SpVgg Greuther Fürth

SpVgg Greuther Fürth

Full name	Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth e. V.
Nickname(s)	Kleeblätter (Cloverleaves)
Founded	23 September 1903
Ground	Trolli Arena (Capacity: 15,000)
Chairman	Helmut Hack
Manager	Mike Büskens
League	2. Bundesliga
2009–10	11th – 2. Bundesliga
Home colours Away colours

SpVgg Greuther Fürth is a German football club based in Fürth, Bavaria. The current club was formed only very recently out of the 1 July 1996 merger of traditional side Spielvereinigung Fürth and the senior football side of newcomer Turn- und Sportverein Vestenbergsgreuth.

History

Spielvereinigung Fürth

The origins of SpVgg Fürth are in the establishment on 23 September 1903 of a football department within the gymnastics club Turnverein 1860 Fürth. The footballers went their own way as an independent club in November 1906. The team played in the Ostkreisliga and took divisional titles there in 1912, 1913, and 1914 before moving on to participate in the Süddeutsche (en:South German) regional playoffs for the national championship round.^[1] Right from the beginning there was a great rivalry between the SpVgg Fürth and the 1. FC Nuremberg, predicated on the historical rivalry between the adjacent cities. The club grew rapidly and as of 1914, it had 3000 members and was the largest sports club in Germany.

National champions

Fürth won their first national title in 1914 under English coach William Townley. They faced VfB Leipzig – the defending champions with three titles to their credit – in the final held on May 31 in Magdeburg. A 154-minute-long thriller ended with Fürth scoring a golden goal to secure the title. The team had a solid run of successes through the 20s and into the early 30s, beginning with an appearance in the national final against Nuremberg in 1920. Nuremberg was the dominant side of the decade. A star player with SpVgg was forced to leave after he married a Nuremberg girl. In 1924, for the first and only time, the German national side was made up exclusively of players from just two sides – Fürth and Nuremberg - and players of the two teams slept in separate rail coaches.

SpVgg showed regularly on the national stage, advancing to the semi-finals in 1923 and 1931. They claimed two more championships – in 1926 and 1929 – with both of those victories coming at the expense of Hertha BSC Berlin. Through this period the club played five finals in the Süddeutscher Pokal (en:South German Cup), coming away as cupwinners on four occasions. On 27 August 1929 the association was joined by FC Schneidig Fürth.

German football was re-organized in 1933 under the Third Reich into sixteen top flight Gauligen. Fürth became part of the Gauliga Bayern, but their success over the next dozen seasons was limited to a division title there in 1935, alongside regular appearances in competition for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor to today's DFB Pokal (en:German Cup).

Postwar play

After the war the team struggled through three seasons in the Oberliga Süd (I) before slipping to the Landesliga Bayern (II). SpVgg quickly recovered itself and returned to Oberliga play the next season. They won the title there in 1950 and went on to the national playoffs, advancing as far as the semifinals before being eliminated 1:4 by VfB Stuttgart. Fürth remained a first division side until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963. In 1954 two players from the SpVgg, Karl Mai and Herbert Erhardt, were members of the team that won the World Cup.

The club did not qualify as one of the sixteen teams that made up the new unified national first division and found themselves playing second division football in the Regionalliga Süd, where the were generally a mid-table side whose best finish was third place result in 1967. The club played in the 2.Bundesliga from its inception in 1974 until 1983 with their best performance a fourth place finish in 1978–79. They slipped to playing in the tier III Oberliga Bayern, with a short three-year spell in the fourth division Landesliga Bayern-Mitte in the late 80s. In 1990, Fürth celebrated a 3:1 victory in the opening round of German Cup play over first division side Borussia Dortmund before going out 0:1 to 1. FC Saarbrücken in the second round. They returned to the Amateur Oberliga Bayern (IV) in 1991 and the Regionalliga Süd (III) in 1994.

Historical logos of SpVgg Fürth and TSV Vestenbergsgreuth

TSV Vestenbergsgreuth

Meanwhile, the small village team of TSV Vestenbergsgreuth was established 1 February 1974 and made its appearance as a fourth division side.^[1] They made their move up into the Amateur Oberliga Bayern (III) in 1987, just as Fürth was making its way down to play in the division the more junior club had just escaped. TSV took part in the national amateur playoff round in 1988 and 1995. Their best performance came in the 1995 DFB Pokal (en:German Cup) when they upset Bayern Munich 1:0, and then beat FC Homburg 5:1, before being eliminated in the third round of the competition by VfL Wolfsburg on penalty kicks.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth

At the time of their merger in 1996, in which TSV's football players came over to Fürth, both clubs were playing at about the same level in Regionalliga Süd (III). The new club was runner-up behind long term rival 1. FC Nuremberg in the division the next year, and so earned promotion to the 2.Bundesliga, where they have consistently finished in the top half of the eighteen team table. Fürth has come close to renewing its ancient rivallry with Nuremberg, narrowly missing promotion in each of the last two seasons.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth II

Fürth also fields a strong reserve side which has played in the Oberliga Bayern (IV) since the 2001–02 season and finished second there in 2006–07. A second place in 2007–08 meant the team was qualified to play in the Regionalliga Süd in 2008–09.

Rivals

The 1. FC Nuremberg is by far the SpVgg's biggest rival, going back to the early days of German football when, at times, those two clubs dominated the national championship. Both clubs played together in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2008-09.

Honours

SpVgg Greuther Fürth

• Indoor
  • German Hall Cup winner: 2000

SpVgg Greuther Fürth II

• Cup
  • Mittelfranken Cup winner: 2002

SpVgg Fürth

• League
  • German champions: 1914, 1923, 1929
  • Southern German championship: 1914, 1923, 1931
  • Ostkreis-Liga (I) champions: 1912, 1913, 1914, 1917
  • Kreisliga Nordbayern (I) champions: 1922, 1923
  • Bezirksliga Nordbayern (I) champions: 1928, 1930, 1931
  • Gauliga Bayern (I) champions: 1935
  • Oberliga Süd (I) champions: 1950
  • Landesliga Bayern-Mitte (IV) champions: 1991

• Cup
  • Southern German Cup winner: 1918, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927
  • Mittelfranken Cup winner: 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997

SpVgg Fürth II

• League
  • 2nd Amateurliga Mittelfranken Nord (IV) champions: 1958

TSV Vestenbergsgreuth

• League
  • Landesliga Bayern-Mitte (IV) champions: 1987

• Cup
  • Mittelfranken Cup winner: 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994

Youth team

• League
  • Bavarian Under 19 championship winners: 2003
  • Bavarian Under 19 championship runners-up: 1949, 1998
  • Bavarian Under 17 championship winners: 2001, 2008
  • Bavarian Under 17 championship runners-up: 1997, 2006
  • Bavarian Under 15 championship winners: 2004

Recent managers

The clubs managers since returning to the 2nd Bundesliga in 1997 were:^[2]

Recent seasons

SpVgg Greuther Fürth

SpVgg Greuther Fürth II

Current squad

As of 1 July 2010 (2010 -07-01)^[update]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 3 DF Asen Karaslavov 4 DF Marino Biliškov 5 DF Jan Mauersberger 6 DF Kim Falkenberg 7 MF Bernd Nehrig 8 MF Stephan Fürstner 9 FW Christopher Nöthe 11 FW Dani Schahin 13 MF Milorad Peković 14 MF Edgar Prib 15 DF Christian Rahn 16 GK Jasmin Fejzić 17 DF Stephan Schröck 18 MF Leonhard Haas

No. Position Player 19 DF Thomas Kleine 20 FW Kingsley Onuegbu 21 MF Marius Strangl 23 MF Sercan Sararer 25 GK Matjaž Rozman 26 GK Max Grün 27 MF Nicolai Müller 28 FW Stefan Vogler 29 FW Stefan Kolb 34 FW Tayfun Pektürk 35 DF Philipp Langen

SpVgg Greuther Fürth II squad

As of 21 January 2009 (2009 -01-21)^[update]

Manager: Frank Kramer

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Jens Grahl GK Matthias Gumbrecht GK Christoph Wächter DF Fabian Baumgärtel DF Sebastian Fiedler DF Tobias Grabl DF Eugen Müller DF Stefan Scharf DF Stefan Wiechers MF Florian Bauer MF Kristian Böhnlein

No. Position Player MF Miloš Cupak MF Christoph Herl MF Edgar Prib MF Stefan Kleineheismann MF Ronny Philp MF Alexander Schreckinger FW Florian Pickel FW Romas Dressler FW Michael Eckert FW Jim-Patrick Müller FW Christopher Schaab

Notable former players

• Andre Mijatović
• Karl Mai, earned 21 caps for Germany and played in the 1954 World Cup
• Herbert Erhardt (correct: Erhard) earned 50 caps for Germany and played in the World Cups 1954, 1958 and 1962
• Julius Hirsch, member of 1914 national title team and international player, killed during holocaust
• Heiko Westermann, German international player
• Roberto Hilbert, German international player
• Rachid Azzouzi, played for Morocco in the World Cups 1994 and 1998

Famous coaches

William Townley, had three turns as coach of SpVgg Fürth in 1911–1913, 1926–1927, and 1930–1932 and led the club to two championships.

Team trivia

• Henry Kissinger was a member of the sports club before immigrating to the United States and serving as Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Today he is an honorary member and fan and according to the club's website [1] (in German) follows the results of SpVgg Greuther Fürth closely. A photo of his visit to Playmobil Stadium in Fürth can be seen on the club website here: [2].

• SpVgg is an abbreviation of the German term "Spielvereinigung" – or "playing association" – a traditional used term for a team (German: Verein) or club engaged in sports other than gymnastics.

External links

• SpVgg Greuther Fürth Web Site
• Abseits Guide to German Soccer

References