1. FC Kaiserslautern

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1. FC Kaiserslautern is a German football club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. On June 2, 1900 Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC 1900. That club went on to join FC Palatia (1901) and FC Bavaria (1902) in 1909 to form FV 1900 Kaiserslautern. In 1929 they fused with SV Phönix to become FV Phönix-Kaiserslautern before finally taking on their current name three years later.

1 History
2 Honours
3 Club Culture
4 Famous players and contributors
5 Team trivia
6 Memorable matches
7 2005/06 Squad
8 External links

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History

The team passed largely unremarked through its early years and spent the 30's bouncing up and down between the Bezirksliga and the upper level Gauliga. After World War II, southwestern Germany was part of the occupation zone held by the French. Teams there were organized into northern and southern divisions and played to determine which of them would join the new Oberliga being put together. French authorities were slow to loose their control over play in their zones of occupation – in the Saarland in particular – and teams in those areas were longer in joining the re-established German national league. 1. FC Kaiserslautern easily won the northern division in 1947, in large part due to the play of Fritz Walter and his brother Ottmar who scored 46 goals between them – more than any other single team. The team successfully defended their French zone title the next year and went on to the first post-war national final where they lost (1:2) to Nuremburg. In each of the following two seasons they repeated as French zone champions before foundering in the playoff rounds for the national championship.

Kaiserslautern became a dominant side through the early 50's, finally capturing their first German championship in 1951 with a (2:1) victory of their own, this time over Preussen Münster. They won a second title in 1953, followed by two losing final appearances in 1954 and 1955. The club also sent five players to the national side for the 1954 World Cup which West Germany won in what became popularly known as The Miracle of Bern.

Kaiserslautern's performance through the decade was good enough to earn them selection in 1963 as one of the sixteen teams to play in Germany's new professional football league, the Bundesliga. The club's next honours would be some time in coming: they made failed German Cup final appearances in 1961, 1972, 1976, and 1981 before finally winning in the Cup in 1990. They followed up the next season with their first Bundesliga championship.

1. FCK won a second German Cup in 1996, but that victory was soured when the team was relegated to 2.Bundesliga with a 16th place finish that same season. At the time, Kaiserslautern was one of only four of the original sixteen teams that had played in each Bundesliga season since the inception of the league, never having been relegated (Kaiserslautern, Eintracht Frankfurt who went down in the same season, 1. FC Köln down in 1998, and "the Dinosaur" unrelegated Hamburger SV).

The Red Devils came storming back in 1998 with an accomplishment unique in Bundesliga history by winning re-promotion to the first division from the 2.Bundesliga and immediately going on to win the national championship under famous coach Otto Rehhagel.

The club found itself in serious trouble soon after. The construction of a new stadium, incompetent management and financial misdeeds resulted in a heavy debt load and the fielding of incapable sides built out of anonymous mercenary players. In 2003, Kaiserslautern found itself on the brink of bankruptcy and at the centre of controversy being played out publicly. The club's management – Jürgen Friedrich, Robert Wieschemann and Gerhard Herzog – were forced out. A new team president, Rene C. Jäggi, saved the club from financial disaster, while a new coach, Erik Gerets, led a run after the winter break that moved the footballers out of last place and saved them from relegation. The club started the next season under the burden of a three-point penalty imposed by the DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund or German Football Association) for its financial misdeeds.

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Honours

German Champion: 1951, 1953
German Champion (Bundesliga): 1991, 1998
German Cup: 1990, 1996

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Club Culture

The Fritz-Walter-Stadium is built on the Betzenberg, literally the "Betzenmountain", a steep hill that requires some stamina to scale if you take in an FCK match. The stadium had long been a feared away venue given the rabid ferocity of Kaiserslautern fans: the most faithful of these supporters sit in the stadium's "Westkurve" (West Side). Most famously, Bayern Munich once lost a match here in a charged atmosphere by a score of (4:7) after leading (4:1) at halftime. However, partly due to the team's decline, and the expansion of the stadium, the "Betzenberg" is no longer as daunting a venue as it once was.

The club has friendly ties to TSV 1860 Munich and are bitter rivals of Waldhof Mannheim and Bayern Munich. They also have lesser local rivalries with Eintracht Frankfurt and, more recently, with FSV Mainz 05.

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Famous players and contributors

Kaiserslautern has sent more than twenty players to the national side, including five who played on West Germany's 1954 World Cup "Miracle of Bern" side:

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1950s stars

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Modern Age stars

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Contributors

Karl-Heinz Feldkamp was the coach who led 1. FCK to the German Cup in 1990 and the German Championship in 1991.
Stefan Kuntz is best known for being jibed at on English TV and in the 1998 football video Three Lions, but was instrumental in England's undoing at Euro 96.
Otto Rehhagel coached the team to its 1998 Bundesliga championship.
Markus Merk is the well known and respected German FIFA referee. He was elected two times as World Referee of the Year.

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Team trivia

Among the famous, FCK can count as fans Kurt Beck, the current prime minister of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and former German chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Kaiserslautern is by far the smallest city (pop. 99,000) to ever have a German Bundesliga championship team (in 1991 and 1998). The next smallest is Braunschweig with 245,000 inhabitants (in 1967).

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Memorable matches

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1.FC Kaiserslautern - Bayern Munich 7:4

Date: October 20, 1973

After 56 minutes, Bayern Munich led 4:1. But within 180 seconds, FCK strikers Toppmöller and Pirrung had made the score 3:4, and ten minutes from the end of the game, Pirrung scored the 4:4. The Betzenberg literally exploded when Diehl scored the 5:4 for the Red Devils in the 84th minute, and Laumen added two late goals to make it 7:4. This game is considered to be the finest Betzenberg comeback ever.

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1.FC Kaiserslautern - Real Madrid 5:0

Date: March 17, 1982

After losing the first game with 1:3, 1. FCK had two win with 2:0 at least. After 17 minutes already, Friedhelm Funkel had scored two goals. The Spaniards - who also featured Uli Stielike from archenemy Waldhof Mannheim saw San Jose and Cunningham sent off before the 40th minute. Eilenfeldt and Geye made the score 5:0, only interrupted by the third Real player sent off (Pineda).

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1.FC Kaiserslautern - FC Barcelona 3:1

Date: November 6, 1991

After surprisingly winning the German Championship, 1. FCK played the European Cup I. Barca convincingly won the first game 2:0. In the first half, 1. FCK striker Demir Hotic scored two goals, and in the 76th minute, the Fritz-Walter-Stadium (as it was called now) erupted, after Bjarne Goldbaek scored the 3:0. But in injury time, a desperation cross by Ronald Koeman found José Maria Bakero. The small striker took a header from nearly outside the box (!) which somehow went in.

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