SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Apr 12, 1896
Club Members: 21,000
Nickname: Die Roten
Coach: Stefan Leitl
Captain: Ron Robert Zieler

German Champions / Bundesliga: 2
DFB-Pokal: 1
Bundesliga.2 Champions: 3
Landespokal Niedersachsen Winner: 2

Website: www.hannover96.de

Hailing from the state capital of Lower Saxony, Hannover 96 are one of the north's football heavyweights and were formed on 12th April 1896 as Hannoverscher Fußball Club 1896 after Ferdinand Wilhelm Fricke, founder of the city's oldest rugby club (Deutscher FV 1878 Hannover), suggested forming a football club as 'The English Disease' began gaining popularity in Germany. In 1913, the club then joined forces with Ballverein 1898 Hannovera (who themselves were a 1905 amalgam of Fußballverein Hannovera, 1898 Hannover, and Hannoverscher BV) to form Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896 (HSV).

It didn't take long for the newcomers to find their feet and they quickly established themselves as one of the region's top clubs during the inter-war years, winning the Südkreisliga in 1921, 1927, 1928 and 1930 and making regular appearances in the German Championship; although Eintracht Braunschweig continued to hold the upper hand in the battle for Lower Saxony supremacy, adding to a rivalry that began between the quarrelsome House of Hannover and Duchy of Braunschweig towards the end of the 19th Century. In 1933, Hannover were entered into the top-flight Gauliga Niedersachsen, one of the 16 new first division leagues formed in the re-organisation of German football under the Third Reich, becoming champions four times and lifting their maiden national title in 1938 after a 4-3 victory in the final over strong favourites FC Schalke 04 in one of the biggest upsets in German football history.

After the upheaval of World War 2, during which HSV had moved to the Gauliga Braunschweig Südhannover, the allied forces dissolved all sports clubs as part of a post-war policy of de-Nazification in occupied Germany and after combining with local side Arminia Hannover to take on a British military team in September 1945, HSV officially reformed and emerged from the 'Stunde null ' (zero hour) to compete in the first-division Oberliga Nord.

Early in the 1948–49 season, the club won an appeal against their relegation the previous season on account of the fact that Holstein Kiel, who had narrowly survived at their expense, had fielded an illegal player. The club were awarded their place back in the top flight for the next season and as a result immediately ended their league campaign (after just three matches) and played out the remainder of the season with friendlies. The club's next appearance in the German national final came in 1954 when they became champions of Germany for a second time after dishing out a 5-1 thumping to a 1.FC Kaiserslautern side which provided five of the national team that beat Ferenc Puskas' 'Magnificent Magyars' in the World Cup final that summer - a match still referred to in Germany as "Das Wunder von Bern" (The Miracle of Bern).

In 1963, the German FA (DFB) were busy deciding which sixteen teams would form the inaugural Bundesliga which would bring all the regional Oberligen together under one nationwide professional league. Three clubs from the Oberliga Nord would be chosen and after Hamburger SV and SV Werder Bremen were given their entries, having satisfied all the qualifying criteria HSV officials were confident of securing the final berth. However, on 6th May 1963, the DFB announced that none other than Eintracht Braunschweig would be given the nod instead despite the fact that HSV had the bigger stadium, the higher average attendances, met all the financial prerequisites and ranked higher than Braunschweig in the DFB's twelve-year performance ranking. Hannover were incensed and on the grounds that the only criteria seemingly taken into account was Braunschweig's third-place finish in the recently completed 1962-63 season (HSV came ninth) launched an ultimately unsuccessful appeal against the decision to award their rivals a Bundesliga licence.

It wasn't long before HSV had the opportunity lock horns with their Lower Saxony foes again though as, fired by the perceived injustice, promotion from second-tier Regionalliga Nord was secured in 1964 and the club enjoyed an unbroken 10 year spell in the top-flight as an unspectacular mid-table performer. A decade in the Bundesliga comfort zone however meant that HSV were unable to cope with the pressures those towards the bottom of the table had learned to deal with and when performances eventually began to tail off, they finished the 1973-74 season rock bottom and dropped into Bundesliga.2 Nord. The Hanoverians quickly regrouped and by the time the 1975-76 season kicked-off, they were trading punches amongst Germany's elite again. Once again though, the stay was a brief one and dark clouds began gathering over the Neidersachsenstadion as relegation from the Bundesliga brought considerable financial pressure with players signed on top-flight wages becoming a burden to a club operating on a second-tier income.

Save for a couple of brief spells in the Bundesliga in the late 1980s, HSV spent the next couple of decades in the second tier but despite continuing money problems, the club's high-water mark was reached in 1992 when they sensationally beat Borussia Mönchengladbach on penalties to win their first DFB-Pokal. Hero of the day for Hannover was their goalkeeper Jörg 'Colt' Sievers who saved two penalties in the shoot-out as his side become the only club from outside the Bundesliga to lift the trophy.

Pride comes before a fall however and the club's first taste of European football the following season ended almost as soon as it began with defeat in the first-round of the European Cup Winners Cup to fellow Germans SV Werder Bremen, before going into a tailspin that saw them ignominiously mark their centenary year in 1996 with relegation to the third-tier amateur Regionalliga Nord. Things began to change in 1997 when high-tech hearing aid entrepreneur Martin Kind became club president and started using his considerable financial clout and strict management style to turn the club's fortunes around with the avowed aim to position '96' among the top six clubs in Germany. His spending brought immediate results with promotion to Bundesliga.2 in 1998, followed by a return to the Bundesliga for the first time since German reunification under Ralf Rangnick in 2002. After Rangnick's departure in 2004, a managerial quick revolving door 'policy' saw Ewald Lienen, Peter Neururer and Michael Schjønberg all hired and fired although Hannover were still able to establish themselves as a fixture in the top-flight with a number of respectable mid-table finishes. Mid-table finishes however were no longer enough for Kind who began arguing for a relaxation of the Bundesliga's stringent ownership rules with the view of bringing in additional investors to help finance his ambitions for the club.

With the appointment of Jörg Schmadtke as technical director and new signings Karim Haggui, Constant Djakpa and Valdet Rama, the 2009-10 season began with renewed optimism but when coach Dieter Hecking lost two of the first three matches, Kind's impatience got the better of him. Hecking was replaced with youth team coach Andreas Bergmann who steadied the ship with a few good results before tragedy struck when goalkeeper Robert Enke, who was expected to be part of Germany's World Cup squad in South Africa at the end of the season, committed suicide on 10th November 2009.
Fans gathered at the AWD Arena to lay flowers and light candles in memory of their captain and 40,000 filled the stadium for his memorial service. "Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel" ("After the game is before the game") was former national manager Sepp Herberger's famous quote which epitomised post-war Germany's determination to 'get on with it' and its reluctance to dwell on the past; but it quickly became apparent that Enke's teammates were unable to cope with the unprecedented situation and Bergmann, in his first managerial role at the highest level, was replaced by former Schalke 04 manager Mirko Slomka shortly after the winter break.

HSV gradually recovered from the tragic loss of Enke and quickfire Europa League campaigns in 2011-12 (which ended at the hands of eventual winners Atlético Madrid at the quarter-final stage) and 2012-13 suggested the club was heading in the right direction again. The feelgood factor ended abruptly in 2017 however following a despondent season that saw HSV return to Bundesliga.2 after finishing the season rock-bottom with only 25 points. Having managed to keep the core of the first-team together, there was optimism at the beginning of the 2016-17 campaign that the club could make a push for an immediate return to the Bundesliga. Although they made a bright start to the season, a drop-off in form saw coach Daniel Stendel replaced by Andre Breitenreiter and the new man got the side back on track as the 96ers  won seven of the final 11 games to secure second place behind VfB Stuttgart and bounce back to the top flight at the first attempt. Hannover's two year stay in the top-flight however came to an end in 2019 and the HDI Arena currently plays host to Bundesliga.2 football.