SpVgg Lindau

Football club infobox
clubname = SpVgg Lindau


fullname = SpVgg Lindau 1919
founded = 1919
ground = Reutiner Straße
capacity = unknown
chairman = Claus Cleves
manager = Hans-Peter Schwarzbart
league = Württemberg-Kreisliga A Staffel II (IX)
season = 2007-08
position = 3rd
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=3CB371|socks1=3CB371

The SpVgg Lindau is a German football club from Lindau, Bavaria.

Overview

The club was formed on 1st of August 1919 [ [http://www.spvgg-lindau-1919.de/html/chronik.html History of SpVgg Lindau] , author: SpVgg Lindau, accessed: 12 December 2007] as the football department of the "TSV 1850 Lindau" under the leadership of Sosthenes Sailer and its first chairman Goldbrunner. The new club was put into the "A-Klasse Gau Oberschwaben", where it remained in the coming years. Despite being a Bavarian club, the team always competed in neighbouring Württemberg, which it is geographically much closer to then to clubs in the Bavarian region of Schwaben were it politically belongs to.

In 1924, a new law in Germany stipulated that football clubs had to be clearly separated from other sports clubs and the team was renamed "VfL Lindau", now under the leadership of Jakob Egg.

In 1928, the club archived its first success with the championship in the A-Klasse and promotion to the Bezirksliga.

In 1934, a new football stadium was opened in town, the "Städtische Stadion". To celebrate this occasion, a game between the FC Bayern München and SSV Ulm was organised which Bayern won 3-2.

During the years of the 2nd World War, football in Lindau actually received a boost with a large number of German soldiers stationed in town. By 1944 however, football came gradually to a halt as most of those were send to the front line.

Football only resumed in Lindau in April 1946, with permission of the allied authorities, when the "SG Lindau" was formed.

Facing the rather unusual situation of having to many players, the club split in 1950 in two new ones: The "ESV Lindau" and "SpVgg Lindau".

SpVgg Lindau was formed on 5th of March 1950 in the "Gasthof Schweitzerhof", a restaurant and pub and the new club was integrated in the "A-Klasse Bodensee" that year. "SpVgg" finished on top of that league in its first year and gained promotion to the "2nd Amateurliga Oberschwaben" where they played for two season before being relegated back down. Immediately winning promotion back to the "2nd Amateurliga", the club managed to stay there this time, archiving a championship in this league in 1961. "SpVgg Lindau" however failed to gain promotion to the Amateurliga Schwarzwald-Bodensee, losing its promotion matches.

The year after, the club archived its goal, promotion to the third division "Amateurliga Schwarzwald-Bodensee", on the strength of another "2nd Amateurliga" championship. In 1966, the "SpVgg" managed to win the "Württemberg Cup" with a 5-3 victory over the "TSG Backnang". This qualified them for the "Southern German Cup" where they lost 0-6 to SSV Reutlingen. In 1968, they won the cup again, this time with a 1-0 victory over "Union Böckingen".

In league football, a second place in the Amateurliga (III) in 1967 and 1973 were the greatest success the club archived so far in its history.

With the reorganisation of league football in Germany and Baden-Württemberg, mainly the interception of the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg and the Verbandsliga Württemberg, the "SpVgg" found itself relegated to fourth tier, missing the qualification to the new "Oberliga" by only finishing 11th in the "Amateurliga". Sixteen years of being a third-division outfit came to an end.

Relegated to the "Landesliga", things got worse for the "SpVgg Lindau" in 1979-80, when the club was relegated again, to the Bezirksliga. In 1982, the club managed to correct this by winning the "Bezirksliga" and gaining promotion back to the "Landesliga". To this league, they only belonged for two seasons, being relegated again in 1984. In 1985, the drop got even worse when the "SpVgg" was relegated to the seventh-tier "Kreisliga A", the clubs deepest fall ever.

In 1988, the club managed to rectivy this disgrace, winning the league and promoting themselves back to the "Bezirksliga", largly on the strength of its goalgetter Thommes who scored 37 goals in 26 games. Nine years in this league followed, with a fourth place in 1991-92 the highlight. In 1997, the club went down again, but only for one season, where the club only suffered one defeat and won promotion comfertably.

Under coach Andreas Wagenhaus, a former East German international, the club came close to promotion with a third place finish in the "Bezirksliga" in 2000, but only two years later, relegation was unavoidable again. In the 2007-08 season, the SpVgg Lindau still plays in the "Kreisliga A Staffel II". In the seasons 2006 and 2007, the club finished as fifth placed team, well away from promotion or relegation.

The "SpVgg Lindau" has a somewhat unique geographical location in German football, based only a few kilometres from the Austrian border, within view of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is hardly surprising then, that for its under-16s girls tournament in 2008, of the eight invited clubs three are from Germany, two each from Switzerland and Austria and one from Lichtenstein.

The two closest professional football teams to the "SpVgg Lindau" are the FC St. Gallen which play in the Swiss first division and the Austria Lustenau which plays in the Austrian second division.

Honours

*A-Klasse Oberschwaben champions: 1928
*A-Klasse Bodensee (V) champions: 1951, 1954
*2nd Amateurliga Oberschwaben (IV) champions: 1961, 1962
*Amateurliga Schwarzwald-Bodensee (III) runners-up: 1967, 1973
*Württemberg Cup winners: 1966, 1968
*Bezirksliga (VI) champions: 1982
*Kreisliga A Staffel II (VII) champions: 1988, 1998

External links

* [http://www.f-archiv.de/ Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv] historical German domestic league tables (in German)
* [http://www.fussball.de/fussball/servlet/content/100?next=/0708/013 Württemberg amateure leagues: Tables and results]
* [http://www.spvgg-lindau-1919.de/html/home.html Offical team site]

References