1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called1. FC Nürnberg (German pronunciation:[ɛfˌtseːˈnʏʁnbɛʁk], English:1. Football Club Nuremberg), is a Germansports club based inNuremberg, Bavaria. It is best known for its men'sfootball team, who currently compete in the2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1900, the club initially competed in theSouthern German championship, winning their first title in 1916. Their firstGerman championship was won in 1920. Before the inauguration of theBundesliga in 1963, 1. FCN won a further 11 regional championships, including theOberliga Süd formed in 1945, and were German champions another seven times. The club has won the Bundesliga once and theDFB-Pokal four times.
Since 1963, the club has played their home games at theMax-Morlock-Stadion in Nuremberg. Today's club has sections for boxing, handball, hockey (inline skater hockey and ice hockey), rollerblading and ice skating, swimming, skiing, and tennis.
Nürnberg hold the joint record for promotions from the varioussecond divisions to theBundesliga at 8 withArminia Bielefeld. Owing to its status as a founding member of the Bundesliga while Bielefeld was not, however, Nürnberg's consequent nine relegations from the top tier are a record by itself.[1]
1. FC Nürnberg was founded on 4 May 1900 by a group of 18 young men who had gathered at local pub Burenhütte to assemble a side committed to playing football rather thanrugby, one of the other new "English" games becoming popular at the time. By 1909, the team was playing well enough to win the South German championship. After World War I, Nürnberg would gradually turn their success into the dominance of the country's football. In the period from July 1918 to February 1922, the team would go unbeaten in 104 official matches. As early as 1919, they came to be referred to simply as "Der Club" in recognition of their skill and of their style on and off the field and would go on to become one of the nation's most widely recognized and popular teams.[citation needed]
Nürnberg facedSpVgg Fürth in the first national championship held after the end of World War I, beating the defending champions 2–0. That would be the first of five titlesDer Club would win over the course of eight years. In each of those victories, they would shutout their opponents.
The 1922 final was contested by Nürnberg andHamburger SV but never reached a conclusion on the pitch. The match was called on account of darkness after three hours and ten minutes of play, drawn at 2–2. The re-match also went into extra time, and in an era that did not allow for substitutions, that game was called at 1–1 when Nürnberg was reduced to just seven players and the referee ruledincorrectly the club could not continue. TheGerman Football Association (DFB) awarded the win to Hamburger SV under the condition that they renounce the title in the name of "good sportsmanship", and ultimately the Viktoria trophy was not officially awarded that year.
1. FCN's dominance was already beginning to fade when they captured their final trophy of the era in 1927 as the game began to evolve into a more quickly paced contest which did not suit their slower, more deliberate approach. In 1934, they lost in the final toSchalke 04, a club that would go on to become the strongest side in the era of football inNazi Germany. Nürnberg won national titles just before and afterWorld War II in 1936 and 1948 – in the first post-war national final – and would also take the Tschammerpokal, the forerunner of today'sDFB-Pokal, in 1935 and 1939.
The post-war period began with the club being integrated into theOberliga Süd, one of the five top divisions in West-Germany at the time. Nürnberg won this league six times until 1963, winning the national championship in 1948. In 1961, 1. FCN captured their eighth national title and appeared in a losing effort in the following year's final. Some consolation was to be had in the team capturing its second DFB-Pokal in 1962. The club's strong play made it an obvious choice to be amongst the 16 teams selected to participate in theBundesliga, Germany's new professional football league formed in 1963.Der Club played as a mid-table side through the league's early years until putting on a dominating performance in 1968, in which it sat atop the league table from the fifth week of play on to the end of the season en route to its first Bundesliga title. It went on to become the first reigning champions to be relegated from the Bundesliga.[2] This was a result ofMax Merkel's decision to remove his championship-winning team of veterans – believing that they were too old – in favour of a dozen newcomers.
It would take the club nine years to recover and return from the second tier (first theRegionalliga Süd, then the2. Bundesliga Süd), that included several failed efforts in the promotion rounds. 1. FCN returned to the Bundesliga for a year in 1978, but finish 17th and were relegated again. The club immediately played its way back to the top flight, but since then its Bundesliga performances have typically ended in the lower positions in the league table with occasional relegations. The side's best result in recent decades was a fifth-place finish in 1988.
The early 1980s also saw the rise of a longstanding and intense friendship between the fans of Nürnberg and those of former archrival Schalke 04. Fans accompany each other's on their respective away games, and the two-season matches between the teams are generally a very laid-back and hospitable affair for all fans involved.[3]
In the mid-1990s, Nürnberg had financial problems, including the conviction of their club treasurerIngo Böbel for fraud and misallocating club finances.[4] This led to their being penalized six points in the 1995–96 season while playing in the 2. Bundesliga. The club was relegated to the third division as a consequence. Gradual improvements were made in the subsequent seasons.
In 1999, however, 1. FCN suffered what was arguably the worst end-of-season collapse in Bundesliga history. Going into the last game of the campaign, the club sat in 12th place, three points and five goals ahead ofEintracht Frankfurt in 16th place. Nürnberg's last home game againstSC Freiburg, which was also facing relegation while Frankfurt was up against1. FC Kaiserslautern, the previous season's champions who in a fight for aUEFA Champions League spot. FCN had already begun sending renewal letters to current season ticket holders which included statements about successfully avoiding relegation. Every other team in the equation won their matches, including Frankfurt who routed Kaiserslautern 5–1 with three late goals, whereas Nürnberg lost 2–1, withFrank Baumann missing a chance to score in the last minute, and suffered a shock relegation.[5] 1. FCN was not relegated because they had fewer points than Frankfurt, nor because of a lower goal differential, but on the third tie-breaker – fewer goals scored.
1. FCN rebounded and returned to the Bundesliga, but still found itself battling with relegation in most years. However, relegation was avoided comfortably in the2005–06 season, finishing eighth in the Bundesliga. After several years of consolidation, Nürnberg seemed to be back as a strong force in German football. Manager Martin Bader's work (such as the signing of formerAjax captain and Czech internationalTomáš Galásek), as well as head coachHans Meyer's tactical awareness, helped Nürnberg to its most successful finish in almost 40 years. In May 2007, qualification for theUEFA Cup was assured, and after eliminating Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-final, theClub won the DFB-Pokal final againstVfB Stuttgart 3–2 after extra time, winning the trophy 45 years after its last victory.
In the first round of 2007–08 the team's form in the Bundesliga was poor, but due to finishing second in theirUEFA Cup group (ahead of eventual championZenit Saint Petersburg), head coach Hans Meyer was allowed to restructure the team, for example by buying Czech international strikerJan Koller fromMonaco. Little improvement was seen, and Meyer was replaced byThomas von Heesen after two fixtures in the second half of the season. Von Heesen did not do much better,[2] and 1. FCN was relegated in 16th place after losing 2–0 at home to Schalke 04 on the final matchday.[3] After a slow start,Michael Oenning was able to guide Nürnberg to a third-place finish and a 5–0 aggregate win overEnergie Cottbus in the play-off to rejoin the Bundesliga. The club was demoted again, however, after the2013–14 season, finishing 17th with another final matchday loss to Schalke 04. The club finished third in the2015–16 season and qualified for the promotion play-off, but lost on aggregate to Eintracht Frankfurt to remain in the 2. Bundesliga for2016–17. The club went on to finish 2nd in2017–2018 season, securing a promotion spot into the Bundesliga with an away win againstSV Sandhausen. However, they finished bottom of the table the next season and were relegated once more.
In the2019–20 2. Bundesliga season, they finished in 16th place and faced a relegation play-off against3. Liga side and fellow BavariansIngolstadt. The tie ended 3–3 on aggregate with Nürnberg winning on away goals; the goal which retained their second-tier status was scored in the sixth minute of injury time in the second leg, thereby keeping them up at the last moment.[6]
SpVgg Greuther Fürth is 1. FCN's longest standing local rival. The rivalry dates back to the early days of German football when, at times, those two clubs dominated the national championship. The clubs have played 258 matches against one another, the most in German professional football. In 1921, theGermany national team consisted only of players from Nürnberg and Fürth for a match against theNetherlands inAmsterdam. The players traveled in the same train, but with the Nürnberg players in a carriage at the front of the train and those from Fürth in a carriage at the rear, while team managerGeorg B. Blaschke sat in the middle. A Fürth player scored the first goal of the match but was only congratulated by Fürth players. Allegedly,Hans Sutor, a former Fürth player, was forced to leave the team when he married a woman fromNuremberg. He was later signed by 1. FC Nürnberg and was in the team that eventually won three national championships.[7] Both clubs played together in the Bundesliga in 2012–13.
Games againstBayern Munich are usually the biggest events of the season,[according to whom?] as the two clubs are the most successful inBavaria and Germany overall.
The1. FC Nürnberg II (or1. FC Nürnberg Amateure) qualified for theRegionalliga Süd on the strength of a third place in theBayernliga (IV) in 2007–08. The team had been playing in the Bayernlig since 1998, finishing runners-up three times in those years. When not playing in the Bayernlig, the team used to belong to theLandesliga Bayern-Mitte. Nowadays, it plays in tier fourRegionalliga Bayern.
Der Club boasted[tone] the title ofDeutscher Rekordmeister as holder of the most championships for over 60 years (although occasionally having to share the honour withSchalke 04) before being overtaken byBayern Munich in 1987.[10]
Germany honours its Bundesliga champions by allowing them to display thegold stars of the "Verdiente Meistervereine" – one star for three titles, two stars for five and three stars for ten. However, currently,[when?] only titles earned since 1963 in the Bundesliga are officially recognized. Despite winning the national title nine times, Nürnberg – the country's second-most successful side – is not entitled to sport any championship stars.
"Der Club" plays in the communally-owned Max-Morlock-Stadion. It has been the club's home since 1963,[11] and currently has a capacity of 50,000 spectators following the stadium's most recent expansion during the winter break of the2009–10 season.[12] The club previously played its matches at theZabo (an abbreviation of Zerzabelshof, the district in which the ground was located).
The stadium was built in 1928 and was known as Stadion der Hitler-Jugend from 1933 to 1945.[citation needed] then as the Frankenstadion (Franconia Stadium). Originally having a capacity of 40,000 spectators, it was expanded in 1965 to hold 65,000 and subsequently hosted the1967 Cup Winners' Cup final betweenBayern Munich andRangers, won 1–0 by the German side. The facility was refurbished for the1974 FIFA World Cup and another renovation allowed it to seat 45,000 for four preliminary round matches and one Round of 16 contest of the2006 World Cup.
The Frankenstadion bore the commercial name "Grundig Stadion" from 2012 under an arrangement with a local company. The majority of the fans were in favour of renaming it after club legendMax Morlock. Morlock's name was finally used in 2017.
A feasibility study was commissioned by the club in the 2010s over the possibility of constructing a new stadium, with contact made with potential partners.[13] It would be built on the same site and hold a capacity of 50,000 spectators.[14] However, the club never announced any official plans for a new stadium and no major changes had been made by 2024, in which Nuremberg was overlooked as a host city for theUEFA Euro 2024 tournament held in Germany.[15]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
In the summer of 2010, as part of the club's celebration of its 110th anniversary, Nürnberg fans voted for the best players in the club's history. The players who received the most votes in each position were named in the club's greatest ever team.[17]
Outstanding[tone] coaches of the earlier years includeIzidor "Dori" Kürschner (1921, 1922),Fred Spiksley (1913, 1920s), former playerAlfred Schaffer (1930s), Dr. Karl Michalke (1930s), Alwin "Alv" Riemke (1940s–1950s) and former playerHans "Bumbes" Schmidt (1940s, 1950s), who notably did not win a single of his four German Championship titles as coach with Nürnberg, but three of them with the long-standing main rivalsSchalke 04. He was also four times champion as player, thereof three times with theClub, and once with the earlier archrivalSpVgg Greuther Fürth.
Matthias Hunger:Im Bann der Legende. Verlag Schmidt, Neustadt 2010,ISBN978-3-87707-799-3 (German)
Matthias Hunger:Fußballkosmos 1. FC Nürnberg. Arete Verlag, Hildesheim 2022,ISBN978-3-96423-099-7 (German)
Jon Goulding:For Better or for Wurst. Vanguard Press, 2009,ISBN978-1843865513 (English)
Christoph Bausenwein, Harald Kaiser, Bernd Siegler:Legenden: Die besten Club-Spieler aller Zeiten. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2010,ISBN978-3-89533-722-2 (German)
Christoph Bausenwein, Harald Kaiser, Bernd Siegler:Die Legende vom Club. Die Geschichte des 1. FC Nürnberg. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2006,ISBN3-89533-536-3 (German)
Christoph Bausenwein, Bernd Siegler, Herbert Liedel:Franken am Ball. Geschichte und Geschichten eines Fußballjahrhunderts. Echter Verlag, Würzburg 2003,ISBN3-429-02462-5 (German)
Christoph Bausenwein, Bernd Siegler:Das Club-Lexikon. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2003,ISBN3-89533-376-X (German)
Christoph Bausenwein, Harald Kaiser, Herbert Liedel:1. FCN, Der Club, 100 Jahre Fussball. Tümmels, Nürnberg 1999,ISBN3-921590-70-1 (German)
Bernd Siegler:Heulen mit den Wölfen: Der 1. FC Nürnberg und der Ausschluss seiner jüdischen Mitglieder. starfruit publications, Fürth 2022,ISBN978-3-922895-53-4 (German)
