SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: Jan 1, 1925
Club Members: 1,000
Nickname: Haching
Coach: Marc Unterberger
Captain: Markus Schwabl

​Regionalliga Bavaria: 2
Regionalliga Süd: 2
Landespokal Bavaria Winner: 3

Website: www.spvggunterhaching.de

SpVgg Unterhaching can trace their origins back to 1st January 1925 when members of a gymnastics club called 'TSV Hachinger Tal', having grown frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm for the new sport of football, made the radical yet simple decision to break from their parent association and start their own club. With their autonomy secured, life for the kicking gymnasts began in one of the 'wild associations' of early German football where they enjoyed a 13-month unbeaten run before winning promotion to the top-flight A-Klasse Kreisliga in 1931. Dark clouds were gathering across Germany by this time however and the Kreisliga success would be SpVgg's last before the rise to power of the Nazi Party who, ironically, had their roots planted firmly in Unterhaching's own Bavarian backyard. The make-up of SpVgg Unterhaching at the time was typical of other clubs - full of players and supporters from the socialist and communist milieu - but the Nazis deemed several figures within the club to be "politically unreliable" and in an attempt to create a more ideologically palatable club, forced SpVgg to disband in 1934.

After Hitler's 'Thousand Year Reich' was brought to an end in 1945, allied forces dissolved all sports clubs as part of a post-war policy of de-Nazification in occupied Germany and as football and dictatorship began untangling themselves, SpVgg duly reformed - emerging from the 'Stunde null ' (zero hour) in the amateur fourth-tier B-Klasse Kriesliga. Recovering from the effects of war and Nazi rule however proved to be a significant challenge and progress over the next few decades was faltering before a sudden upturn in fortunes during the 1970s saw the club secure four promotions in six seasons to propel them to the third-tier Oberliga Bayern (the highest amateur division at the time) by 1981. Momentum was now building and after play-off defeats in 1983 and 1988 failed to knock them off course, Haching secured promotion to Bundesliga.2 for the first time in 1989.

Pride comes before a fall however, and a 2-1 home victory over Ruhr giants FC Schalke 04 was the only highlight of a despondent campaign that saw them drop straight back down after finishing rock-bottom of the table with just 29 points. Another single season cameo followed in 1992 before returning again in 1995 after lifting the Regionalliga Süd title with a tour-de-force campaign that saw them win 24 of the 34 league matches. The return to professional football was handled better this time and after a four-year spell in the second division, this small club on the outskirts of Munich finally made the big time when a runners-up finish behind DSC Arminia Bielefeld was enough to secure a Bundesliga berth for the 1999-00 season.

Despite being regarded as pre-season relegation favourites, Haching  defied expectations and survived in the division as coach Lorenz-Günther Köstner coaxed slightly above-average performances from a slightly below-average team to finish their debut season in an impressive 10th place. With a team built around the talents of Markus Oberleitner, André Breitenreiter and Altin Rraklli, they even helped write the history books that year when they welcomed Bayer 04 Leverkusen to the Sportpark Unterhaching for the final game of the season. Leverkusen were the Tabelleführer  (league leaders) going into the match and needed only a draw to be crowned German champions for the first time with few giving Unterhaching any chance of causing an upset. However, a Michael Ballack own goal in the first half sent Leverkusen on their way to a 0-2 defeat and opened the door for Germany's trophy-hoovering machine Bayern München to leapfrog them and win the title on goal difference. Haching 's victory took the watching nation by surprise - including the DFB (German FA) whose officials were at the Sportpark with the Bundesliga trophy fully expecting to crown Leverkusen as Germany's new champions come 5:20pm. Bayern were left to lift a copy of the Meisterschale  a few miles away at the Olympiastadion instead. 

For Unterhaching, the win over Leverkusen was the final flourish of a golden period in their history and after crashing into Bundesliga.2 in 2001, they carried straight on into the third tier despite retaining most of the squad who had played in the Bundesliga only a couple of years before. After regaining some of their football composure, the 2002-03 Regionalliga Süd title was won under former Mainz coach Wolfgang Frank whose use of a flat back four and zonal marking helped influence a whole new generation of managers including Joachim Löw, Ralf Rangnick and Jürgen Klopp. Haching  also went deep in the DFB-Pokal that season - reaching the quarter-final for the first time after bundling 1.FSV Mainz, 1.FC Union Berlin and the Bundesliga's Hansa Rostock out of the competition before Bayer 04 Leverkusen were thrown in their path and exacted some revenge for that ruinous defeat three years earlier.

Life back in Bundesliga.2 was a struggle though and, after four years as a perennial relegation candidate, Unterhaching finished the 2006-07 season in the drop zone and were back in the third tier. Another battle with adversity was fought in October 2010 when it was announced that mysterious investor Franco Levis had reneged on a deal to provide €5 million of funding and that SpVgg would be wound up at the end of the month if €2 million wasn't found by the end of the month. A financial restructuring plan was quickly put in place to walk the club back from the cliff edge and two days before the deadline, club President Engelbert Kupka announced that enough money had been raised and that Unterhaching's future was secure ... for now.

Following the upheaval during the first part of the millennium, it's no surprise that the last few years have been spent bouncing between the third and fourth tiers as a number of coaches including Andreas Brehme, Klaus Augenthaler, Heiko Herrlich, Christian Ziege and former Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl have all tried to steady the ship before former German international Sandro Wagner led Haching  back to the 3.Liga in 2023 after overcoming the challenge of Energie Cottbus in a promotion play-off between the winners of the Bayern and Nordost editions of the Regionalliga.

With Wagner having taken up an offer of a coaching job with the German FA (DFB) this summer, the challenge facing new coach Marc Unterberger and the club now isn't just about staying in professional football but ensuring that previous financial struggles aren't repeated by establishing a long-term stability off the pitch and crucially, an identity on it based around homegrown talent - something Unterhaching benefitted from to the tune of €3 million (plus add-ons) with the sale of Karim Adeyemi to Red Bull Salzburg in 2018.