SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Dec 22, 1965
Club Members: 10,200
Nickname: FCM, Der Club 
Coach: Christian Titz
Captain: Amara Condé

DDR Oberliga Champions: 3
FDGB-Pokal: 7
3.Liga Champions: 2
Regionalliga Nordost: 1
European Cup Winners Cup: 1
Landespokal Sachsen-Anhalt Winner: 11

Website: www.fc-magdeburg.de

Erich Mielke, the infamous head of the Stasi , once said of football in East Germany: "Football success will highlight even more clearly the superiority of our socialist order in the area of sport" and it was the political desire for more competitive football clubs in East Germany that led to 1.FC Magdeburg being founded on 22nd December 1965 - one of the 10 so-called Schwerpunktclubs ('focus clubs') given free reign to cherry pick the best players the country had to offer.

Along with SG Dynamo Dresden, the club initially dominated the East German game winning three DDR-Liga titles, seven FDGB-Pokal cups and, despite being complete underdogs, became the only East German side to win a major European title when an own goal by Enrico Lanzi and a tight angled finish by Wolfgang Seguin saw them beat Italian giants AC Milan in Rotterdam to lift the 1974 European Cup Winners Cup.

Magdeburg's success owed much to head coach Heinz Krügel who built a squad made up entirely of young local talent and their 1972 DDR-Liga triumph was won with a squad whose average age of just 22 made them the youngest to ever do so. Despite his legendary status at the club however, Krügel's decade at the forefront of East German football came to an end in 1976 following numerous displays of 'non-conformity' including a rumoured refusal to use Stasi -harvested information about Bayern München during a 1974 European Cup tie in Magdeburg. Being 'politically unreliable' didn't sit well with the local branch of the ruling communist party and to add insult to injury he was also banned from coaching altogether by the East German FA - an exclusion that remained in place until the German FA lifted it in 1996.

After Krügel's departure, Magdeburg initially remained a force as new coach Klaus Urbanczyk followed his predecessor's lead by promoting academy players to the first team and the club continued to play in Europe every season with the likes of Juventus, Videoton and Lens visiting the Ernst Grube Stadion. In the 1977-78 UEFA Cup, Magdeburg became the first club to beat FC Schalke 04 at the Parkstadion in European competition before bowing out at the quarter-final stage against eventual winners PSV Eindhoven. Domestically, more silverware was added to the trophy cabinet with successive FDGB-Pokal final wins over SG Dynamo Dresden in 1978 and against BFC Dynamo a year later as FCM remained the team to beat in East Germany.

During the 1980s however the club's fortunes began to fall away along with attendances as the rise of hooliganism and widespread corruption destabilised the once-great league. Urbanczyk left in 1982 and although another FDGB-Pokal was lifted a year later, the glory days were over as Magdeburg struggled to maintain their position as one of East Germany's top sides. Things didn't improve in the upheaval following reunification either as a number of key players and staff seized the opportunity to head for better-paid gigs in the west. Weakened by these departures Magdeburg missed the cut for entry to the professional leagues as clubs from the former GDR were integrated into the restructured German football pyramid. By 1991 therefore, just 18 years after their European triumph, Magdeburg began life in the amateur leagues of German football - a period in the club's history that became known amongst fans as "Generation Amatuerfußbal ". The club did come close to bringing professional football back to Magdeburg in 1994 - but instead of celebrating promotion from the Regionalliga on what was the 20th anniversary of the Cup Winners Cup triumph, they managed to miss not one, but two penalties in a 1-2 home defeat against VfB Lichterfelde and crashed out of the title race.

Struggles off the pitch began to mirror those on it as years of overspending brought the club to the brink of financial disaster and they were placed in administration in 2002 before being demoted by the German FA to the fourth-tier Oberliga Nordost-Süd division. All but two players left the club forcing Magdeburg to return to the foundations laid by Krügel and Urbanczyk by developing young, local talent for the first team. Years went by and although the club moved into their new MDCC Arena home in 2006 there wasn't much else for Magdeburg's ultra fan group, Block U, to shout about as success continued to elude them. They came close again to finally achieving promotion in 2007, when needing only 3 points from the final two Regionalliga Nord games to secure promotion to Bundesliga.2, they managed to finish third in a two-horse race coming in behind FC St. Pauli and VfL Osnabrück to miss out again. The following season saw the creation of the 3.Liga as the lowest professional division in Germany and as part of the league restructure a 10th place finish or better would have been enough to see FCM 'promoted'. Despite starting the season as many people's favourites to actually win the league, they ended up finishing in a lowly 11th position, tied with Eintracht Braunschweig but a couple of goals short of that elusive 10th place.

Magdeburg had to wait another seven years before finally making the step up to professional football, and in 2018 won promotion to Bundesliga.2 before suffering an immediate relegation after a poor run of form in the Rückunde saw late goals turn wins into draws and draws into defeats. Today, the Blau-Weissen are back in Bundesliga.2 but only after a new Generation Amatuerfußbal  seemed on the cards when they narrowly avoided dropping into the Regionalliga in 2021.

German culture has a word that refers to the feeling of nostalgia for life in the bygone era of the GDR. It's called Ostalgie ("nostalgia for the East"). And, as their club struggle with the transition from communism to capitalism, it's fair to say that Magdeburg fans probably experience Ostalgie more than most as they long for a return to the golden years of the 1970s and that historic night in Rotterdam.