TuS Köln rrh (Germany)

Turn-und Sportverein Köln rechtsrheinisch 1874 e.V. to give the club their full title is a sports club from the city of Cologne in Germany. The club was formed in 1874 as Kalk 1874 e. V. prior to moving into their own facility at Merheimer Heide in the Höhenberg district of the city in 1919.

A merger with Turnverein Köln-Höhenberg e. V. took place in 1946 to form the current club that have sections for tennis, fitness and gymnastics, karate, rugby, swimming and athletics as well as football.

The first team has played in the lower district divisions of Köln football for the vast majority of their history, with the 2004-05 season spent in Kreisliga B Staffel 5, one of a multitude of national ninth level leagues from where they were relegated.

The side consolidated the following season in Kreisliga C Staffel 7 before the men’s adult club stopped competing, with the club concentrating on junior and women teams of all ages and abilities.

The women’s first team giving the club the most prominence after taking over the operations of champion side SSG 09 Bergisch Gladbach, prior to passing on their license to Bayer Leverkusen in 2008 and then rebuilding the section.

The men’s first team returned to action in 2008-09 playing in the eleventh level Kreisliga D Staffel 11 and finishing in a modest eighth place before improving to fifth the following season. 

TuS finished as runners-up in 2011-12 to progress to Kreisliga C Staffel 6 which was too steep a jump with the team finishing rock bottom twelve months later as they dropped to Staffel 10 of the lower level before moving to section 4.

The team was moved up to Staffel 4 of Kreisliga C for 2016-17 where they finished in seventh place before being relegated from Staffel 2 the following season.

Christof Busch and Dominik Giffels scored the goals for the team coached by Heinz Koch that finished fifth in the 2018-19 Kreisliga D Staffel 5 season, which was rewarded with a place in Kreisliga C Staffel 3 for 2019-20.

TuS were top of the table when the season came to an early end owing to the COVID-19 pandemic awaiting to see if they would be rewarded with promotion thanks to the goals of Ghivmay Tewelde and Codrin-Andrei Ginga.

The team won the league title in 2019-20 as the forward partnership bore fruit once more as the club reached the ninth tier of German football. A promising fourth place followed in Köln Kreisliga B Staffel 1 before the team was relegated at the end of the 2021-22 season.

Ninth place was achieved by the side taking part in Kreisliga C Staffel 3 in 2022-23 under head coach Sebastian Unger who was then succeeded by Philipp Tritt.

TuS Köln rrh will play in Köln Kreisliga C Staffel 3 in the 2023-24 season.

My visits

Friday 26th October 2012

I was in Germany on the first of four days of football and socialising and was starting my adventures on the banks of the Rhine in the city of Cologne. I had already visited the home of Fortuna Köln and then Viktoria Köln.

It was as I was leaving Viktoria’s Flugafen Stadion that my attention was drawn to a venue across the lane with a track, goalposts on the pitch in the middle and a clubhouse.

The TuS-Anlage Sportpark Höhenberg arena was basically a running track with dug outs on the far side, with a couple of steps of terracing down the home straight, backed with a few park benches, and a cinder surfaced pitch behind.

After taking my photos I headed back over down the lane to Frankfurter Strasse to catch a tram, which I alighted early from and ended up outside Köln Arena and catching a train to the Hauptbanhof from Messe station.

On my return to London I attempted to find out as many details as the official website offered, as well as a Portuguese written entry for Wikipedia! 

Tuesday 10^th August 2021

I was in Germany for a weekend break to enjoy some football after Covid restrictions were lifted slightly. All had gone well, and I’d had fun with friends old and new. I thought everything was complete and ready for my flight home when I became rather alarmed.

I’d returned to my hotel after the Viktoria Koln game in the DFB Pokal and realised that I’d overlooked the requirement of a negative Covid test to board my flight. In short, it was a real carry on, but I managed to get sorted.

The irony being the test was out in the car park at Sportpark Höhenberg where I’d watched the game the night before and where TuS are based. Naturally I went to have a look at the venue while I was there to see if there had been any upgrades since my previous visit. The main pitch was now 3G.