Reinickendorfer Füchse

Reinickendorfer Füchse

Full name	Berliner Turn- und Sportverein von 1891 Reinickendorfer Füchse
Nickname(s)	Die Füchse (The Foxes)
Founded	28 January 1891
Ground	Sportplatz Freiheitsweg (Capacity: 3,000)
Chairman	Frank Steffel
Manager	Christian Backs
League	NOFV-Oberliga Nord (V)
2009–10	13th – NOFV-Oberliga Nord (V)
Home colours Away colours

Reinickendorfer Füchse are a German association football club based in Reinickendorf, a western district of in Berlin. The football side is part of a larger sports association that has departments for basketball, bowling, boxing, gymnastics, handball, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, table tennis, and volleyball. In January 2007 the Metropol Cricket Team Berlin joined the club as its cricket department.

History

The club was established 28 January 1891 as the gymnastics club Turn Verein Reinickendorf. To honour the memory of Adolf Dorner, who played a leading role in promoting gymnastics within German schools, the club was re-named Turnverein Dorner in September 1893. As the association grew to include departments for other sports it became Turn- und Sportverein Dorner.

Logo of Reinickendorfer FC Halley Concordia ca. 1931

In November 1937 TSV Dorner joined Reinickendorfer Fußball Club Halley-Concordia and the Reinickendorfer Hockeyclub to create Turn- und Rasensportverein Reinickendorf. RFC Halley-Concordia was the product of the 1925 union between Reinickendorfer FC Halley 1910 and Concordia 95. This club made a brief two season appearance in top-flight Berlin competition in 1929–1931.

In the aftermath of World War II most associations in the country, including sports and football clubs, were dissolved by occupying Allied authorities. Most of the former membership of Tura was re-organized as SG Reinickendorf Ost in late 1945, while the footballers formed SG Felsenbeck. In April 1947 SG Reinickendorf Ost gave rise to today's club, Berliner Turn- und Sportverein von 1891 Reinickendorfer Füchse. Felsenbeck became RFC Halley – Borussia in July 1948 and on 1 December the same year, joined BSTV.

The club rose up out of lower level local competition to third division play in the Amateurliga Berlin (III) in 1958. After the formation in 1963 of the Bundesliga, Germany's first professional football league, Reinickendorf joined the new second division Regionalliga Berlin on the strength of a third place finish. A lower table side there, the team was relegated after a 16th place finish in 1969. They continued to play as a third tier side for nearly three decades, finally slipping out of what had become the Regionalliga Nordost (III) to the Oberliga Nordost-Nord (IV) in 1998. During that time Die Füchse captured two Amateur Oberliga Berlin (III) titles, in 1989 and 1990, but performed poorly in the subsequent promotion rounds for the 2. Bundesliga.

In seven seasons in the Oberliga Nordost-Nord, Reinickendorf generally earned ordinary results until finally being sent down to the Verbandsliga Berlin (V) in 2005, where they played until 2008, earning promotion back to the NOFV-Oberliga Nord.

Throughout the 90s and into the new millennium the team has enjoyed some success in cup competition winning Berlin's Paul Rusch Cup in 1997 and 2003 in addition to making two other losing cup final appearances.

Former players

• Christian Backs
• Francis Banecki
• Änis Ben-Hatira
• Sascha Bigalke
• Kevin-Prince Boateng
• Ashkan Dejagah
• Chinedu Ede
• Thomas Häßler
• Oliver Holzbecher
• Benjamin Köhler
• Anton Müller
• Andreas Neuendorf
• Oliver Schröder

Stadium

The team plays its home matches in the Freiheitsweg which has a capacity of 3,000 (200 seats).

Honours

• Amateur Oberliga Berlin (III) champions: 1989, 1990
• Paul Rusch Pokal (Paul Rusch/Berlin Cup) winner: 1997, 2003
• Berliner Pokal (Berlin Cup) finalist: 1992
• Paul Rusch Pokal (Paul Rusch/Berlin Cup) finalist: 2002

External links

• Official website (German)
• The Abseits Guide to German Soccer