FSV Frankfurt


Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hesse and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt also fielded a rather successful women's team, which was disbanded in 2006.

History

The club was one of the founding members of the Nordkreis-Liga in 1909, when football started to become more organised in Southern Germany. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, this league came to a halt but a championship for the region was still held, which FSV won in 1917.
After the war, the club became part of the Kreisliga Nordmain, which it managed to win in 1922–23, qualifying for the Southern German championship, where it finished last out of five teams.
The pinnacle of the team's achievement was a losing appearance in the 1925 national final, 0–1 to 1. FC Nürnberg, and the capture of a German amateur title in 1972 in a 2–1 victory over TSV Marl-Hüls. The club contested the final of the 1938 Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's DFB-Pokal, but was beaten 1–3 by Rapid Vienna.
The club played in the Bezirksliga Main, then the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen throughout the 1920s and 1930s. After capturing the championship of the VSFV in 1933, FSV went on to play in the Gauliga Südwest, one of sixteen top-flight divisions formed that same year in the re-organization of German football in the Third Reich. They consistently earned mid-table results there with the club's best finish being second place in 1939. In 1941 the Gauliga Hessen was split into the Gauliga Westmark and the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau with FSV playing in the latter division. The team finished a close second to Kickers Offenbach in 1943 and in 1944 merged briefly with SG Eintracht Frankfurt to play as the wartime side KSG Frankfurt. The following season the Gauliga collapsed with the advance of Allied armies into Germany as World War II drew to a close.
After the war occupying Allied authorities ordered the dissolution of all organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. FSV was re-established as SG Bornheim but had taken on their old identity again by late 1945. The team resumed play in the first division Oberliga Süd where they played undistinguished, middling football until relegated at the end of the 1961–62 season. The Bundesliga, Germany's first top-flight professional league, was formed in 1963. FSV joined the Regionalliga Süd and remained a regular tier II side from the early 1960s through to the early 1970s when they slipped to the third tier. The club returned to the second tier in 1975 a year after the formation of the 2. Bundesliga, playing in the 2. Bundesliga Süd. In 1981 the northern and southern divisions of this league were combined and as a perennial lower table side FSV was delivered to the third division Oberliga Hessen. The club made a single season cameo appearance in the combined league in 1982–83 before once again falling back.
They played in the Regionalliga Süd in 2007–08 after seven seasons in the Amateur Oberliga Hessen. Winning the championship of the Regionalliga Süd, the club has been promoted to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2008–09 season, where it has played for eight seasons with moderate success before relegation to the 3. Liga at the end of the 2015–16 season.

Reserve team

The club's reserve team, the FSV Frankfurt II, rose for the first time above local Hesse level in 2010 when it won the Hessenliga and was promoted to the Regionalliga Süd. After two seasons, this league was disbanded in 2012 and FSV II became part of the new Regionalliga Südwest. It was relegated to the Hessenliga in 2013 and disbanded the following year after a rule change which meant professional clubs did not have to have a reserve side any more, something that previously had been compulsory.

Frankfurt derby

The 2011–12 season saw FSV Frankfurt play city rivals Eintracht Frankfurt in a league match for the first time in almost 50 years. The last league game between the two had been played on 27 January 1962, then in the Oberliga Süd. For the first of the two matches, FSV's home game on 21 August 2011, the decision was made to move to Eintracht's stadium as FSV's Volksbankstadion only holds less than 11,000 spectators and in excess of 40,000 spectators are expected for the game.

Honours

League

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:
SeasonDivisionTierPosition
1999–00Regionalliga SüdIII14th ↓
2000–01Oberliga HessenIV4th
2001–02Oberliga HessenIV2nd
2002–03Oberliga HessenIV3rd
2003–04Oberliga HessenIV6th
2004–05Oberliga HessenIV2nd
2005–06Oberliga HessenIV2nd
2006–07Oberliga HessenIV1st ↑
2007–08Regionalliga SüdIII1st ↑
2008–092. BundesligaII15th
2009–102. BundesligaII15th
2010–112. BundesligaII13th
2011–122. BundesligaII13th
2012–132. BundesligaII4th
2013–142. BundesligaII13th
2014–152. BundesligaII13th
2015–162. BundesligaII17th ↓
2016–173. LigaIII20th ↓
2017–18Regionalliga SüdwestIV14th
2018–19Regionalliga SüdwestIV12th

↑ Promoted↓ Relegated

Players

Current squad

Former players

Sports

Recent managers of the club:
ManagerStartFinish
Tomas Oral1 July 20064 Oct 2009
Hans-Jürgen Boysen7 Oct 200917 Dec 2011
Benno Möhlmann21 Dec 201118 May 2015
Tomas Oral18 May 201510 April 2016
Falko Götz11 April 2016June 2016
Roland Vrabec16 June 20166 March 2017
Gino Lettieri7 March 201718 May 2017
Alexander Conrad1 July 2017

Women's department

The women's team won three championships and five cups, even completing a double in 1995, but was retired after the 2005–06 season due to financial weakness. In its time FSV had many German top football players, including national record scorer Birgit Prinz, who left in 1998 for local rival 1. FFC Frankfurt.

Honours

The following players who have played for Frankfurt have been capped for Germany at least 50 times:
As a sports club FSV has had at various times departments for athletics, boxing, darts, handball, ice hockey, and tennis.