Hannover 96

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Hannover 96 is a German football club in Hannover, Lower Saxony.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Foundation to WWII
1.2 Post-War era
1.3 Reunification to present

2 Honours
3 Stadium
4 Team Trivia
5 Current Squad
6 External links

History

Foundation to WWII

The club was founded on April 12, 1896 as Hannoverscher FC 1896. Their initial enthusiasm was for athletics and rugby: football did not become their primary interest until 1899. In 1913, they merged with Ballverein Hannovera von 1898 to become Hannoverscher Sportverein (HSV) von 1896.

Under the Third Reich German football was re-organized into sixteen top-flight leagues. The club played in the Gauliga Niedersachsen as SV Hannover 96 beginning in 1933. They made their first appearance in the country's final rounds in 1935 and sent representatives to the national side the next year. They won their first national championship in 1938 in what was one of the biggest upsets in German football history when they beat Schalke 04, the game's most dominant side of the era. The two sides played to a 3:3 draw before Hannover prevailed 4:3 in a tension filled re-match. In 1942, the team moved to the newly formed Gauliga Südhannover-Braunschweig.

Post-War era

Like most other German organizations, the club was dissolved after World War II by the occupying Allied authorities. It was reconstituted in August, 1945 and the next month a mixed side made up of players from Hannover 96 and Arminia Hannover played their first post-war match against a British military team.

The club resumed league play in 1947 in the first division Oberliga Nord, was relegated, but quickly returned to the top-flight in 1949. Hannover 96's next appearance in a national final would not come until 1954 when they soundly defeated 1. FC Kaiserslautern 5:1. The beaten side included five of the same players who would go on later that year to win Germany's first World Cup in a surprise victory known as the Miracle of Bern.

The club's next honours were German amateur championships in 1960 and 1964. In 1963, the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, began play with sixteen of the nation's top teams. Hannover played in the Regionalliga Nord (II) that season, but earned promotion to the senior circuit in the following year. They played at the upper level for a decade, regularly finishing in the lower half of the table, until finally relegated to 2.Bundesliga Nord for the 1974-75 season. They bounced right back, but were again sent down, this time to spend seventeen of the next twenty years in the second tier.

Reunification to present

The club suffered from money problems in the late 70's and again in the early 90's. Then, in 1992, Hannover put together an impressive run that would lead them to the capture of their first German Cup (DFB-Pokal) and help to set their finances right. That run included victories over Bundesliga sides Borussia Dortmund, VfL Bochum, Karlsruher SC, Werder Bremen, and Borussia Moenchengladbach, as they became the first lower division side to win the competition. The team's low point came with demotion to Regionalliga Nord (III) for two years in 1996-98: the fact that the fall from the second league came during their anniversary year unfortunately made them a laughing stock among fans of rival teams for years to come. Hannover returned to tier II play in 1999, and to the Bundesliga in 2002 on the strength of a record setting 75 point season (75:27).

Honours

German Cup play has long been dominated by first division teams: Hannover's 1992 German Cup win made them the only non-Bundesliga side to take that prize since the formation of the professional league in 1963. Schwarz-Weiss Essen had become the first second division club to win the cup over thirty years earlier in 1959.

German champions: 1938, 1954
German Cup winners: 1992
German amateur champions: 1960, 1964, 1965

Stadium

Hannover 96 plays in the AWD-Arena, built in 1954 as the Niedersachsenstadion, which has a capacity of 50.000 spectators. During the 2006 World Cup the stadium was the site of four first round matches and one Round of 16 match.

Team Trivia

Hannover's advance into the Bundesliga in 1964 was well received as the club set a league attendance record in their first year, averaging 46,000 spectators a game.

Current Squad

External links

German Bundesliga Football Clubs (2006-07)

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