Bayern Hof

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SpVgg Bayern Hof

Full name

SpVgg Bayern Hof

Founded

1910

Ground

Grüne Au

Capacity

22,000

League

Landesliga Bayern-Nord (V)

2004-05

Oberliga Bayern (IV), 17th





Home colours





Away colours

SpVgg Bayern Hof is a German football club based in Hof, Bayern. The club was founded on June 1, 1910 as Ballspielclub Hof, but within a year was re-named Britannia Hof. In 1913, they merged with FC Roland Hof and FC Phoenix Hof to become FC Bayern Hof.

FC Bayern Hof was a decent, but unremarkable, local side through its early decades. In 1944, the team won promotion to the Gauliga Bayern, Staffel Oberfranken, one of sixteen top flight division that had been created in 1933 in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. However, by that time World War II had overtaken that part of the country and Gauliga play was ended there in the fall.

After the war Bayern Hof advanced to the Landesliga Bayern (III) in 1946 where they came out on top of the Staffel Nordbayern only to lose the divisional playoff to Wacker München (3:4, 0:4). League re-structuring saw the club in the 2.Oberliga Süd (II) to open the 1951-52 season. They remained competitive throughout the decade, generally finishing in the top half of the table.

A second place result in 1959 put the club into Oberliga Süd (I) to play first division football for the first time. They managed only middling results against the stronger, better established teams there and so did not qualify for play in the Bundesliga – Germany's new professional league – when it was established in 1963. BH played in the Regionalliga Süd (II) and through the late 60's and into the early 70's, the team played good football and earned some solid finishes - including a division title in 1968 - but failed in three tries to make it through the promotion rounds to the new top division. In 1980, they slipped to tier III and began a long, slow descent that would land them in Landesliga Bayern-Nord (V).

In 2005 FC Bayern Hof merged with SpVgg Hof to form SpVgg Bayern Hof. SpVgg Hof had been formed in 1898 as the football department of the gymnastics club TV Hof, itself founded in 1893. The footballers became independent in 1924 and were distinguished only by single season appearances in the top flight in 1921 and 1929, and an advance to the Amateurliga Bayern for the 1966-67 season.

In 2006 the newly unified club captured the division title in the Landesliga Bayern-Nord (V) and were promoted to the fourth division Oberliga Bayern.