1. FC Köln
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| 1. FC Köln | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | 1. FC Köln | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Die Geißböcke (The Billy Goats) |
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| Founded | 1948 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne |
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| Capacity | 50,374 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Wolfgang Overath | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Christoph Daum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | 2. Bundesliga | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005-06 | Bundesliga, 17th (relegated) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1. FC Köln is a German football club in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia formed in 1948 out of the merger of Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07.
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[edit] History
[edit] Predecessor sides
Kölner BC was formed by a group of young men unhappy as part of the local gymnastics club and far more interested in football. They were a competitive side in the Westdeutscher league in the years before World War I, taking the division title in 1912 and advancing to the preliminary rounds of the national finals. Their next best result was a losing appearance in the 1920 league final, where they dropped a 1:3 decision to Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Sülz also played in the Westdeutscher league and managed to capture a title there in 1928, but they too went out in the early rounds of the national finals in their turn on that stage. They went on to play as a top flight club in the Gauliga Mittelrhein, one of sixteen premier level divisions established in 1933 in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. The side earned generally good results through the 30's – including a divisional championship in 1939 – but then faltered in the early 40's. After the 1941 season the Gauliga Mittlerhein was split into two new divisions: the Gauliga Köln-Aachen and the Gauliga Moselland, which was made up largely of clubs from occupied Luxembourg. Sülz struggled until they were united with KSG VfL 99 Köln for the 1943-44 season to form a combined wartime side which promptly won the Gauliga Köln-Aachen title by a single point in a close race against SG Düren 99. The club did not play the next campaign as war overtook the region.
[edit] A successful new club
After the union of these two predecessor sides, 1. FC Köln began play in the tough Oberliga West in the 1949-50 season and by 1954 had won their first divisional championship. That same year they lost a 1:0 German Cup final to VfB Stuttgart. Die Geißböcke won their second divisional championship in 1960 and this time parlayed that title into an appearance in the national final against Hamburg, where they went down to a 2:3 defeat. They went on to finish first in the Oberliga West in each of the next three seasons and again played their way to the national final in 1962 and 1963. They won the '62 match 4:0 over Nuremberg, but dropped the following year's contest 1:3 to Borussia Dortmund. By virtue of their appearance in the 1963 final they were selected as one of the original sixteen teams to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league. Köln continued their winning ways by becoming the first ever Bundesliga champion in the league's inaugural 1963-64 season.
In the early years of the Bundesliga, 1. FC Köln (simply called 'FC' by its fans) was the most successful club in West Germany in terms of total points won. However, beginning in the early 1990s the club's performance fell off and in 1998 they were relegated for the first time. In recent years, the side has been an "elevator club", moving between the first and second divisions. They returned to the Bundesliga at the end of the 2004-05 season as 2.Bundesliga champions after having been relegated the season before. There was little optimism about their return to the top flight as they were picked by German football magazine Kicker as one of the clubs most likely to be sent down.
This prediction came true when Köln lost to Hamburger SV 0:1 in the third to last match of the season. The club finished the season in second last place and was relegated after giving up a league-worst 71 goals. The team's most prolific goalscorer was Lukas Podolski with a total of 12 goals, who transferred to FC Bayern Munich after the end of the season. He also appeared with the national side in the 2006 World Cup competition.
In late 2006, former coach Christoph Daum was convinced to once again take the helm of the 2. Bundesliga club and many fans are hopeful that he will lead them back to the Bundesliga.
[edit] Honours
- German champions: 1962
- German vice-champions: 1960, 1963
- German champions (Bundesliga): 1964, 1978
- German vice-champions (Bundesliga): 1965, 1973, 1982, 1989, 1990
- German Cup winners: 1968, 1977, 1978, 1983
- German Cup finalists: 1954, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1980, 1991
- UEFA Cup finalists: 1986
[edit] Stadium
The team plays its homematches in the RheinEnergie Stadion, with a capacity of a little over 50,000. The name comes from a contract with the local power supplier RheinEnergy AG that will run out in 2009. The most fans still call the stadium "Müngersdorfer Stadion", according to the former stadium and the suburb Müngersdorf, where it its located.
[edit] Team trivia
- Perhaps the club's most infamous result was in a match played in the quarter-finals of the 1965 European Cup, where they met England's Liverpool F.C. After two 0:0 draws, a third game was played which was also a stalemate, this time 2:2. As the penalty shootout had not yet been introduced as the means of deciding a tie, 1. FC Köln went out of the competition on the toss of a coin.
- Like many of Germany's other professional football clubs, 1. FC Köln is part of a larger sports club that also incorporates departments playing other sports, in this case handball, table tennis and gymnastics.
- 1. FC Köln holds the doubtful distinction of the worst goal drought in Bundesliga history. In 2002, the supporters had to wait 1034 excruciating minutes (equivalent to eleven games and a half) until Thomas Cichon found the back of the net again [1].
- The Köln's main rivals are Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Fortuna Düsseldorf – all clubs from the same general region, near the river Rhine. Fans have friendships with FC St. Pauli and FC Liverpool.
[edit] Players
[edit] Current squad
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[edit] Players out on Loan
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[edit] Notable players
[edit] Selected Former managers
[edit] Notable chairmen
- Kremer, Franz (1948 - 1967)
- Overath, Wolfgang (2004 - )
[edit] External links
- 1. Official team page
- The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
- FC Koln statistics
- FC Koln Fansite
- Ultras Köln - Videoblog
| German 2. Bundesliga Football Clubs (2006-07) |
| 1860 Munich | FC Augsburg | Carl Zeiss Jena | MSV Duisburg | Eintracht Braunschweig Erzgebirge Aue | Freiburg | Greuther Fürth | Hansa Rostock | Kaiserslautern | Karlsruhe Kickers Offenbach | Koblenz | FC Köln | Paderborn 07 | Rot-Weiss Essen | Unterhaching Wacker Burghausen  |
