Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth e. V. is a professional football club from the northern Bavarian city of Fürth, which neighbours the larger city of Nürnberg. The origins of the club come from the formation of the football section of Turnverein 1860 Fürth on September 23rd 1903.
This was primarily a gymnastics club, with the footballers breaking away in November 1906 as SpVgg Fürth after citing a lack of support from their parent club. The team participated in the regional Ostkreisliga, becoming divisional champions in 1912,1913 and 1914.
A fierce local rivalry had already been forged with neighbours 1. FC Nürnberg by the time Fürth reached the south German Süddeutsche in a bid to qualify for the national championships. In 1910, the club opened its own home; originally titled Sportplatz am Ronhofer Weg gegenüber dem Zentral-Friedhof and later to become Sportpark Ronhof.
By 1914, the club had become the largest in the country. Fürth went on through the rounds to become German champions in 1914 after VfB Leipzig were defeated 3-2 after extra time in the final at Victoria 96-Platz in Magdeburg in front of 6,000 fans. Karl Franz netted a couple, with Fritz Weicz scoring the other under English coach William Townley.
The club continued to be a prominent force after World War I, finishing as national runners-up after losing the 1920 final 2-0 to 1. FC Nürnberg in Frankfurt. A second Süddeutsche Meisterschaft followed in 1923, before further glory arrived at Ronhof.
Fürth were crowned as German champions for a second time in 1926 as 40,000 spectators flocked to the Waldstadion in Frankfurt to see Hertha BSC beaten 4-1 thanks to an own goal and efforts from Lony Seiderer, Karl Auer, and Willy Ascherl.
Hertha were overcome once again, this time 3-2 at Club-Stadion im Zabo in Nuremberg. A crowd of 50,000 saw Heinrich Auer, Georg Frank and Karl Rupprecht score for Fürth. The club was boosted on August 27th 1929, as another local club, FC Schneidig Fürth, joined forces at Ronhof with ‘Kleeblätter’, meaning Shamrocks.
Under the rule of the Third Reich, football in Germany was organised into sixteen top-flight Gauligen. Fürth were placed in the Gauliga Bayern without too much success, aside from a divisional title in 1935.
Following World War II, German football was divided into five top-flight Oberligen. Fürth were relegated from Oberliga Süd to Landesliga Bayern in 1947-48. The club recovered and won promotion at the first attempt before becoming Oberliga Süd champions in 1949-50. VfB Stuttgart ended any dreams of a fourth German title in the semi-finals of the national championships.
Two SpVgg players, Karl Mai and Herbert Erhardt, became World Cup winners in 1954 as Germany lifted the trophy against Hungary. Fürth remained in the top tier until the formation of the national Bundesliga in 1963. The club didn’t qualify as one of the sixteen members.
The club was placed in Regionalliga Süd, finishing in third position in 1966-67. The second tier of the Bundesliga was formed in 1974, with Fürth becoming a founder member in the Süd division. In 1978-79, the team finished in fourth place, but generally ended in a mid-table position.
The second tier became just one division from 1981-82, with SpVgg being relegated to the Bayernliga at the end of the 1982-83 campaign, despite the goals of Wolfgang Metzler. A fourth-place finish came in 1985-86 thanks to the goals of Manfred Kastl and Siegfried Susser. However, the team was relegated to Landesliga Bayern-Mitte in 1986-87 to the fourth level of German football.
The Bayern-Mitte title was won in 1990-91, going on to a third-place ending in the Bayernliga the following season. A runners-up berth in 1992-93 led to a play-off round, from which Fürth failed to progress toward promotion. However, a place in the reorganised third-tier Regionalliga Süd was secured for the 1993-94 season.
Financial troubles blighted the club at the time, forcing SpVgg to sell Sportpark Ronhof to a local businessman and pay rent to remain. Club President Edgar Burkhart arranged a deal with the President of the successful local club TSV Vestenbergsgreuth for the clubs to merge in the summer of 1996 to form SpVgg Greuther Fürth.
TSV Vestenbergsgreuth, which had been formed in 1974, went out in style, defeating German champions Bayern München 1-0 in the DFB Pokal of 1994-95 at the Frankenstadion in Nürnberg in Bayern’s first competitive game under manager Giovanni Trapattoni.
TSV Vestenbergsgreuth didn’t compete in senior football after the merger with Fürth until the 2006-07 season, when they began again in the tenth-tier A-Klasse Erlangen/Pegnitzgrund-Gruppe 3 from their Am Schwalbenberg home.
Both clubs were competing in Regionalliga Süd at the time of the merger, with the squad being immediately strengthened. The team finished runners-up to 1. FC Nürnberg, winning promotion to 2. Bundesliga, with the goals of Frank Türr giving the fans plenty to cheer in 1996-97.
The return to the second tier heralded a couple of finishes around midway in the table, with Arie van Lent finishing as top scorer in 1998-99. The team continued to gradually progress, coming in fifth in 2001-02 with Rachid Azzouzi leading the scoring charts.
Sportpark Ronhof had been renamed the Playmobil Arena in a sponsorship deal and had received its first redevelopment for several decades, with new stands and the inauguration of the first set of floodlights. Another local club, Tuspo Fürth, joined forces with SpVgg Greuther Fürth in July 2003.
Strikers Petr Ruman and Marcus Feinbier did the business on the pitch. Three repeated fifth-place finishes were achieved as Christian Eigler and Christian Timm weighed in with the goals. Stefan Reisinger was the top scorer in the 2007-08 season as Fürth finished sixth. Sami Allagui was the Kleeblätter hero for the next couple of seasons as the team continued to plug away.
A fourth-place finish in 2010-11 was a taster of greater things to come. Greuther Fürth won promotion to the top flight in 2011-12 as they were crowned as 2. Bundesliga champions as Olivier Occéan and Christopher Nöthe proved too much for opposing defenders under head coach Mike Büskens.
A new South Stand was built to meet the demands of top-flight football. Unfortunately, the spell would only last one season. Büskens was replaced by Frank Kramer, but the team finished in bottom place, completing just four victories.
This led to a play-off with Hamburger SV, who triumphed on aggregate by virtue of an away goal in the second leg at the re-sponsored Trolli Arena as Kosovan striker Ilir Azemi led the way. Büskens was reappointed as chief trainer to take over from Kramer in February 2015 as Greuther dropped down the table at Ronhof’s latest guise, Stadion am Laubenweg.
It became Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer in the summer of 2015. The goals of Sebastian Freis took SpVgg to ninth place in 2015-16 before Stefan Ruthenbeck took over team affairs. Serdar Dursun netted ten times the following season as the side ended in ninth position.
Janos Radoki had succeeded Ruthenbeck in November 2016, lasting until the following August before being replaced by Damir Burić, whose side finished disappointingly just above the relegation zone. Stefan Leitl
took charge of the 2018-19 campaign with Marco Caligiuri captaining the team
that once again finished in a disappointing position.
Promotion was won in 2020-21 as Branimar Hrgota led the scoring. However, once more, the top-flight spell was to last just one season, with Alexander Zorniger taking over as trainer. Midtable finished ensued in 2. Bundesliga, with Thomas Kleine appointed as team boss for the 2024-25 campaign.
SpVgg Greuther Fürth will play in the 2. Bundesliga in the 2025-26 season.
My visit
SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0 Hamburger SV 0 (Thursday 27th September 2018) 2. Bundesliga (att: 14,965)
I’d taken advantage of a week off work by enjoying a bit of cricket before heading to Germany for three days. The previous evening, I’d been to see Fortuna Düsseldorf go down 2-1 at home to Bayer Leverkusen. It had been an early start by train south, but the stunning views along the Rhine Valley more than compensated.
It took me back to the towns of my first foreign adventure back in October 1989. It looked just as beautiful as the sun came up. Unfortunately, it seems that the driver was also enjoying the vista as we arrived late into Mainz, meaning that I’d missed my connection. I took an S-Bahn on the advice of the Bahn App on my phone, changing at Frankfurt Airport.
That would have been Plan B if I’d realised just how far it was between the suburban and intercity platforms. It meant a run, OK jog, over several hundred metres. I caught the Munich-bound service in the nick of time, getting me to Nuremberg around 1pm. By now I was hungry, so I went for some comfort food in the form of goulash soup and an apple strudel at the station.
The forecourt had some unsavoury characters gathered as I attempted to make some plans. I chose to check into my hotel and have a siesta. The Hotel Continental was not anywhere near the list of my best hotels visited, but it did the job. I woke after a couple of hours and caught a tram to Doku-Zentrum to take in some beauty as well as dark history.
The Kongresshalle looked stunning on a sunny, warm afternoon, as did the view over Grosser Dutzendteich lake. I walked along the impressive Große Straße, which was to be the main thoroughfare around Hitler’s little empire of showgrounds in the city. Families walked, jogged and enjoyed the facilities.
It is fantastic that somewhere so evil has been adapted and used for recreational purposes, with many of the half-built marching grounds and arenas bulldozed after the War. I was listening to a brilliant last session of the County Cricket season live from The Oval as Essex just got over the line to end the unbeaten record of champions Surrey. I was happy in several ways with my day!
The walk took me past Max-Morlock-Stadion, thankfully renamed to honour a city legend and to show that fan power can work. Opposite was Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, home to concerts, basketball and the Nürnberg Ice Tigers ice hockey side. Finally, I walked to the platform in Zeppelinfeld, where Hitler preached to the naïve. Lest we never forget.
It was then time to head to Frankenstadion station for a train back to town. A large KFC sorted me out, and it was time soon to head to Fürth. The match wasn’t kicking off until 8.30pm for TV coverage. This was such a game that fans across the country were protesting against at all midweek games for the first twenty minutes. They were sick of increased ticket prices, commercialisation by the German DFB.
The train took around fifteen minutes, leaving me plenty of time to have a look around. My pal Carl Ellis had been to a game and said that courtesy buses took fans to the stadium. He thought it was from the main station. There was some outside, but they were marked for visiting fans. I most certainly didn’t want to be part of any police escort.
Instead, I decided to look for a suitable bar on one of my Apps. I was pointed in the direction of a bar in a nearby park, but it was closed. Gustav-Schickedanz-Straße from the station and the car park at the end, along with Königstraße, was packed with stalls and rides getting ready for what I later discovered to be Michaelis-Kirchweih.
This was the oldest fair in Bavaria, going back nine hundred years. The vendors and stall holders were in preparation for its opening a couple of days later. It appeared that one or two may be trying their luck later in the evening. Königstraße took me to the main Rathaus area of what was a pretty city.
The stalls finished with the wide pavement further along, looking to have fans sitting outside bars, enjoying pre-match beers. Some fans stood opposite waiting for the buses to the stadium. This was ideal. I entered Zum Schlawiener, a busy SpVgg fan pub where I enjoyed large-sized bottles of locally brewed Gruner Vollbier and Zirndorfer from a nearby town.
Both were excellent, and even better at just €2.20 a bottle! I decided to head towards the stadium just in case anything went wrong on one of the free buses, which rather conveniently dropped us right outside Cafe-Bar RUINE, which, although full of fans, also had plentiful quick-serving staff. It’d have been rude to blank such an invitation!
The bar was on Erlander Straße, from where it was just a short walk down an alley to Laubenweg, with the stadium on the other side of the road. Various souvenir, food and beer stands were along the pavement. Despite it being well before kick-off time, I decided to enter the stadium to have a look and hopefully grab a decent place on the Nordkurve.
I’d paid €17 plus a rather steep €10 surcharge for overseas posting, but I wanted to be guaranteed entry for this big game as both sides were around the promotion places. After a grumpy, steadfast refusal, a second steward was most accommodating in allowing me inside the East Stand to take photos of the area I was going to stand in.
The arena was fan-friendly out the back with a beer garden and easy access, though it could have done with some extra toilets. Beer was priced at €3.90, which was a hike, but still reasonable. Under the terracing, there was a combination of fan stalls and refreshment kiosks. Free programmes and flyers about the protests were handed out.
The stadium showed signs of being put together bit by bit. My stand was a separate covered terrace. The far end Südkurve was higher, and a combination of standing and family seating went around the east corner. The East Stand was impressive but didn’t look fully complete as it stopped near the far end eighteen yard box and blocked some views in the adjoining terrace.
It had been badly planned. The North Stand was a separate seated structure. Experience told me to try and get a place near the end of a terrace as it wouldn’t be so crowded. It gave me a view of the whole pitch and a decent elevation. The fans around me were friendly, and I had a ledge for my jacket and scarf on a pleasant evening.
The Fürth players went through some excellent warm-ups and practice moves, and I enjoyed the work of the stadium DJ. Perhaps this was now the norm, but I was usually in a stadium bar or nearby pub when teams went through the drills.
As ever, there was no hint of any bother. The first twenty minutes of the game were a cagey affair, played out to polite applause before the fans ended their protest and turned up the volume. Fürth’s Maximilian Wittek fired in a free kick that came back off the bar with keeper Julian Pollersbeck well beaten in the second minute. The rest of the period was scrappy.
The hosts were the better side in those early stages. Hamburg were in their first season of second-tier football after several escapes from relegation and were not finding it easy, having been thumped 5-0 at home to Jahn Regensburg in their previous game.
Hamburg were kicking towards their support after the break. They had the better of the play with Khaled Narey and Vasilije Janjicic having efforts on goal. The hosts were pushed further back and were fortunate when substitute Jann-Fiete Arp missed from close range. Fürth pressed a little more in the closing stages.
The referee didn’t make himself popular with the locals, although I thought he was more than generous on occasions by not pulling up Maximilian Sauer for what looked suspiciously like several foul throws. Neither side could break the deadlock, but I still enjoyed myself.
I'd grabbed another beer at the interval to enjoy on the terraces. Just how has Germany got it right concerning fan culture? Perhaps it’s because the fans demand it? Within ten minutes, I was back on one of the buses from the same place and deposited at Rathaus to take the U-Bahn back to Lorenzkirche in the heart of Nuremberg.
It was around 11.30pm, but still time for a couple of nightcaps. The friendly waiter at Barfüßer Brewery sorted me out with a large dunkel as I took in the old disused pub signs that had been brought over from the UK. It’s always sad when a pub closes, but it's good when its heritage is remembered.
Finally, I crossed the road to Finnegan's Harp Irish Pub for a pint of Warsteiner to round off a brilliant long day. The hotel décor meant very little to me as I was soon sound asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment