FC Kilia Kiel

Football club infobox
clubname = FC Kilia Kiel


fullname = Fussball Club Kilia Kiel von 1902 e.V.
nickname =
founded = 1902
ground = Kiliaplatz
capacity = 6,000
chairman = Klaus Burr
manager = Frank Drews
league = Schleswig-Holstein-Liga (V)
season = 2007-08
position = 11th
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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=ffffff|body2=ffffff|rightarm2=ffffff|shorts2=ff0000|socks2=ff0000

FC Kilia Kiel is a German football club from the city of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein.

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History

The club was formed July 23, 1902 by a group of footballers who had left "1. Kieler Fußballverein von 1900" which plays today as "Holstein Kiel". Through the 20s the club played in the Nordkreisliga where it was competitive enough to earn second place finishes behind "Holstein" in 1922, 1923 and 1924. The next season the Kreisliga was split into two sections; the Fördestaffel and the Eiderstaffel, with "Holstein" playing in the former and "Kilia" the latter. This did not change the club's fortunes, however, as "Kilia" was unable to overtake its rival and make it out of regional league play to the national level.

The club played lower tier football over the next decades until winning promotion in 1941 to the Gauliga Nordmark, one of sixteen top-flight divisions formed in the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. The following season this division was also split up to form the Gauliga Hamburg and the Gauliga Schleswig-Holstein – where "Kilia" again finished second-best to "Holstein".

World War II eventually forced the club to join "Union Teutonia Kiel" to form the war time side (Kriegsspielgemeinshaft) "KSG Kilia Kiel/Union Teutonia Kiel". Play in the division became local in character, centered around the cities of Kiel and Lübeck. Conflict overtook the region and therefore league results are unknown for the 1944-45 season.

After the war "Kilia" resumed play in the second tier Landesliga Schleswig-Holstein where they played through to 1962 without distinguishing themselves. After the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's first top flight professional league in 1963, and the subsequent re-organization of the lower divisions, "Kilia" found itself in what was now the third tier Amateurliga Schleswig-Holstein. They took part in promotion playoffs for the Regionalliga Nord (II) at the end of the 1964 season, but were unsuccessful in their bid to move up. By 1966 they had slipped to fourth division play in the 2.Amateurliga Schleswig-Holstein/Ost and Verbandsliga Schleswig-Holstein/Nord until a further descent to the Landesliga Schleswig-Holstein/Nord (V) in 1981.

A first place Landesliga finish in 1984 returned "Kilia" to the Verbandsliga Schleswig-Holstein for a ten-year span until re-structuring made the league a fifth division circuit. After a single season cameo in the Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein (IV) in 2001-02, "Kilia" voluntarily returned to the Verbandsliga where they compete today.

External links

* [http://www.fckiliakiel.de Official team site]
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/kikiel.html Abseits Guide to German Soccer]
* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv] historical German football league tables (in German)