VfL Bochum - last updated on 28 February 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft e.V.
Foundation: April 15th 1938
City: Bochum
Colours: Blue and white
Website: www.vfl-bochum.de
Honours:
2. Bundesliga - 3 (1993-94, 1995-96, 2005-06)
A bit of history:
VfL is one of the oldest sports organizations in Germany claiming an origin date of July 1848 when planning began for the creation of a new gymnastics club. Bochumer TV was then formally established on February 18, 1849. However, the honour of being Bochum's first football club goes to the predecessor side Fußballklub 06, later known as SV Germania 06 Bochum.
Another ancestor - SuS Bochum - was formed in 1908, and played its first football match versus VfL Hamm in 1911. After a merger with another local side in 1919, they took on the name TuS Bochum 1848.
Two of these clubs played in the Gauliga Westfalen, one of sixteen top-flight divisions established through the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich in 1933. TuS Bochum appeared there briefly in 1936 and 1937, while Germania Bochum played in the division from 1933 to 1938. VfL Bochum was formed when the Nazis ordered the consolidation of TuS, Germania, and Turnverein Bochum 1848 and began play in the 1938-39 season. After 1943 they played with yet another club as the combined wartime side Kriegsspielgemeinschaft (KSG) VfL 1848 Bochum/Preußen Bochum until the end of the conflict. Although the club was able to field competitive sides, they had the misfortune of playing in the same division as Schalke 04 which was the dominant team of the era: Bochum's best results were a number of distant second place finishes.
Following the war the football section resumed play as the independent VfL Bochum Fussballgemeinschaft 1848 and played its first season in the second division 2.Oberliga West in 1949, while Preußen Bochum went on to lower tier amateur level play. VfL captured the division title in 1953 to advance to the Oberliga West for a single season. They repeated their divisional win in 1956 and returned to the top-flight until again being relgated after the 1960-61 season.
With the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional league, in 1963, VfL found itself in the third tier Amateurliga Westfalen. A first place result there in 1965 raised them to the Regionalliga West (II) from where they began a steady climb up the league table to the Bundesliga in 1971. During this rise Bochum also played its way to the final of the 1968 German Cup where they dropped a 1:4 decision to 1. FC Köln.
In spite of being a perennial lower table side, Bochum developed a reputation for tenaciousness on the field in a run of twenty seasons at the top flight. The club made a repeat appearance in the German Cup final in 1988, this time going down 0:1 to Eintracht Frankfurt. Relegated after a 16th place finish in 1993, the team has become a classic "elevator side", bouncing up and down between the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga. The club's best Bundesliga results have come relatively recently as 5th place finishes in 1997 and 2004, which earned them appearances in the UEFA Cup tournament. In 1997, they advanced to the third round where they were put out by Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam, and in 2004, they were eliminated early through away goals (0-0 and 1-1) by Standard CL Liège of Belgium.
Today's sports club has 5,000 members with the football department accounting for over 2,200 of these. Other sections now part of the association include athletics, badminton, basketball, dance, fencing, gymnastics, handball, hockey, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
VfL Bochum
