Tasmania 1900 Berlin

Football club infobox
clubname = Tasmania Gropiusstadt


fullname = SV Tasmania-Gropiusstadt 1973 e.V Berlin
nickname =
founded = 1900
ground =
capacity =
chairman = Detlef Wilde
manager =
league = Landesliga Berlin (VII)
season = 2007-08
position = Verbandsliga Berlin (V), 18th (relegated)
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Tasmania 1900 Berlin was a German football club based in the Berlin district of Neukölln.

History

Tasmania 1900

The team was founded on June 2, 1900 as "Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900", changing its name when Rixdorf was re-named Neukölln in 1912. "Tasmania Berlin" was a founding club of the DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund or German Football Association) in Leipzig in 1900. After World War II, the team was dissolved by the Allied authorities. It was reformed in 1946 as "SG Mitte-Neukölln" before once again taking on the name of the original sports club and becoming "Tasmania 1900 Berlin" in 1949.

In 1965, Berlin's only Bundesliga side, "Hertha BSC", had its license revoked and was relegated for breaking the league's player salary rules. The DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund or German Football Association) wanted to keep a club in the city of Berlin for political reasons and this led to one of the strangest episodes in the Bundesliga's history.

Both "Karlsruher SC" and "FC Schalke 04" tried to avoid being demoted by laying claim to "Hertha"'s place. It was decided to suspend relegation for one season and increase the number of teams in the league from 16 to 18 to accommodate the two teams which would normally be promoted from the Regionalligen (the Regional Leagues being the leagues below the Bundesliga at the time). Cold War politics led to a space being held for a team from the former capital city to replace Hertha.

The winner of Regionalliga Berlin, "Tennis Borussia Berlin", had failed to advance to the Bundesliga through the regular promotion round that saw "Bayern München" and "Borussia Mönchengladbach" move up. After the Regionalliga second place finisher, "Spandauer SV", refused an offer of promotion, the way was clear for third-place club "Tasmania 1900" to take up the opportunity to represent Berlin in the Bundesliga — just two weeks before the start of the 1965-66 season.

A top performer in the relatively weak Regionalliga Berlin, "Tasmania 1900" would find themselves seriously overmatched in the Bundesliga. Despite a season-opening 2:0 win over "Karlsruher SC" at the Olympiastadion, they would go on to become the worst team in league history — in a 34-game season they won only twice. They scored only 15 goals while conceding 108 and finished the season in last place earning just 8 of a possible 68 points (8:60). The only team not to beat "Tasmania" was "FC Kaiserslautern" which managed just two draws (0:0 and 1:1) against them. The 0:0 result at Betzenberg was the only point earned by "Tasmania" away from their home stadium.

"Tasmania 1900" was relegated at season's end and returned to play in Regionalliga Berlin. Although the team made it to the promotion round twice between 1966 and 1973, they never did manage a return to the Bundesliga. In 1973, the Neukölln sports association declared bankruptcy.

Tasmania 1973

A successor association, "SC Tasmania 73 Neukölln" was created, becoming "SC Tasmania Gropiusstadt 73" in 2001. While the new clubs first team had to restart in the lowest division in 1973 and quickly rose through the ranks again, the clubs youth teams were permitted to remain in the leagues the played in under the old name. Today, the senior side plays in Verbandsliga Berlin (V), while the A-juniors play in the junior Regionalliga.

Dubious distinctions

As the worst team in Bundesliga history, "Tasmania 1900 Berlin" is the holder of a number of dubious records:

* 50th out of 50 in all-time Bundesliga standings
* fewest points collected in a season: 8:60 points under the old scoring method of two points for a win, 10 points under today's system that allows three points for a win
* fewest wins in a season: 2 (tied by Wuppertaler SV in 1974-1975)
* most defeats in a season: 28
* only Bundesliga team without an away win
* longest winless streak: 31 games (August 14, 1965-May 21, 1966)
* most home defeats in a season: 12
* most consecutive home losses: 8 games (August 28, 1965-December 8, 1965), tied by "Hansa Rostock" in 2004-05
* most consecutive homes matches without a win: 15 matches (August 24, 1965-May 21, 1966)
* most consecutive losses: 10 matches, tied by "Arminia Bielefeld" in 1999-2000, whose fans began to derisively chant "Tasmania Bielefeld!" during the record tying match
* worst ever goals for-and-against: 15:108
* fewest ever goals for a team's leading scorer: 4 by Wulf-Ingo Usbeck
* biggest losing margin at home: 0:9 to "Meidericher SV" (March 26, 1966); this record was almost tied when "Bayer Leverkusen" won at "SSV Ulm 1846" 9:1 in 2000, Leandro Fonseca scored for "Ulm" in injury time
* until 1993, most minutes played without scoring a goal: 831 minutes (October 2, 1965-December 11, 1965), since surpassed by "FC Saarbrücken" and "FC Köln"
* smallest ever crowd at a Bundesliga game: 827 (January 15, 1966 against "Borussia Mönchengladbach") after crowds of 81,500 at their first home game and 70,000 at their second

External links

* [http://www.tasmania-berlin.de Tasmania Berlin homepage] (in German)
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/tasmania.html The Abseits Guide to German Football]