Kickers Offenbach

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Kickers Offenbach is a German football club in Offenbach am Main, Hessen. The club was founded on May 27, 1901 in the Rheinischer Hof restaurant by footballers who left already established local clubs including Melitia, Teutonia, Viktoria, Germania and Neptun.

The club played anonymously until about the time German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen regional Gauliga. The team was able to advance as far as the semi-finals in the national championship rounds of 1942 where they were put out by Schalke 04 who were on their way to their sixth championship as the era's most dominant side.

After World War II, Offenbach continued their emergence as a strong side in the Oberliga Süd. In 1949, they advanced again to the national semi-finals and again were put out by the eventual champions, this time VfR Mannheim. The next year they made an appearance in the final, losing 1:2 to VfB Stuttgart.

Kickers returned to the final in 1959 where they dropped a 3:5 decision to Eintracht Frankfurt. Throughout the post-war period and into the years leading up to the formation of Germany's first professional football league, the Bundesliga, in 1963, the team consistently finished in the upper half of their league table. In spite of this, Kickers Offenbach were not one of the sixteen teams chosen for the inaugural season of the new top flight league, with selection going instead to rival Frankfurt.

Play in the Bundesliga would have to wait until 1968. The team was immediately relegated, but returned to the upper league for play in 1970-71. In addition to their return to the Bundesliga, the club would win its only honours to date in 1970 with a 2:1 German Cup victory over 1. FC Köln. However, the end of the 1971 season would find Kickers Offenbach at the centre of the Bundesliga scandal. The club president, Horst Canellas, went to the DFB (Deutsche Fussball Bund or German Football Association) after being approached by a player from another team looking for a cash bonus for that club's effort in beating one of Offenbach's rivals in the fight against relegation. Receiving no help from league officials, Canellas began gathering evidence of how widespread the payoffs were. In the end more than fifty players from seven clubs, two coaches, and six game officals were found guilty of trying to influence the outcome of games through bribes, but Canellas was unable to save his club from relegation. The club central to the scandal – Arminia Bielefeld – would not be punished until the following season, too late to save Offenbach.

The scandal has a strongly negative effect on the young league and contributed to plummeting attendance figures. One outcome of the whole affair was the further evolution of German football. Salarly restrictions were removed and the 2.Bundesliga also became a professional league. For the players it meant that having one's club sent down no longer also meant losing one's status as a paid professional.

Kickers would spend the next seven years in the second division before making a return to the Bundesliga for just a single season in 1983-84. In 1985, financial problems led to the club being penalized points and driven into the third division Amateur Oberliga Hessen. They recovered themselves only to be denied a license in 1989 and get sent back down again. By the mid-90's they slipped as far as Oberliga Hessen (IV) and since the end of that decade have been primarily a third division club. Offenbach returned to play in the 2.Bundesliga in 2005 and despite their mixed fortunes they remain a fan favorite and are well supported.

Honours

German vice-champions: 1950, 1959
German Cup winners: 1970

External links

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