Wormatia Worms

VfR Wormatia 08 Worms

Full name	Verein für Rasenspiele Wormatia Worms 08 e.V.
Founded	23 May 1908
Ground	EWR-Arena
Ground Capacity	5,724
Chairman	Tim Brauer
Manager	Steven Jones (caretaker)
League	Regionalliga Südwest (IV)
2015–16	9th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

VfR Wormatia 08 Worms is a German association football club that plays in Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club and its historical predecessors were regular participants in regional first division football competition until the formation of the national top-flight Bundesliga in 1963. Today the team plays in the fourth tier Regionalliga Südwest.

History

Former logo until 2010

SC Wormatia was formed on 23 May 1908 and renamed VfL Wormatia Worms in 1921 just before merging with VfR Wormatia Worms in 1922. VfR was the product of the 1919 merger of Union 08 and Viktoria 1912. Both VfL and VfR were playing in the Kreisliga Hessen (I).^[1]

The combined side played in the Bezirksliga Rheinhessen-Saar earning mid-table results. In 1927, SC joined the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen and enjoyed first- and second-place finishes in that league's Gruppe Hessen. German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen Gauligen, or regional upper class leagues, in 1933. Wormatia found themselves playing in the Gauliga Südwest (I) where they continued to play well, capturing the division title three times. The side was merged into Reichsbahn TuSV Worms in 1938 and then played on under that name. The Gauliga Südwest was broken up into a two divisions in 1941 and the club went to the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau, playing there for only a couple of seasons before the end of World War II and the collapse of league play.

The club re-emerged as VfR Wormatia Worms after the war and joined the Oberliga Südwest (I) earning finish=es in the upper half of the table in its first decade of play there, but only once advancing into the national championship rounds. That performance slipped somewhat in the years leading up to the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's first professional league, in 1963. In the late 1960s, Wormatia became one of the first clubs to display advertising on its jerseys. Wormatia was seeded into the second division Regionalliga Südwest (2.Bundesliga after 1973) where, except for two seasons in the mid-1970s, the club played until 1981. The club's best results came in 1965, when it finished second and played in the Bundesliga promotion rounds, and in 1979, when it earned a third-place finish in the 2. Bundesliga.

The 1979 season was full of drama for Wormatia. At the mid-way point of the season the side led the 2.Bundesliga Süd as Herbst meisterschaft, or Fall champions. Their second round German Cup match against Hertha BSC Berlin was called at 1:1 when the lights in Berlin's Olympiastadion failed and Worms then lost the subsequent re-match 0:2. The league championship remained within the club's grasp almost to the very last, but crucial points were lost in drawing two of the season's final three matches. All of this took place against a background of steadily growing financial problems.

After struggling to avoid relegation through several poor seasons, the team finally slipped to the tier III Amateur Oberliga Südwest in 1982. A return to the 2.Bundesliga after a first-place finish in 1986 was frustrated when the club was denied a license because of its weak financial state. Wormatia continued to play third division football until another financial crisis in 1994 drove them down to the Verbandsliga Südwest (V). The team returned to the Oberliga Südwest (IV) in 1998 and played there until 2008, when it qualified for the new Regionalliga West (IV) formed after the introduction of the 3. Liga. Finishing on a relegation rank at the end of its first season there, the club was saved from being sent down by the withdrawal of 12th-placed FSV Oggersheim from the league. Worms improved the following year and was moved to the Regionalliga Süd (IV) from 2010 to 2012. At the end of the 2011-12 season the club became part of the new Regionalliga Südwest (IV), where it played for two seasons before finishing on a relegation rank in 2014. The club was spared from dropping back down to the Oberliga by the insolvency of SSV Ulm 1846 however.

Honours

The club's honours:

Current squad

As of 24 January 2017

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Steve Kroll 5 DF Benjamin Maas 6 DF Patrick Auracher 7 DF Eugen Gopko 8 MF Sandro Loechelt 9 FW Jan-Lucas Dorow 11 MF Enis Saiti 15 MF Enis Aztekin 17 MF Benjamin Himmel 18 FW Arif Güclü 19 FW Florian Treske 20 MF Ricky Pinheiro 21 MF Sebastian Schmitt

No. Position Player 22 DF Ricardo Antonaci 23 DF Alan Stulin 24 DF Marco Metzger 25 DF Arian Emerllahu 28 MF Fatih Köksal 30 DF Johannes Ludmann 32 GK Mario Miltner 33 GK Niklas Reichel 34 DF Henrik Nagel 35 MF Perric Afari 36 MF Fabio Schmidt 37 MF Maximilian Rose

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:^[2][3]

• With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the 3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.

Key

Former coaches

The managers of the club:^[4][5]

References

External links

• Official website (in German)
• The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
• Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv historical German domestic league tables (in German)
• Wormatia Worms at Fussballdaten.de
• Wormatia Worms at Weltfussball.de