Bor. Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund Overview

Borussia Dortmund was founded on December 19th 1909 by a group of young men. The club’s most successful year where during the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1990’s, and their poorest years of performance were the 1970’s and 80’s.They was the first German team to ever win a European Championship. Currently they play out of Signal Iduna Park, and are not doing too well.

Dortmund History

Borussian Dortmund FC was founded on December 19, 1909 by a group of young men who were unhappy with Church sponsored football. Their first organized meeting was held at a local pub named Zum Wildschütz. There they came up with the name Borussia, which in Latin means Prussia. It was taken from a local Brewery. They also decided on a uniform, which included blue and white striped shirts with a red stash, and black shorts.

Over the next decade the club started to grow. In 1913 the team changed its colours to the yellow and black, and red and black uniforms which they use today. They played out of Stadion Rote Erde in local leagues, where they saw some success. In 1929 they tried to boost the team’s fortunes by signing some paid professionals, which flopped, and left the team in debt. The sole reason for their survival was a generous donor who contributed to the team.

During the 1930s, the Nazi Party restructured football in Germany and established the Gauliga, in which the club did well in. Despite their success, Borussia’s President was replaced when he refused to join the Nazi party. A couple of members of the organization were executed in the last days of war when they tried to use the club’s office in order to produce anti-Nazi pamphlets.

After the war, and the fall of the Nazi party, the club really made a breakthrough in the league. A rivalry between it and Schalke started to grow, due to both teams success. There was a short and failed attempt in order to merge Borussia with other organizations. In 1949 the team made its first appearance in the national final, but lost to VfR Mannheim 2-to-3. However, in 1956 Borussia won its first Oberliga West title. Just one year later, the club won its second title. Niepeiklo and Kelbassa became the superstar athletes of the team, scoring goals in both final matches.

In 1963 the German Football Association got together and voted to establish a professional football league in Germany, knows as the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund became one of the founding members of the new league. The team won its first professional cup in 1965. Only a year later, BVB became the first German club to win The European Cup Winners Cup defeating Liverpool FC 2-1 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The team’s success did not carry on into the early 1970’s and 80’s. They often were faced with financial problems and relegation. In 1972 the club had two victories against FC Nuremberg, which got them promoted back to the Bundesliga. However, they did not have any major success for a long time, and were close to again being relegated in 1986, but avoided it by winning a game against Fortuna Köln and finishing 16th place. It wasn’t till 1989 that the club became successful once again, winning the German Cup.

During the 1990’s the team continued to build on the success of the 1989 season. They went to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1993, but lost on aggregate to Juventus. As a result, the team earned 25 million Deutsche Marks, which they invested into new talent. With the help of newly acquired players such as Matthias Sammer, the club was able to win the Bundesliga championship in 1995 and 1996. Matthias Sammer went on to win the European Footballer of the Year Award. Just one year later the team won the UEFA Champions League in Munich beating a Juventus team which had Zidane on it. They also beat Cruzeiro in order to win the Intercontinental Cup Final.

When the new millennium approached Borussia Dortmund became the first German football organization to be publicly traded on the German stock market. Two years later the club won its third Bundesliga title by defeating Bayer Leverkusen. A trip to the UEFA Cup final that same year resulted in a lost to the Dutch team Feyenoord. Since then the club has not bee able to have any type of success, till the present. They went through financial hardship, but have been slowly able to overcome them.

Club Rivalries

Schalke 04

The rivalry between Borussia Dortmund FC and Schalke FC is knows as the Revier Derby. The two teams compete each year in order to prove which is better in the Ruhr Area of the North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The most intense era of the rivalry was from the mid thirties till the mid forties, when both team dominated in German Football. Schalke has the most victories between the teams, with a total of 52 wins.

Stars of the Current Squad

• Roman Weidenfeller
• Sebastian Kehl
• Alexander Frei

Club Legends

• Andreas Möller -- Appearances: 153 goals: 47, German national team: Appearances 85 goals: 29
• Niepeiklo
• Kelbassa

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Team Honours

• German Champions: 1956, 1957, 1963 (the 1956 and 1957 titles marked the only time a team had won consecutive titles with the same squad)
• German Champions (Bundesliga): 1995, 1996, 2002
• DFB Pokal (German Cup): 1965, 1989
• UEFA Champions League 1997
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1966 (this makes BVB the first German team to win a European title)
• Intercontinental Cup 1997

Club Management

Dr. Reinhard Rauball - chairman

Thomas Doll - head coach

Uniforms

Home: Black and yellow shirt with black shorts

Away: black and maroon shirt with yellow trim, black shorts

Stadium

Signal Iduna Park was built in 1971 in order to host the team’s increasing fan base, which was a result of the club winning the UEFA Cup. It is often called “The Temple” due to its overwhelming size, having a capacity of about 80,000 people. It was designed by Planungsgruppe Drahtler. Initially the stadium was supposed to be built in city of Cologne, but due to financial difficulties it was relocated back to Dortmund. The stadium played host to the 1974 and 2006 World Cups.

Sponsors

• Nike
• Coca Cola
• Warstiener
• Evonic industries

Important Links

• http://www.bvb.de (Official team site)

References

• http://www.bvb.de
• http://www.wikipedia.org