FC Schalke 04

Did You Know?

• Schalke's stadium, the Veltins-Arena, has a capacity of 62,271 spectators and was built in 2001.
• The club's earlier stadium, the Glückauf-Kampfbahn, constructed in 1928 with a capacity of 35,000, is still used for ceremonial purposes.
• Schalke was the subject of a feature-length comedy film called Fußball ist unser Leben, featuring cameos by manager Rudi Assauer and coaches Huub Stevens and Helmut Schulte.

History

A group of high school students founded the club on 4 May 1904, calling it Westfalia Schalke and initially playing in red and yellow. Because the Westdeutscher Spielverband refused to admit them, they competed in one of the unofficial "wild associations" that dotted early German football. After several unsuccessful attempts to join the official league, they merged in 1912 with the gymnastics club Schalker Turnverein 1877 to finally gain entry. This partnership lasted until 1915, when SV Westfalia Schalke split off as an independent club again, but the separation did not last.

By 1919, the two had reunited as Turn- und Sportverein Schalke 1877. Their first trophy came in 1923, when they won the Schalke Kreisliga championship. Around then, the team earned the nickname Die Knappen, an old German term for "miners," because so many players and fans came from Gelsenkirchen's coal mines. In 1924, the footballers broke away from the gymnasts once more, this time taking the club chairman with them.

They adopted the name FC Schalke 04 and switched to the blue and white kit that gave them their second nickname, Die Königsblauen. The next year, they became the top local team, relying on a style of short, sharp, man-to-man passing that later became known as the Schalker Kreisel. In 1927, this approach propelled them into the top-tier Gauliga Ruhr, where they won the league title and advanced to the opening rounds of the national finals. The club's popularity soared, particularly among the working class.

In 1928, they built the Glückauf-Kampfbahn stadium and changed their name to FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04. They claimed their first West German championship in 1929, but the following year the league sanctioned them for exceeding salary limits, a serious offense in an era that frowned on professionalism. The ban kept them out of play for nearly six months. It did not hurt their appeal, though: their first match back, against Fortuna Düsseldorf in June 1931, drew 70,000 fans to their home ground.

The club reached the semi-finals of the 1932 German championship, losing 1–2 to Eintracht Frankfurt, and then made the final the next year, where Fortuna Düsseldorf beat them 3–0.

Sponsors and finances

As of 2022, Schalke 04's main sponsor was Hisense, a Chinese electronics maker. Since 2026, the shirt front has been sponsored by Beumer Group. The club cut ties with Russian gas firm Gazprom in February 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. Other backers include ERGO Insurance Group, BMW and its motorcycle division, Reale Seguros, Huawei, bet-at-home.com, Coca-Cola, Veltins, and kit supplier Adidas.

The club reported an operating income of €13 million in 2014 and had 12% debt by May 2019. That same year, it ranked 14th globally for revenue at €291 million. Forbes also placed Schalke 14th among the world's richest clubs in May 2019, valuing it at €683 million—a 3% drop from the prior year. By 2022, it had fallen out of the top 20 in both revenue and value.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Schalke hard; in April 2020, the club warned it faced bankruptcy. In October 2024, it signed a two-year sponsorship with Rootz Ltd.'s Wildz brand. A January 2024 Sky report suggested the club's finances could spell its end: if relegated from the 2. Bundesliga, it would likely fail to get a license for the 3.

Liga and drop to the Regionalliga West, the fourth tier. In that scenario, the current squad and staff would leave on free transfers.

Fan culture

FC Schalke 04 saw its membership balloon from 10,000 in 1991 to 160,000 by 2022. That growth made it Germany’s second-largest sports club and the fourth-largest globally, trailing only Bayern Munich, Benfica, and Boca Juniors. In UEFA’s 2022 club rankings, Schalke sat in 94th place among European sides. A 2014 breakdown of the membership showed that 20% were women and 14% were children aged ten or younger. About 30% of members lived outside North Rhine-Westphalia. While Gelsenkirchen itself had 10,197 members, others hailed from farther afield, including 1,117 from Cologne and 932 from Berlin. The club’s own promotions, especially after 2013, helped drive this surge in membership.

On 21 August 2013, Schalke hosted Greek side PAOK in a Champions League qualifier at the Veltins-Arena, drawing 1–1. The match was overshadowed by a controversial police action in the “S04 Ultras Gelsenkirchen” section, which left nearly 80 home fans injured. The return leg, a 3–2 Schalke win, was played without any Schalke supporters allowed in the stadium. In 2025, during an away match in Dublin, Ireland, ultras from the group were reported to have attacked two journalists while appearing to make fascist salutes.

The Schalke 04 Fan Club Association (SFCV) serves as an umbrella group for an estimated 1,500 fan clubs. As of October 2012, 860 of those clubs were geographically distributed: roughly 200 in the Ruhr region, 360 in the rest of North Rhine-Westphalia, and 300 in other German states. A board member of the SFCV holds a permanent seat on the FC Schalke 04 board. In 2013, the SFCV merged with “Ultras Gelsenkirchen” and later with the supporters’ club Schalke Fan-Initiative eV. However, several members of prominent fan groups within the SFCV felt that the merger failed to properly represent fan interests.

Other departments

Schalke 04’s basketball team had a stint in Germany’s top league, the Basketball Bundesliga, during the 1988–89 season. From 2004 onward, they spent several years in the ProA, the country’s second division, before voluntarily stepping down in 2009. The team now plays in the ProB. In 2015, the club started a blind football section that competes in the Blindenfußball-Bundesliga.

The women’s football side dissolved in the mid-1980s after winning five Westphalia championships and appearing in both the German championship and the DFB Cup. Between 2007 and 2010, Schalke partnered with 1. FFC Recklinghausen, and a new women’s team was formed in July 2020, entering Kreisliga B, the eighth tier, in 2021. The handball department dates back to 1926 and has played in the Gaumeister and Gauliga under Nazi rule, as well as the current top division.

The athletics section, founded in 1922, produced Olympic decathlon silver medalist Frank Busemann and 200-meter European junior champion Sebastian Ernst. Table tennis began in 1947, with the women’s team an early participant in the national league until its withdrawal in 1956; the squad now plays in the Westphalia district league. In 2016, Schalke bought the League of Legends e-sports team Elements, becoming the second pro sports club with a League of Legends division after Beşiktaş.

They debuted in the European League of Legends Championship Series, and former midfielder Tim Reichert, a co-founder of SK Gaming, was named Head of ESport.