to the point that Kickers Offenbach and Alemannia Aachen took their rejection to court, without success. Both would however later gain entry to the league for short periods. The qualifying system for the new league was fairly complex. The league placings of the clubs playing in the Oberligen for the last ten seasons were taken into consideration, whereby results from 1952 to 1955 counted once, results from 1955 to 1959 counted double and results from 1959 to 1963 triple. A first-place finish was awarded 16 points, a sixteenth place one point. A German championship, 20 points, or runners-up spot and DFB-Pokal win, 10 points, were also rewarded with points. However, the 1963 editions of those two competitions were not taken into calculation anymore. The five Oberliga champions of the 1962–63 season were granted direct access to the Bundesliga. Later on, a special scenario also existed for the case that Borussia Neunkirchen would reach the German championship final, in which case the club would have gained entry to the league as a 17th team, as the two slots