VfB Stuttgart
German sports club with five national football titles.
VfB Stuttgart is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, whose football team competes in the Bundesliga. The club has won five national championships, four DFB-Pokals, and a record two UEFA Intertoto Cups. With over 100,000 members, it is the largest sports club in Baden-Württemberg and the eighth-largest football club in Germany.
Quick Facts
- Fullname
- Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V.
- Short name
- VfB
- Founded
- 9 September 1893
- Stadium
- MHPArena
- Owner
- Mercedes-Benz Group (10.4%)
- Porsche AG (10.4%)
- Jako AG (1.0%)
- Chairman
- Dietmar Allgaier
- Chrtitle
- President
- Mgrtitle
- Head coach
Facts from the source article.
History
VfB Stuttgart was created on 2 April 1912 through a merger of Stuttgarter FV and FC Krone Cannstatt, following a meeting at the Concordia hotel in Cannstatt. Both predecessor clubs originated as rugby sides formed by school pupils who learned the sport from English expatriates such as William Cail, who introduced rugby in 1865. Stuttgarter Fußballverein was founded on 9 September 1893 at the Zum Becher hotel in Stuttgart, initially playing rugby at Stöckach-Eisbahn before moving to Cannstatter Wasen in 1894. The club added a football section in 1908 under teacher Carl Kaufmann, drawing players from local schools. In 1909, FV became runners-up to FSV 1897 Hannover in the national rugby final, losing 6–3, but rugby was soon replaced by association football as spectators found the game too complicated. That same year, FV joined the Süddeutschen Fußballverband in the second-tier B-Klasse. In its second season, FV won a district final against future merger partner Kronen-Klub Cannstatt but lost to FV Zuffenhausen in the county championship. FV advanced to the senior Südkreis-Liga in 1912. Cannstatter Fußballklub, formed as a rugby club in 1890, quickly established a football team but dissolved after a few years; its former members reorganized as FC Krone Cannstatt in 1897 as a football-only side. Krone joined the SFV as a second-division club, won promotion in 1904, and had its own ground, which still exists as the home of TSV Münster. After the merger, the combined side played in the Kreisliga Württemberg and later the Bezirksliga Württemberg-Baden, earning top-three finishes and a title in 1927, and made several appearances in the final rounds of the SFV in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Stadium
VfB Stuttgart plays its home matches at the MHPArena, originally built in 1933 and located near the River Neckar on Bad Cannstatt's Mercedesstraße, close to the Mercedes-Benz Museum and factory. After several renovations, the stadium held a maximum capacity of 55,896 spectators (50,000 for international matches). It was a venue for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, hosting five preliminary round matches, a first knockout round match (England vs. Ecuador), and the third place play-off (Germany vs. Portugal). From the 2008–09 season, it was renamed the Mercedes-Benz-Arena, and in 2011 its capacity was increased to 60,449.
Rivalries, friendships and cooperations
VfB Stuttgart's longest rivalry is the city derby with Stuttgarter Kickers, but the first teams have not met since Kickers were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga in 1992. The Baden-Württemberg-Derby against Karlsruher SC has grown in importance, reflecting old Badenese-Württembergian animosities. The rivalry with Bayern Munich, called the Süd-/South Derby, is largely one-sided, with VfB fans resenting Bayern for signing Stuttgart players and coaches such as Giovane Élber, Felix Magath, Mario Gómez, and Benjamin Pavard. Regional friendships exist with SSV Reutlingen 05, SpVgg Ludwigsburg, and Heidenheim. National supporter-group friendships with Energie Cottbus, 1. FC Saarbrücken, Bayer Leverkusen, and Eintracht Frankfurt have mostly been discontinued or are maintained by few groups. Current ultras friendships are with the ultras of SSV Reutlingen 05 and Italian club Cesena. In 2005, VfB signed a cooperation treaty with Swiss Super League side St. Gallen, focusing on youth sectors.
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