SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Aug 20, 1899
Club Members: 2,461
Nickname: Bornheimer
Coach: Tim Görner
Captain: Ahmed Azaouagh

German Amateur Champions: 1
Landespokal Hessen Winner: 2

Web Site: www.fsv-frankfurt.de

By the late 19th-century, Germany was dominated by the ideals of discipline and order; and fervent patriots like Friedrich Ludwig Jahn organised gymnastic events across the country in order to counter 'the physical decline of humanity' following Prussia's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. Football was initially discredited as an elitist sport that only sought to divide the world into winners and losers but after Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen had been established as 'islands of football' in the north of the country, the game's growing popularity spread south to the Bornheim district of Frankfurt and led to the formation on the 20th August 1899 of the club we know today as 'FSV Frankfurt 1899'.

Until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the German football landscape was very fragmented and FSV joined other clubs from the federal states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in amateur championships organised by the VSFV (South German Football Association). They spent their early years making slow but steady progress - winning the the local Frankfurter Association Bund in 1905 before Amicitia 02 Frankfurt were outpaced to the Nordkreis-Liga title in 1917. More silverware arrived in 1923 with the Kreisliga Nordmain Championship and were only denied a maiden German National Championship title in 1925 by the dominant team of the day, 1.FC Nürnberg who beat the underdogs 1-0 in the final.

Looking to build on their early success, FSV moved into the newly-built 18,000 capacity Bornheimer Hang but despite the promise, progress stalled and the next decade saw the club become mired in the mud of mid-table obscurity in the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen division. Fans had to wait until 1933 to see more silverware added to the trophy cabinet when FSV made full use of home advantage to beat TSV München 1-0 in front of 15,000 fans at Eintracht Frankfurt's Waldstadion to win the South German Championship for the first time.

By this time however, dark clouds were gathering across Germany following the National Socialists' rise to power and football was restructured with the creation of the Gauliga which funnelled clubs into 16 (later to become 18 following the Austrian Anschluß in 1938) top-flight regional divisions. Although they missed out on qualification for the national championship, FSV established themselves as a fairly solid performer in the Gauliga Hessen and later the Gauliga Hessen Nassau, with runners-up finishes in 1939 and 1943 being their high-water mark under the Third Reich. They also narrowly missed out on seeing their name etched onto the Tschammerpokal (the forerunner of today's DFB-Pokal) for the first time in 1938 when they lost the final 1-3 to the highly fancied SK Rapid Wien in Berlin's Olympiastadion.

As the second world war turned against Germany however; player shortages, travel problems and damage to grounds from Allied bombing raids meant that clubs were forced to play their matches closer to home and from 1944 onwards, the club formed part of a combined war team (Kriegsspielgemeinschaft ) called KSG Frankfurt with future Bundesliga heavyweights Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Allies brought Hitler's 'Thousand Year Reich' to an end in 1945 and immediately introduced a policy of de-Nazification across occupied Germany which forced all sports clubs to disband in an attempt to stamp out fascism - which for some reason was thought to be harboured in the minds of sportsmen and women. With their spirit unbroken by mile-upon-mile of bombed-out streets in Frankfurt, FSV duly reformed and emerged from the 'Stunde null' (zero hour) as SG Bornheim and played their first match against Union Niederrad just two months after the end of the war. After reclaiming their pre-war identity of FSV Frankfurt 1899, they joined the newly created Oberliga Süd in 1946 where they bobbed about in the lower reaches of the division before relegation in 1962 signalled the beginning of a slide into obscurity.

Given that their overall impact on German football had, by this point, been fairly minimal, the DFB (German FA) didn't consider them for the inaugural Bundesliga season in 1963, and having missed the cut FSV found themselves added to the second-tier Regionalliga Süd roster instead.

In 1964, film entrepreneur Karl-Heinz Böllinghaus became the club president and announced his arrival with hubris by vowing to lead FSV to the Bundesliga in the short to medium term. Despite heavy investment in the team however, he never came close to delivering on his promise and, after gambling on top-flight football to pay for the signings of established stars like Edgar Otschik, Ewald Schöngen and Helmut Studenroth; Böllinghaus resigned in 1966 with debts of DM165,000 threatening to swallow the club up. Such were the state of FSV's beleaguered finances that, when he took office, Böllinghaus' successor Ferdinand Gindorf even had to consider the possibility of applying to the DFB (German FA) for voluntary demotion to the third-tier amateur Hessenliga in order to save costs.

Given the upheaval of the Böllinghaus era, it was no surprise that struggles on the pitch began mirroring those off it and in 1968 FSV dropped into the amateur Hessenliga for the first time in their history. The appointment of Hans Schwerdhöfer as coach that year brought a brief upturn in fortunes when FSV returned to the Regionalliga for a single-season cameo in 1969-70 before captain Horst Trimhold's winning goal saw FSV beat TSV Marl Hüls 2-1 to secure their first (and so far only) German Amateur Championship crown in 1972. They were champions of the Hessenliga again in 1974 although they ultimately missed out on a place in the newly created Bundesliga.2 on account of the DFB's five-year performance ranking favouring other clubs. Putting the disappointment behind them, FSV dusted themselves down and in 1975, with new coach Ottmar Groh in the dugout, a 2-2 draw against VfR Bürstadt secured the Hessenliga title and promotion back to the second-tier in front of a record 17,000 fans at Bornheimer Hang.

The shock resignation of Groh that summer failed to knock FSV off course and Milovan Beljin's arrival that summer from FC Augsburg as the club's first full-time coach saw the club defy expectations to finish their debut campaign in the mid-table comfort zone. With the players now required attend training everyday in addition to their day jobs, Beljin's hard-working side finished the 1976-77 campaign in an impressive 7th place. Pride comes before a fall however and by 1978 the feelgood factor had come to an end as FSV were dragged into a perennial battle against relegation. Beljin soon found himself the focus of criticism and paid for the price for the drop off in performances with his job. Club legend and captain Horst Trimhold then followed him through the door after calling time on his career; and the years of over-extension and mismanagement that had seen debts rise to DM 900,000 meant that the DFB (German FA) only granted the Bornheimer a playing licence under strict conditions.

The problems didn't stop there either.

With FSV now having to operate within tight financial constraints, Heinz Bewersdorf arrived as a coach with a reputation for having a good eye for talent. Unfortunately, he could also be an abrasive character and it wasn't long before he was falling out with the club hierarchy. Only a late charge saved FSV from relegation in 1979 and with working relationships broken, Bewersdorf resigned in the early weeks of the 1979-80 season and cited
the reason for his departure was the fact that the commute from his home in Bingen to Frankfurt was too far; only for him to take up the reigns a few days later at Bundesliga.2 Süd rivals FV Würzburg - a club 65 miles further away ! Bewersdorf's replacement, Gerhard Happ, left the club in January 1980 and interim coach Dietmar Grutsch lasted barely a month before the DFB (German FA) insisted he stand down because he didn't have a coaching licence. So, just six months after leaving under a cloud and having already been fired from his job in Würzburg, Bewersdorf returned to Bornheimer Hang. With his bridges burned however, he found a less-than-warm welcome waiting for him and he walked out of the job again after a few weeks - leaving Dietmar Grutsch to step into the breach once more !

Despite the managerial merry-go-round, FSV avoided relegation in the 1979-80 campaign but there's only so many times that you can cheat fate if you repeatedly court disaster. The following year saw the creation of the single nationwide Bundesliga.2 (between 1974 - 1980, the German second-tier had been divided into north and south regional divisions) and, as part of the restructure, a 10th-place finish or better in Bundesliga.2 Süd would have been enough to see FSV 'promoted'. With the club once again on the brink of bankruptcy, a disappointing campaign saw FSV limp to a 15th-place finish and drop into the (then) third-tier Oberliga Hessen where apart from a brief return to Bundesliga.2 for the 1981-82 season, they'd be marooned for the next decade.

Relegation from Bundesliga.2 in 1995 after another single-season stay triggered a yo-yo period that saw the club then bounce between the third and fourth tiers for the next few seasons. Financial pressures had continued to build and with FSV once again on the brink of bankruptcy, a financial restructuring plan headed up by new club president Bernd Reisig was put in place to walk the club back from the cliff edge. 

Securing the club's financial future (for the time being at least) also seemed to liberate them on the pitch and the appointment of former FSV player Tomas Oral as coach ahead of the 2006-07 season saw FSV become Oberliga Hessen champions and secure a berth in the Regionalliga Süd. The Bornheimer then carried the momentum into the following season and with Oral coaxing slightly above-average performances from a slightly-below average team, FSV secured a return to Bundesliga.2 after a 13-year absence. After several seasons of middle-order ranking (save for a club record fourth-place finish in 2012-13) however, chaos and disorder characterised another tumble down the leagues and the PSD Bank Arena today plays host to fourth-tier Regionalliga Südwest football.