FC Augsburg

Football club infobox
clubname = FC Augsburg


fullname = FC Augsburg 1907
nickname =
founded = 8 August 1907
ground = Rosenaustadion
capacity = 28,000 inofficial: 32,354
chairman = Walther Seinsch
manager = flagicon|Germany Holger Fach
mgrtitle = Coach
league = 2. Bundesliga
season = 2007-08
position =2. Bundesliga, 14th
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=_green_red_stripe|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FF0000|body2=FF0000|rightarm2=FF0000|shorts2=FF0000|socks2=FF0000

FC Augsburg is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. The team was founded as "Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg" in 1907 and played as "BC Augsburg" from 1921 to 1969.

History

In the face of impending financial collapse, "BC" merged with the football side of "TSV Schwaben Augsburg" in July 1969 to form "FC Augsburg", however "Schwaben" was unhappy with the result and re-formed its own football team in 1970. For this reason, "FCA" is generally not considered to carry on the traditions of "TSV Schwaben", only those of "BC Augsburg".

Prior to World War II the club's best performance came as a second place finish in the Gauliga Bayern in 1940. After the war it played regularly in the top-flight Oberliga Süd with occasional laspes which dropped it to the second division.

Play in the 2. Bundesliga

Since the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, the Augsburg side has spent most of its time in tier III leagues. They managed two seasons in the 1960s in 2.Bundesliga, and enjoyed another eight seasons at that level in the mid-70s and early 80s. The club's most successful season was undoubtedly 1973-74 when, freshly promoted to Regionalliga Süd, they won the league with a team led by Helmut Haller and missed out on an advance to the Bundesliga by only one point. A highlight of that season was the away game at its old rival "TSV 1860 München" which attracted 90,000 spectators. However, the club could not match this success in the following seasons and was back in the Bayernliga in 1979-80. They advanced to the national amateur final that year where they dropped a 1:2 decision to "VfB Stuttgart II".

In 1981 and 1983 the club returned once more to the 2nd Bundesliga, just to be relegated straight away again. In 1983, a young "FCA" team missed survival by just three goals, being on equal points with the 16th placed "Union Solingen". In 1994 they had another try at promotion in the last year of promotion play-offs to the 2nd Bundesliga. However, the Bavarian champion was not grouped with the other southern German clubs as in previous years and had to face stronger clubs in the northern group that included "Eintracht Braunschweig" and "Fortuna Düsseldorf". Despite being overmatched and unable to advance, they still had good support in the region with crowds of 20,000 plus turning up at these games.

Financial crisis and return to the 2. Bundesliga

When a potential investor backed out, the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB or German Football Association) denied the debt-laden team a license, and as a result, the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons were spent in the Oberliga Bayern (IV) before a return to the Regionalliga Süd (III). "FCA" came achingly close to advancing to 2.Bundesliga in 2005, but missed their oppourtunity after giving up two goals to "Jahn Regensburg" in the last four minutes of their final game of the season. The club dominated the Regionalliga Süd the next year, winning the league and clinching a berth in the 2nd Bundesliga for the 2006-07. This marked their first appearance in the 2nd Bundesliga in 23 years. They finished the campaign in seventh place on 52 points, only 8 points away from promotion to the top-flight. One again, the game at "TSV 1860" was the highlight, with a 3-0 victory for "Augsburg" in front of 69,000 in the Allianz Arena. Ralf Loose replaced Rainer Hörgl as head coach in October 2007 when the club found itself in the relegation zone. Loose's contract was terminated on 16 April 2008 after a string of bad results [cite web|url=http://www.fcaugsburg.de/cms/website.php?sid=c3ebff3e584db6a7d9c9aa3281157c54&id=/index/aktuell/news/data10208.htm|title=FCA trennt sich von Loose (in German)|publisher=FC Augsburg|date=2008-04-16|accessdate=2008-04-17] . He was replaced with Holger Fach two days later. The club avoided relegation on goal average, being on equal points with relegated side Kickers Offenbach at the end of the season.

The long time home ground of the FCA, Rosenau Stadion, built from World War II rubble, may finally come to its well deserved rest in 2009 when a new stadion is slated to be completed. The new Impuls Arena is also scheduled to host games of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Youth and amateur sides

The historically indifferent performance of the senior side was offset by the success of the club's youth team, which captured a national championship in the under-18's in 1993, being the last non-Bundesliga club to do so. They also took several Cup titles in the early 1990s. Today, the under-18's and under-16's youth teams play in the Bayernliga-Süd, the second tier of youth football.

FC Augsburg's reserve team currently plays in the Landesliga Bayern-Süd (V), having been promoted to the league in 2004. The club did not field a reserves team at all between 1989 and 1997, preferring instead to concentrate on its successful youth program.

The "FC Augsburg II" finished fourth in their league in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons and remains at this level for the 2008-09 season.

FC Augsburg seasons

FC Augsburg

FC Augsburg II

Source:Cite web
url = http://www.f-archiv.de/
title = Tables and results of the Oberliga and Regionalliga Süd
accessdate = 2007-12-23
publisher = Deutsches Fussball-Archiv

The "FCA" versus "TSV 1860" rivalry

The rivalry of those two clubs results in part from their close proximity, Augsburg being only 64 km from Munich via the Autobahn. It began in earnest in 1973-74 when both clubs played for "Bundesliga" promotion in the "Regionalliga Süd" and carried on in the "2nd Bundesliga Süd". It heated up again in the "Bayernliga" from 1983 to 1993 when both tried unsuccessfully for years to return to professional football. After this, their ways parted for 13 years, till "FCA" regained its "2nd Bundesliga" status in 2006. Since then, their games against each other have become huge crowd magnets for the region, well above 2nd Division standards. The Rosenaustadion with its current capacity of 28.000 has both times been sold out and the Allianz Arena in Munich with a capacity of 69.000 comes close.

The games since 2005:

Source:Cite web
url = http://www.weltfussball.de/teams.php?m_id=342&modus=3
title = FC Augsburg results
accessdate = 2008-02-05
publisher = Weltfussball.de

External links

* [http://www.fcaugsburg.de/ Official team site]
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/augsburg.html The Abseits Guide to German Soccer]

References