FSV Zwickau

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FSV Zwickau

Full name

Fußball-Sport-Verein Zwickau e.V.

Nickname(s)

Die Schwäne (The Swans)

Founded

1912

Ground

Westsachsenstadion

Capacity

14,000

League

Landesliga Sachsen (VI)

2004-05

Oberliga Nordost-Sud (IV), 14th





Home colours





Away colours

FSV Zwickau is a German football club located in Zwickau, Saxony. The roots of the club go back to 1912 and the founding of SC Planitz in a southern city district of that name.

1 History
- 1.1 East Germany's first champions
- 1.2 German re-unification
2 Honours
3 Team trivia
4 Notable players
5 Stadium
6 External links

[edit] History

Under the Third Reich German football was reorganized into sixteen top-flight divisions known as Gauligen. Planitz played in the Gauliga Sachsen where they struggled early on, but improved steadily until in the early 40s they regularly duelled rivals Dresdner SC for the division title, taking the prize in 1942. In the aftermath of World War II most German organizations, including sports and football clubs, were dissolved by the Allied authorities. The club was re-established in 1945 as SG Planitz.

Like many other teams in Soviet-occupied East Germany, they would undergo a number of name changes associating the club with the "socialist work force" in various industries as a commonly used propaganda device. They were first re-named ZSG Horch Zwickau in 1949 and the following year were known in quick succession as BSG Horch Zwickau and then BSG Motor Zwickau. In 1968 the club merged with Aktivist Karl Marx Zwickau to become BSG Sachsenring Zwickau. They finally took on their current name in 1990.

[edit] East Germany's first champions

In 1948, SG Planitz won a championship organized in the eastern occupation zone by the Freie Deutsche Jugend – the youth wing of the communist party – by defeating SG Freiimfelde Halle 1:0 after a convincing march through the earlier playoff rounds. Plans to have the winner take part in playoffs toward a national final against the champions of the various western occupation zones, in what would become West Germany, fell victim to early Cold War tensions when the Soviets denied Zwickau permission to travel to Stuttgart to take on eventual champions 1.FC Nürnberg in a scheduled quarter-final match. The following year the club had a poor season and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Now known as Horch Zwickau, the team began play in the 1949-50 season in East Germany's new top-flight circuit, the DDR-Oberliga. They became that league's first champions with a disputed victory over Dresden Friedrichstadt on the last day of the season.

The unfortunate Dresdners had run afoul of communist authorities which regarded the club as being too bourgeoisie. Zwickau played a viciously physical game and, abetted by the referee who refused the homeside substitutions and eventually reduced Friedrichstadt to an 8-man squad, "won" the match 5:1. Unhappy Dresden Friedrichstadt fans invaded the field several times, and at game's end, badly beat a Zwickau player. Mounted police were called in to restore order. Within weeks the Dresden side was dismantled and the players scattered to other teams: most eventually fled to the west, many to play for Hertha BSC Berlin. What occurred in this match foreshadowed what would become commonplace in East German football as highly placed politicians or bureaucrats manipulated clubs and matches for various purposes.

Zwickau remained competitive through the early 50s but was unable to claim another national championship as in the following decades they settled into the role of a mid- or lower-table side. They enjoyed a measure of success in play for the FDGB-Pokal, or East German Cup. After a losing cup final appearance in 1954 they enjoyed victories in 1963, 1967, and 1975. Internationally, the club had a good European Cup run in 1975, advancing to the semi-finals with wins over Panathinaikos Athens, AC Florenz, and Celtic Glasgow before going out against eventual cup winner RSC Anderlecht. By the early 80s they had descended to play in the second tier DDR-Liga, making just intermittent re-appearances in the DDR-Oberliga.

[edit] German re-unification

After German re-unification in 1990 the club found itself in the Oberliga Nordost-Süd (III) and in 1994 won promotion to the 2.Bundesliga where they would play four seasons. The team then descended through the third division to play in the fourth tier Oberliga Nordost-Süd. Financial problems in 2005 saw Zwickau sent down to the Landesliga Sachsen (V), but a successful campaign in 2005-06 earned them promotion yet again to the Oberliga.

[edit] Honours

Eastern Zone champions: 1948
East German Champions: 1950
East German Cup winners: 1963, 1967, 1975

[edit] Team trivia

FSV was briefly known as BSG Horch Zwickau honoring local the autoworks founded by August Horch. The company went on to become Audi – that name being a Latinized version of Horch.
The club was renamed BSG Sachsenring Zwickau in 1968 after the VEB Sachsenring autoworks in the city, where the infamous Trabant was built. The factory was named after the Sachsenring race track.
The team logo shows three swans taken from the crest of the city of Zwickau. The swans appeared in the city crest based on the belief that the name of the city was derived from the Latin word "Cygnea", or swan. The city has a long tradition of maintaining a swan pond in a municipal park.

[edit] Notable players

Jürgen Croy, one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, spent 17 seasons at Zwickau until retiring in 1981, and then went on to coach the club from 1984 to 1988
Heinz Satrapa won the DDR-Oberliga scoring title as part of the 1950 championship side before going on to enjoy a long career as a player and coach with various clubs
Dwayne De Rosario is now a very famous and successful player in the Major League Soccer for Houston Dynamo.

[edit] Stadium

FSV Zwickau plays in the Westsachsenstadion built in 1942 in Zwickau's Schedewitz quarter. Originally constructed to hold more than 25,000 spectators, it has a capacity of 14,200 (~11,000 seats) today. The city is currently (January 2006) looking for a buyer to take over the facility.