SF Eintracht Freiburg (Germany)

Sportfreunde Eintracht Freiburg, to give the club its full name, is a sports club from Freiburg im Breisgau in the south of Germany, close to the French border. The football club was formed on the 11th April 1911 as Hertha Freiburg, playing games at Fedderstraße. The club moved its base to Exerzierplatz between 1918 and 1937 as mergers took place.

A further move to Grenzstraße was made before the club was dissolved in 1946 to be reformed as FC Sportfreunde Betzenhausen following the merger of the old club with Alemannia Zähringen. In 1950, the club became known as FC Sportfreunde 1911 Freiburg during a spell in residence at Waldkircher Straße.and then Meßplatz.

In 1951, a move was made to Weststadion on Grenzstraße. The club rose to the Amateurliga Südbaden in the 1960s. In 1976, a further merger took place, this time with SV Eintracht DJK Freiburg to become FC Sportfreunde DJK Freiburg. In 1979, the team qualified for the DFB-Pokal German Cup.

During the 1970’s the club added different sporting departments to its portfolio. In 1972, gymnastics began, with skiing and hiking being added in 1977. Handball arrived a year later, followed by volleyball in 1980 and finally tennis in 1981.

In 1987, the football team returned to the lower ranks of the district game, before the club had yet another merger on the 1st July 2004 as FC Sportfreunde DJK joined with SV Eintracht Freiburg to become Sportfreunde Eintracht Freiburg. Eintracht finished the 2004-05 campaign in tenth place in Kreisliga A Staffel 2, from where they improved to fifth place in 2007-08. 

Moved across to Staffel 3 for 2008-09, the team was crowned as champions to go up to Bezirksliga Freiburg. However, Eintracht went back down at the end of the 2010-11 season, but the team regrouped to win Staffel 2 of the Kreisliga at the first attempt. 

This time, the club consolidated its Bezirksliga position for a couple of seasons before dropping back down in 2014-15. Worse was to follow as Eintracht suffered a second successive demotion before winning the Kreisliga B Staffel 2 title in 2016-17. 

A sixth-place back in the higher Kreisliga grade followed in 2017-18 as Kevin Klein, Kevin Kuhn, and Peter Gerspach supplied the goals for Wolf Haller’s team. Jonas Gorges banged in the goals as Eintracht improved to fourth in 2018-19 before the team led the table when the Coronavirus halted the 2019-20 season.

The side was promoted to Bezirksliga Freiburg, where a couple of mid-table finishes were put together. The team went back down at the end of the 2022-23 campaign, with Philipp Maier being put in charge of the team, which finished eighth in the ninth-tier Kreisliga A Staffel I Freiburg before being moved to Staffel II.

Timo Laske led the side to fifth place in 2024-25 as Maier concentrated on scoring goals rather than training the team. 

SF Eintracht Freiburg will play in the Kreisliga A Staffel II Freiburg in the 2025-26 season.

My visit

Saturday 15th August 2015

It was a beautiful Saturday morning as I arrived in Freiburg from my overnight stay in Karlsruhe. I was visiting the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany on a weekend football adventure, and my lunchtime match was SC Freiburg against VfL Bochum.

As I had the best part of two hours to kill, it would have been negligent of me not to have a look at the local football scene. As with all cities in the fatherland, the transport system connected well and was comprehensive. Within a few minutes of putting my bag in a station locker, I was on board the U1 tram service and soon alighting at the Runzmattenweg stop.

My earlier research was bang on, and the brief notes I’d jotted down soon had me on Berliner Allee before turning right at Lehenerstraße and Grenzstraße for the Weststadion. The gates were locked as the groundman cut the turf, but the metal wire perimeter fences on all sides gave me good views and photo opportunities.

All the facilities were on the Grenzstraße side. A smart elevated stand straddled the halfway line with further buildings for players and the club continuing up the touchline, including the bar. The far side had a few steps of open terracing. The rest of the ground was surrounded by open flat standing, with a small practice pitch behind the south goal.

I made my way back via Lehenerstraße and Runzmattenweg to the tram stop. Luck was on my side as the U13 service was waiting as I arrived, so I could continue to my next venue.