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FSV Zwickau

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FSV Zwickau
Full nameFußball-Sport-Verein Zwickau e.V.
Nickname(s)Die Schwäne (The Swans)
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
GroundStadion Zwickau
Capacity10,134[contradictory][citation needed]
ChairmanGerhard Neef[citation needed]
ManagerRico Schmitt
LeagueRegionalliga Nordost
2023–2412th
Websitehttps://www.fsv-zwickau.de/
Current season

FSV Zwickau is a German association football club located in Zwickau, Saxony. Today's club claims as part of its complex heritage sides that were East Germany's first champions: 1948 Ostzone winners SG Planitz and 1950 DDR-Oberliga champions ZSG Horch Zwickau.

History

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In addition to the earliest East German championship sides, current day club FSV Zwickau can name a long list of other local associations among its predecessors.

Planitzer Sportclub

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Fußball-Club Planitz was established 27 April 1912 in a village of that name located south of Zwickau. On 28 August that year the team adopted the name Planitzer Sportclub and in 1918 was briefly known as Sportvereinigung Planitz, before again becoming SC on 2 February 1919. The club's first notable appearance was in the playoffs of the regional Mitteldeutschland (Central German) league in 1931 that saw them advance as far as the semi-finals.

Under the Nazis, German football was reorganized in 1933 into sixteen top-flight divisions known as Gauligen. Planitz played in the Gauliga Sachsen where they struggled early on, but improved steadily until, in the early 1940s, they regularly duelled rivals Dresdner SC for the division title, taking the prize in 1942. They advanced to the national level quarter finals where they were put out 2–3 by eventual vice-champions Vienna Wien. Through the late 1930s and early 1940s, Dresdner made several early round appearances in play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's DFB-Pokal (German Cup).

Ostzone winners in divided Germany

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Historical chart of Zwickau league performance

In the aftermath of World War II, most German organizations, including sports and football clubs, were dissolved by the occupying Allied authorities. In 1945, the club became part of Sportgruppe Planitz, an association made up of several area clubs. Football competition quickly resumed throughout the country and SG emerged as champions of the Soviet-controlled Ostzone (East Zone) through a 1–0 victory over SG Freiimfelde Halle on 4 July 1948 in Leipzig. The club was scheduled to represent the eastern region of the country in the national playoffs in a preliminary round match versus 1. FC Nürnberg, but were denied permission to travel to Stuttgart to play the match as a result of early Cold War tensions between the Soviets and the Western Allies. Nürnberg went on to claim the national title in a playoff staged under the authority of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball Bund) and made up entirely of Westzonen (Western Zones) teams. The following year Planitz had a poor season and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

In 1950, the club became part of BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau, another postwar side which had been formed 14 June 1949. Sometime in 1951, part of this club broke away to become BSG Fortschritt Planitz which would in 1990 re-adopt the name SV Planitz. The remainder of Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau was re-christened BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau.

BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau

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This club also claimed the 1948 Ostzone champions as part of its lineage. They slipped to lower level local competition until re-appearing in the third tier 2. DDR-Liga, Staffel 4 in 1958. They won that division in 1962 were promoted to the DDR-Liga, Staffel Süd (II). After several undistinguished campaigns,[according to whom?] they became part of BSG Motor Zwickau in 1968 which was renamed BSG Sachsenring Zwickau on 1 May that year.

East Germany's first champions

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Like many other teams in Soviet-occupied East Germany, Planitz would undergo a number of name changes associating the club with the "socialist work force" in various sectors of the economy in a commonly used propaganda device. They were renamed ZSG Horch Zwickau in 1949 and became part of East Germany's new top-flight circuit, the DDR-Oberliga, for the inaugural 1949–50 season. They emerged as the league's first champions with a disputed victory over SG Dresden-Friedrichstadt on the last day of the season.

The unfortunate[tone] Dresdners had run afoul[tone] of Communist authorities, which regarded the club as being too bourgeois. Zwickau played a viciously[according to whom?] physical game and, abetted by the referee who refused the homeside substitutions and eventually reduced Friedrichstadt to an eight-man squad, "won" the match 5–1. Unhappy, Dresden Friedrichstadt fans invaded the field several times, and at game's end, badly beat a Zwickau player. Mounted police were called in to restore order. Within weeks, the Dresden side was dismantled and the players scattered to other teams: most eventually fled to the west, many to play for Hertha Berlin. What occurred in this match foreshadowed what would become commonplace in East German football, as highly placed politicians or bureaucrats manipulated clubs and matches for various purposes.

ZSG merged with BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau (established 14 June 1949) in 1950 becoming Betriebbsportgemeinschaft Horch Zwickau. In 1951, the club was re-christened BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau. They remained competitive through the early 1950s, but were unable to claim another national championship, as in the following decades they settled into the role[vague] of a mid- or lower-table side. Zwickau had a measure of[vague] success in play for the FDGB-Pokal, or East German Cup. After a losing cup final appearance in 1954 they won the competition in 1963, 1967 and 1975.

In 1968, the club merged with BSG Aktivist Karl Marx Zwickau to become BSG Sachsenring Zwickau. They finally took on their current name in 1990.

Internationally, the club had a good[according to whom?] European Cup Winners Cup run in season 1975–76, advancing to the semi-finals with wins over Panathinaikos, Fiorentina, and Celtic before going out against eventual cup winner Anderlecht. By the early 1980s, they had descended to play in the second tier DDR-Liga, making just intermittent re-appearances in the DDR-Oberliga.

German re-unification

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After German re-unification in 1990, the club found itself in the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (III) and, in 1994, won promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, where they played for four seasons. The team then descended through the third division to play in the fourth tier NOFV-Oberliga Süd. Financial problems[vague] in 2005 saw Zwickau demoted to the Landesliga Sachsen (V), but a successful campaign in 2005–06 earned them promotion yet again to the Oberliga. After six NOFV-Oberliga seasons, the club won the league in 2012 and earned promotion to the reformed tier four Regionalliga Nordost, where it played as an upper table side until the 2015–16 season.[1][2] Zwickau beat SV Elversberg 2–1 on aggregate in a promotion-play-off at the end of the 2015–16 season to return to the third level of German football, where it played until relegation in 2023.

Honours

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Players

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Current squad

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As of 15 September 2024[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Germany GER Benjamin Leneis
3 DF Germany GER Rene Rüther
4 DF Germany GER Kilian Senkbeil
5 DF Germany GER Lucas Albert
6 DF Germany GER Philipp Heller
7 MF Germany GER Yannic Voigt
8 MF Germany GER Maximilian Somnitz
10 MF Germany GER Jahn Herrmann
11 FW Germany GER Theo Martens
12 GK Germany GER Leon Asseth
13 MF Germany GER Mike Könnecke
15 MF Kazakhstan KAZ Andrej Startsev
16 DF Germany GER Sandro Sengersdorf
No. Pos. Nation Player
17 DF Germany GER Jonas Dittrich
18 MF Germany GER Lukas Eixler
21 MF Germany GER Randolf Riesen
22 DF Germany GER Oliver Fobassam
23 MF Germany GER Felix Schlüsselburg
24 FW Germany GER Felix Klein
27 DF Germany GER Lloyd-Addo Kuffour
28 FW Kosovo KOS Veron Dobruna
29 FW Germany GER Felix Pilger
30 GK Germany GER Lucas Hiemann
31 DF Germany GER Sonny Ziemer
33 FW Germany GER Marc-Philipp Zimmermann

Notable players

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Managers

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  • Fritz Müller (1949)
  • Hans Ulbricht (1949/50)
  • Herbert Melzer (1950)
  • Erich Dietel (1950/55)
  • Hans Höfer (1955/57)
  • Karl Dittes (1957/64)
  • Horst Oettler (1964/65)
  • Heinz Werner (1965/66)
  • Horst Oettler (1966/67)
  • Joachim Seiler (1967/68)

European record

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Season Competition Round County Club Total score 1st game 2nd game Name PUC
1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R  HUN MTK Budapest 1–2 1–0 (T) 0–2 (U) Motor 2.0
1967/68 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R  SSSR Torpedo Moskva 0–1 0–0 (U) 0–1 (T) 1.0
1975/76 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1R  GRE Panathinaikos FC 2–0 0–0 (U) 2–0 (T) Sachsenring 10.0
1/8  ITA ACF Fiorentina 1–1 (5–4 ns) 0–1 (U) 1–0 (T)
1/4  SCO Celtic FC 2–1 1–1 (U) 1–0 (T)
1/2  BEL RSC Anderlecht 0–5 0–3 (T) 0–2 (U)
Total UEFA coefficient: 13.0

Recent seasons

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The recent season-by-season performance of the club:[1][2]

Year Division Tier Position
1999–2000 Regionalliga Nordost III 18th ↓
2000–01 NOFV-Oberliga Süd IV 4th
2001–02 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 6th
2002–03 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 6th
2003–04 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 8th
2004–05 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 14th ↓
2005–06 Landesliga Sachsen V 1st ↑
2006–07 NOFV-Oberliga Süd IV 9th
2007–08 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 14th
2008–09 NOFV-Oberliga Süd V 7th
2009–10 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 9th
2010–11 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 9th
2011–12 NOFV-Oberliga Süd 1st ↑
2012–13 Regionalliga Nordost IV 3rd
2013–14 Regionalliga Nordost 6th
2014–15 Regionalliga Nordost 2nd
2015–16 Regionalliga Nordost 1st ↑
2016–17 3. Liga III 5th
2017–18 3. Liga 15th
2018–19 3. Liga 7th
2019–20 3. Liga 16th
2020–21 3. Liga 10th
2021–22 3. Liga 10th
2022–23 3. Liga 19th ↓
2023–24 Regionalliga Nordost IV 12th
Key
↑ Promoted ↓ Relegated

Stadium

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Construction works in 2016
Main article: Stadion Zwickau

Since 2016, the club plays in the newly constructed GGZ-Arena in Zwickau's Eckersbach quarter. The stadium's current maximum capacity is 10,000 spectators, though this number could be increased to 15,000 in the event of a promotion to the 2. Bundesliga.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv (in German) Historical German domestic league tables
  2. ^ a b FSV Zwickau at Fussball.de (in German) Tables and results of all German football leagues
  3. ^ "Unsere Profis".
  4. ^ Berger, Knut (31 May 2016). "Neue Liga, neues Stadion, altes Personal". sportbuzzer.de (in German). Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Stadion Zwickau". fsv-zwickau.de (in German). Retrieved 19 February 2020.
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