Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht Frankfurt is a German sports club, based in Frankfurt, Hessen that is best known for its football team.

History

Club origins

The origins of the side go back to a pair of football clubs founded in 1899: Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 – regarded as the "original" football side in the club's history – and Frankfurter Fußball-Club Kickers von 1899. These two teams merged in May of 1911 to become Frankfurt FV (Kickers-Victoria), which in turn joined the gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 to form TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 in 1920.

Pre-Bundesliga history

At the time, sports in Germany was dominated by nationalistic gymnastics organizations, and under pressure from that sport's governing authority, the gymnasts and footballers went their separate ways again in 1927, as Turngemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 and Sportgemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt (FFV) von 1899.

Through the late 20s and into the 30s Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships, but never made it very far in the national championship rounds. In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauliga under the Third Reich and the club played first division football in the Gauliga Südwest, consistently finishing in the upper half of the table and winning their division in 1938.

They picked up where they left off after World War II playing as a solid side in the first division Oberliga Süd, capturing division titles in 1953 and 1959. Their first big success came on the heels of that second divisional title as they went on to a 5:3 victory over Kickers Offenbach to take the German national title and followed up immediately with an outstanding run in the European Champions Cup. Eintracht lost 3:7 to Real Madrid in an exciting final widely regarded as one of the best football matches ever played.

Founding member of the Bundesliga

The side continued to play good football and earned themselves a place as one of the original sixteen teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, formed in 1963. Eintracht played top flight football for over twenty seasons finishing in the top half of the table more often than not. Their best Bundesliga performances were five third-place finishes: they ended just two points back of champion VfB Stuttgart in 1991-92.

They also narrowly avoided relegation on several occasions. In 1984, they defeated MSV Duisburg 6:1 on aggregate, and in 1989 they beat 1. FC Saarbrücken 4:1 on aggregate, in two-game playoffs. Eintracht finally slipped and were relegated to 2.Bundesliga for the 1996-97 season. At the time that they were sent down along with 1. FC Kaiserslautern, these teams were two of only four sides that had been in the Bundesliga since the league's inaugural season.

It looked as though they would be out again in 1998-99, but they pulled through by beating defending champions Kaiserslautern 5:1 away, while Nuernberg unexpectedly lost at home, to give Eintracht the break they needed to stay up. The following year, in another struggle to avoid relegation, the club was "fined" two points by the DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) for financial misdeeds, but pulled through with a win by a late goal over SSV Ulm on the last day of the season. The club was plagued by financial difficulties again in 2004 before once more being relegated.

Since 1997, Eintracht has bounced between the top two divisions and has often kept its fans on edge over whether or not the side would be demoted, but in the 2005-06 season supporters learned earlier than is often the case that the club would stay up, as they finished their Bundesliga season in 14th place, three points clear of relegation.

Success outside the Bundesliga

The club has enjoyed considerable success in competition outside the Bundesliga. They won the German Cup in 1974, 1975, 1981, and 1988, and took the UEFA Cup over another German team – Borussia Mönchengladbach – in 1980. More recently, Eintracht were the losing finalists in the 2006 German Cup. Their opponents in the final, Bayern Munich, were Bundesliga champions that year, which earned them a place in the group stage of the Champions League. As a result Eintracht received the place in that competition normally awarded to the German Cup winner.

Honours

German champions: 1959
German Cup champions: 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988
UEFA Cup champions: 1980
Coppa delle Alpi: 1967

Players 2006/2007

Famous players

Uwe Bein
Thomas Berthold
Jörg Böhme
Cha Bum-Kun
Jan Åge Fjørtoft
Maurizio Gaudino
Jürgen Grabowski, played for the team from 1965 to 1980, and made 44 appearances for the West German national side that included 1974's World Cup win.
Andreas Köpke
Karl-Heinz Körbel, played a record 602 Bundesliga games, 1st overall
Andreas Möller
Willi Neuberger, played over 500 Bundesliga games, 7th overall
Bernd Nickel, played 420 Bundesliga games
Jay-Jay Okocha
Alfred Pfaff World cup winner in 1954
Bernd Schneider
Anthony Yeboah

Records

Home victory, Bundesliga: 9-1 vs. Rot-Weiss Essen, 5 October 1974
Away victory, Bundesliga: 8-1 . Rot-Weiss Essen, 7 May 1977
Home loss, Bundesliga: 0-7 vs. Karlsruher SC, 19 September 1964
Away loss, Bundesliga: 0-7 vs. 1.FC Köln, 29 October 1983
Highest attendance: 81,000 vs. FK Pirmasens, 23 May 1959
Highest average attendance, season: 41,863, 2005/2006
Most appearances, all competitions total: 718, Karl-Heinz “Charly” Körbel 1972–1991
Most appearances, Bundesliga: 602, Karl-Heinz “Charly” Körbel 1972–1991
Most goals scored, total: 178 (DFB-Pokal-Goals missing), Bernd Hölzenbein 1966–1981
Most goals scored, Bundesliga: 160, Bernd Hölzenbein 1966–1981
Most goals scored, season, Bundesliga: 26, Bernd Hölzenbein, 1976/77

Team trivia

Jürgen Friedl, (born February 23, 1959) was the youngest player ever to take to the field in a Bundesliga match at age 17 years, 26 days on August 6, 1975.
Richard Kress, (born March 6, 1925) was the oldest Bundesliga rookie, making his debut at 38 years, 171 days on the opening day of league play on August 24, 1963. He scored his first Bundesliga goal at 38 years, 248 days.
Eintracht holds the record for most consecutive away games without a win: 32 games from August 20, 1985 to August 25, 1987.
The club also holds the mark for early dismissal of its coach: twenty men have met this fate in Frankfurt.

Other sections within the club

The sports club Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. is made up of fourteen sections: 01 Gymnastics (since 22 January 1861)
02 Football (since 8 March 1899)
03 Athletics (since 1899)
04 Field hockey (since 1906 as "1.Frankfurter Hockeyclub )
05 Boxing (since 1919) 06 Tennis (since spring 1920)
07 Handball (since 1921)
08 Rugby (since summer 1923)
09 Table tennis (since November 1924)
10 Basketball (since 4 June 1954) 11 Ice stock sport (since 9 December 1959)
12 Volleyball (since July 1961)
13 Supporter's club (since 11 December 2000)
14 Ice hockey (1959-91 and again since 1 July 2002)

Within the football section, the sports club directly manages only the youth system and the reserve team. The professional footballers are managed as a separate limited corporation, Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball-AG, which is a subsidiary of the parent club.

External links

German football clubs | Eintracht Frankfurt | Sport in Frankfurt | 1899 establishments | Fußball-Bundesliga

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