- VfR Mannheim
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VfR Mannheim 
Full name Verein für Rasenspiele e.V.
MannheimNickname(s) Blau-Weiss-Rot Founded 1896 Ground Rhein-Neckar-Stadion
(Capacity: 8,000)Manager Kenan Kocak League Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (V) 2010-11 Verbandsliga Nordbaden (VI), 2nd ↑ 
Home coloursAway coloursVfR Mannheim is a German association football club based in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg formed in 1911 out of the fusion of Mannheimer FG 1896, Mannheimer FG 1897 Union, and FC Viktoria 1897 Mannheim. The team has played out most of its recent history as an unheralded local amateur side but has historically been quite a force in local football, with the highlight of winning the German championship in 1949 against Borussia Dortmund.
Contents
History
Predecessor sides FG Mannheim, FG Union Mannheim and FC Viktoria Mannheim were founding members of the German Football Association in 1900. These various Mannheim teams were members of the VSFV (Verband Süddeutscher Fussball Vereine or Federation of South German Football Clubs) and after their merger in 1911 played as VfR through the 10s and 20s in the Westkreis-Liga. The club emerged as the league champions of the Kreisliga Odenwald in 1922 and the Bezirksliga Rhein in 1925, but went out in the preliminary round of national championship play. The club finished in mid-table throughout the late 1920s and early 30's in the Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar.
Success through the 30s and 40s
After the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich into sixteen top flight divisions Mannheim began play in the Gauliga Baden. The club performed well in the years leading up to World War II and the throughout the conflict taking division titles in 1935, 1938, 1939, 1943 and 1944. However they could not translate this success in league play into success in the national playoffs with their best result being an advance to the 1943 quarterfinals where they were put out 2:3 by eventual vice-champions FV Saarbrücken.
Mannheim repeated as division champions in 1944. Wartime conditions made playing football increasingly difficult in the country, so much so that the national playoffs were initially abandoned and VfR declared champions by the sport's governing authority. However, this decision was revoked after protests from other clubs and the playoff competition reinstated. Mannheim advanced only as far as the eighth-final before being eliminated by 1. FC Nuremberg.
Postwar national championship
After the war VfR Mannheim played in the first division Oberliga Süd where they earned unremarkable results until a surprising breakthrough in 1949 that saw the team transform a distant second place finish in their division into a national championship. After thrashing Hamburger SV 5:0 in the opening round, they upset Kickers Offenbach, who had finished eleven points ahead of them in their Oberliga division that season, by a score of 2:1. VfR then earned a come from behind 3:2 overtime victory over Borussia Dortmund in front of 90,000 fans in the final. Between 1903 and 1944 German national champions were awarded the Viktoria trophy. The 1944 final between Dresdner SC and Luftwaffen-SV Hamburg was the last Viktoria match ever played as the trophy disappeared at war's end. The missing prize was replaced by the Meisterschale in 1949 and was first awarded to Mannheim despite 1. FC Nuremberg being Germany's first postwar champions in 1948. Today the Meisterschale recognizes the country's Bundesliga champions and is inscribed with the names of each national championship team since 1903. The Viktoria has since been recovered and is held by the German Football Association.
The next year they again met Dortmund in the playoffs, this time in the opening round, and once again eliminated them. However, they would themselves be put out in the next round by Preußen Dellbrück and begin a slide into anonymity.
Descent from the top flight
Mannheim played in the second tier Regionalliga Süd formed in 1963 at the same time as Germany's new professional league, the Bundesliga. After ten years near or at the bottom of the league table they fell to tier III football, the Amateurliga Nordbaden. Despite ongoing financial problems they rebuffed offers of a merger from SV Waldhof Mannheim in 1998 and again in 2003. They were denied a license that year and driven to the Verbandsliga Nordbaden (V). However, the side performed well enough to win their division the next season and promotion to Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (IV), where they play today. With a sixteenth place in 2007–08, they narrowly avoided relegation, being on equal points with the seventeenth team.
After suffering relegation in 2009, the club took two seasons to recover before returning to the Oberliga in 2011.
Honours
The club's honours:
League
- German football championship
- Champions: 1949
- Southern German championship
- Champions: 1925
- German amateur football championship
- Runners-up: 1996
- Westkreis-Liga (I)
- Champions: (4) 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914
- Kreisliga Odenwald (I)
- Champions: 1922
- Runners-up: (2) 1920, 1921
- Bezirksliga Rhein (I)
- Champions: (2) 1925, 1926
- Runners-up: (2) 1924, 1927
- Gauliga Baden (I)
- Champions: (5) 1935, 1938, 1939, 1943, 1944
- Runners-up: (3) 1934, 1937, 1940
- Oberliga Süd (I)
- Runners-up: 1949
- Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (III)
- Runners-up: 1985
- Amateurliga Nordbaden (III)
- Champions: (2) 1973, 1976
- Verbandsliga Nordbaden (V)
- Champions: 2004
- Runners-up: 2011
Cup
- Southern German Cup
- Winners: 1959
- North Baden Cup
- Winners: 1972, 1997, 2001
- Runners-up: 2004
Other sports
- The club has won the German championship in baseball in 1965, 1966 and 1970.
Recent managers
Recent managers of the club:[1]
Manager Start Finish Rainer Ulrich 1 January 2005 31 June 2006 Walter Pradt 1 July 2006 17 April 2007 Rainer Ulrich 18 April 2007 30 June 2007 Dieter Heimen 1 July 2007 25 October 2007 Ralf Köhnlein 26 October 2007 31 December 2007 Rafael Sánchez 1 January 2008 13 January 2009 Gernot Jüllich 13 January 2009 28 January 2011 Kenan Kocak 2 February 2011 Present Recent seasons
The recent season-by-season performance of the club:[2][3]
Season Division Tier Position 1999–2000 Regionalliga Süd III 3rd 2000–01 Regionalliga Süd 8th 2001–02 Regionalliga Süd 9th ↓ 2002–03 2003–04 Verbandsliga Nordbaden V 1st ↑ 2004–05 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg IV 12th 2005–06 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 10th 2006–07 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 15th 2007–08 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg 16th 2008–09 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg V 16th ↓ 2009–10 Verbandsliga Nordbaden VI 4th 2009–10 Verbandsliga Nordbaden 2nd ↑ 2011–12 Oberliga Baden-Württemberg V - With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the 3rd Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2nd Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.
References
- ^ VfR Mannheim .:. Trainer von A-Z (German) weltfussball.de, accessed: 4 September 2011
- ^ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (German) Historical German domestic league tables
- ^ Fussball.de - Ergebnisse (German) Tables and results of all German football leagues
External links
- Official website (German)
- The Abseits Guide to German Soccer
- Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv historical German domestic league tables (German)
- VfR Mannheim at Weltfussball.de
Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (V) 2011–12 clubs Bahlinger SC · TSG Balingen · SV Bonlanden · 1. FC Normannia Gmünd · FSV Hollenbach · FV Illertissen · Kehler FV · VfR Mannheim · SpVgg Neckarelz · FC Nöttingen · Offenburger FV · SSV Reutlingen · SV Spielberg · Stuttgarter Kickers II · SSV Ulm 1846 · FC 08 Villingen · FC Astoria WalldorfList of clubs in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg Categories:- VfR Mannheim
- German football clubs
- Baden-Württemberg football clubs
- Association football clubs established in 1911
- 1896 establishments in Germany
- German football championship
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