SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: May 27, 1901
Club Members: 2,800
Nickname: OFC
Coach: Christian Neidhart
Captain: Sebastian Zieleniecki

DFB-Pokal: 1
Regionalliga Südwest: 1
Landespokal Hessen Winner: 10

Website: www.ofc.de

Formed in 1901 by a group of footballers who, for one reason or another, had decided to leave other established sides in the Frankfurt area, Kickers Offenbach spent their early years achieving a degree of success in local championships - winning the Kreisliga Südmain in 1920, 1922 and 1923. After playing as a mid-table outfit in the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Kickers joined the Gauliga Südwest, becoming its inaugural champions in 1934 as German football was restructured into 16 regional divisions following the Nazi rise to power. Five consecutive titles followed from 1940-1944 and the club advanced as far as the national championship semi-finals in 1942, although the dominant side of the era - FC Schalke 04 - beat the men from Hessen with a decisive 6-0 victory en route to becoming German champions for a record sixth time. 

The Kickers emerged from the chaos of World War 2 and played in the Oberliga Süd, before joining the second-tier Regionalliga Süd following the restructure of German football in 1963 which saw the creation of the Bundesliga. After a number of strong campaigns, promotion to the top-flight was eventually achieved in 1968 - although the stay was a brief one and the Kickers were relegated after just one season. They made a swift return with promotion in 1970 and in addition to securing Bundesliga football again, also won their first (and so far only) major honour that year when they beat 1.FC Köln 2-1 in the DFB-Pokal final.

Just 12 months later however, the Kickers were relegated back to the Regionalliga after inadvertently finding themselves at the centre of the infamous Bundesligaskandal that rocked German football to its core.

Club president Horst-Gregorio Canellas had begun to suspect that all wasn't what it seemed in Germany's top-flight as the Kickers were unable to pull away from the drop zone - despite enjoying a good run of results  - on account of the impressive form also being shown by fellow relegation threatened clubs. Far from it being a case of an over-active imagination or plain sour grapes, Canellas' suspicions in the end proved to be well-founded and a day after Offenbach's relegation had been confirmed he invited a whole list of fußball luminaries to his house, including the German national manager Helmut Schön, and played an audio tape to the stunned gathering. 

Phone calls, voices, payments, bribes.   

Famous names were at the heart of the deception with 1.FC Köln's international goalkeeper Manfred Manglitz heard offering to "... let some things through ..." in a game against Offenbach's relegation rivals Rot-Weiß Essen if he wasn't paid DM 25,000. The scale of the corruption had led Canellas to ensnaring more conspirators on tape including Nationalelf  defender Bernd Patzke and Hertha Berlin team-mate Tasso Wild who were recorded discussing a DM 140,000 bribe from Canellas himself to throw a game against another of Offenbach's rivals for the drop - Arminia Bielefeld. Patzke also admitted being offered DM 220,000 to throw the same game by someone claiming to represent Bielefeld. Canellas' revelations were just the tip of the iceberg and for weeks the only story in the Deutsche Zeitungen  was about the scandal. The subsequent investigation by the DFB's chief prosecutor, Hans Kindermann, uncovered 18 matches that had directly affected the relegation battle in the 1970-71 season and over DM 1Million had exchanged hands in the process. A total of 52 players, two managers and six club officials were either banned or fined for their involvement including Canellas himself who was banned from any involvement in German football for life. His crime - pretending to offer and accept bribes in order to gather evidence of the fraud, despite the co-operation of the DFB. To rub further salt in the wounds, due to the length of time it took Kindermann and the DFB to investigate the whole sorry affair, Arminia Bielefeld wouldn't be punished until the following season which was too late to save Offenbach from the drop.

As German football cleaned up the mess and set about repairing its damaged reputation, the Kickers made another quick return to the Bundesliga in 1972 - enjoying their best top-flight campaign in the 1972-73 season with a very creditable 7th place finish. They also led the table for a period in the 1974-75 season which included a memorable 6-0 mauling of Bavarian giants FC Bayern München. Unfortunately, they were back in the second-tier by 1976 and although they briefly returned to the Bundesliga for the 1983-84 season, dark clouds were now gathering as things began to unravel on and off the field. By 1985, overextension and mismanagement had brought financial problems and as a consequence the club were docked points and demoted to the third-tier amateur Oberliga Hessen.

After regaining their football composure and winning the national amateur title in 1999, Offenbach returned to professional football and spent much of the early 2000's in Bundesliga.2 and 3.Liga. The club's new Sparda-Bank-Hessen-Stadion was officially opened in 2012 with a friendly against Bayer 04 Leverkusen and from the outside at least, things looked a lot brighter for the Kickers. However, yet more financial pressures meant that they were refused a 3.Liga licence at the end of 2012-13 and relegated to the Regionalliga with neighbours SV Darmstadt 98 taking their place instead. €9 million in debt, the club had been brought to the brink of bankruptcy and faced the prospect of having to start all over again in the lowest level of German football. However, they survived and (following a name change this year) the Stadion am Bieberer Berg now hosts Regionalliga Süd football as Kickers Offenbach look to write the next chapter of their long and eventful history.