Eintracht Frankfurt

Club origins

The origins of the side go back to a pair of football clubs founded in 1899: Frankfurter Fußball-Club Viktoria von 1899 – regarded as the "original" football side in the club's history – and Frankfurter Fußball-Club Kickers von 1899. Both clubs were founding members of the new Nordkreis-Liga in 1909. These two teams merged in May 1911 to become Frankfurter Fußball Verein (Kickers-Viktoria), an instant success, taking three league titles from 1912 to 1914 in the Nordkreis-Liga and qualifying for the Southern German championship in each of those seasons. In turn, Frankfurter FV joined the gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 to form TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 in 1920. (The German word Eintracht means 'harmony, concord,' and Eintracht X is the equivalent of English X United in the names of sports teams.)

Pre-Bundesliga history

At the time, sports in Germany was dominated by nationalistic gymnastics organizations, and under pressure from that sport's governing authority, the gymnasts and footballers went their separate ways again in 1927, as Turngemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 and Sportgemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt (FFV) von 1899.

Through the late 1920s and into the 1930s, Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships, first in the Kreisliga Nordmain, then in the Bezirksliga Main and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen. After being eliminated from the national level playoffs after quarterfinal losses in 1930 and 1931, they won their way to the final in 1932 where they were beaten 0–2 by Bayern Munich, who claimed their first ever German championship. In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauligen under the Third Reich and the club played first division football in the Gauliga Südwest, consistently finishing in the upper half of the table and winning their division in 1938.

Eintracht picked up where they left off after World War II, playing as a solid side in the first division Oberliga Süd and capturing division titles in 1953 and 1959. Their biggest success came on the heels of that second divisional title as they went on to a 5–3 victory over local rivals Kickers Offenbach to take the 1959 German national title and followed up immediately with an outstanding run in the 1960 European Cup. Eintracht lost 3–7 to Real Madrid in an exciting final that was widely regarded as one of the best football matches ever played, which included a hat-trick by Alfredo Di Stéfano.

Founding member of the Bundesliga

The side continued to play good football and earned themselves a place as one of the original 16 teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, formed in 1963. Eintracht played Bundesliga football for 33 seasons, finishing in the top half of the table for the majority of them. Their best Bundesliga performances were five third-place finishes: they ended just two points back of champion VfB Stuttgart in 1991–92.

The team also narrowly avoided relegation on several occasions. In 1984, they defeated MSV Duisburg 6–1 on aggregate, and in 1989 they beat 1. FC Saarbrücken 4–1 on aggregate, in two-game playoffs. Eintracht finally slipped and were relegated to 2. Bundesliga for the 1996–97 season. At the time that they were sent down alongside 1. FC Kaiserslautern, these teams were two of only four sides that had been in the Bundesliga since the league's inaugural season.

It looked as though they would be out again in 1998–99, but they pulled through by beating defending champions Kaiserslautern 5–1, while 1. FC Nürnberg unexpectedly lost at home to give Eintracht the break they needed to stay up. The following year, in another struggle to avoid relegation, the club was "fined" two points by the German Football Association (DFB) for financial misdeeds, but pulled through with a win by a late goal over SSV Ulm on the last day of the season. The club was plagued by financial difficulties again in 2004 before once more being relegated.

Between 1997 and 2005, Eintracht has bounced between the top two divisions.

The 2010–11 season ended with the club's fourth Bundesliga relegation. After setting a new record for most points in the first half of the season, the club struggled after the winter break. After seven games without scoring a goal, coach Michael Skibbe was doubted, and despite the team winning the next game, Skibbe was sacked and replaced with Christoph Daum. The change, however, did little to change Eintracht's fortunes, as the club achieved only three draws out of the last seven games and were subsequently relegated on the 34th matchday.

One year later, Eintracht defeated Alemannia Aachen 3–0 on the 32nd match day of the 2011–12 season, thus qualifying for the Bundesliga.

In 2015–16, Eintracht had the 19th-highest attendance in Europe, ahead of such prominent clubs as Atlético Madrid, Celtic and Paris Saint-Germain.

Success outside the Bundesliga

The club has enjoyed considerable success in competition outside the Bundesliga. Eintracht famously lost the European Cup final to Real Madrid on 18 May 1960 at Hampden Park 7–3 in front of 127,621 spectators. It is one of the most talked about European matches of all time, with Alfredo Di Stéfano scoring three and Ferenc Puskás scoring the other four in Real's victory.

In 1967, Eintracht won the Intertoto Cup after beating Inter Bratislava in the final.

Eintracht won the DFB-Pokal in 1974, 1975, 1981 and 1988, and took the UEFA Cup over another German team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, in 1980. More recently, Eintracht were the losing finalists in the 2005–06 DFB-Pokal. Their opponents in the final, that year's Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, previously qualified to participate in the Champions League. As a result, Eintracht, received the DFB-Pokal's winner's place in the UEFA Cup, where they advanced to the group stage.

Besides playing friendlies against famous clubs from all of the world, Eintracht also played friendly matches against national teams from the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Kenia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaya, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Tunisia and Vietnam.

Colours, crest and nicknames

The club crest derives from the coat of arms of Frankfurt, which is a reference to the one-headed imperial eagle of the 13th century.

The crest has evolved slowly over time, showing little significant change until 1980 when a stylized eagle in black and white was chosen to represent the team. In Eintracht's centennial year of 1999, the club board decided to re-adopt a more traditional eagle crest. Since 2006, Eintracht has had a living mascot, the golden eagle Attila from the nearby Hanau Zoo, who is very popular among supporters.

The official club colours of red, black, and white have their origins in the colours of the founding clubs Frankfurter FC Viktoria and Frankfurter FC Kickers, which sported red and white and black and white respectively. Red and white are the colours of the city coat of arms, and black and white the colours of Prussia. When the clubs merged, officials decided to adopt the colours of both sides. Since local rival Kickers Offenbach sport the colours red and white, Eintracht avoids playing in such a kit, preferring to play in black and red, or in black and white.

The club is nicknamed "Die Adler" ("The Eagles"), which derives from their crest. A nickname still popular among supporters is SGE, taken from the club's old official name Sportgemeinde Eintracht (Frankfurt), roughly translated to "Sports community United."

The nickname Launische Diva ("Moody Diva") was heard most often in the early 1990s when the club would comfortably defeat top teams only to surprisingly lose to lesser clubs. This nickname was also held to refer to what was regarded as the dubious work of some club chairmen, including for example, the failure to record the transfer fee of Hungarian star player Lajos Détári on club books. The current reign of Heribert Bruchhagen appears to have left these practises to the past.

National

International

Regional

Green denotes the highest level of football in Germany; yellow the second highest.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

World Cup

Champions

World Cup 1954 – Germany

World Cup 1974 – Germany

World Cup 1990 – Germany

World Cup 2014 – Germany

Runner-up

World Cup 1954 – Hungary

World Cup 1966 – Germany

World Cup 1982 – Germany

World Cup 1986 – Germany

World Cup 2002 – Germany

Third place

World Cup 1934 – Germany

World Cup 1970 – Germany

World Cup 1982 – Poland

World Cup 2006 – Germany

World Cup 2010 – Germany

UEFA Euro/European Nations' Cup

Champions

UEFA Euro 1972 – Germany

UEFA Euro 1980 – Germany

UEFA Euro 1996 – Germany

Runner-up

European Nations' Cup 1960 – Yugoslavia

UEFA Euro 1976 – Germany

UEFA Euro 1992 – Germany

UEFA Euro 1996 – Czech Republic

Summer Olympics

Gold

Summer Olympics 1952 – Hungary

Summer Olympics 1960– Yugoslavia

Summer Olympics 1996 – Nigeria

Summer Olympics 2012 – Mexico

Silver

Summer Olympics 1924 – Switzerland

Summer Olympics 1952 – Yugoslavia

Summer Olympics 1992 – Poland

Bronze

Summer Olympics 1988 – West Germany

Records

Stadium information

The ground was inaugurated as Waldstadion ("Forest Stadium") in 1925 with the German championship final match between FSV Frankfurt vs. 1. FC Nürnberg. The facility was renovated for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. For Bundesliga fixtures the maximum capacity is 51,500 as on the East Stand next to the visitor's terrace some spaces are held free for security purposes.

Though the media usually refer to the ground by the official name, Commerzbank-Arena, Eintracht faithful typically use the name Waldstadion.

Reserves team

Eintracht Frankfurt U23 was the reserve team of Eintracht Frankfurt. The team played as U23 (Under 23) to emphasize the character of the team as a link between the youth academy and professional team and competed until 2013–14 in the regular league system in the fourth tier, the Regionalliga Süd, until the club board decided to dissolve the team.

Frankfurt derby

The 2011–12 season saw Eintracht play local rival FSV Frankfurt in a league match for the first time in almost 50 years. The last league game between the two had been played on 27 January 1962, then in the Oberliga Süd. For the first of the two matches, FSV's home game on 21 August 2011, the decision was made to move to Eintracht's stadium as FSV's Bornheimer Hang only holds less than 11,000 spectators. Eintracht won 0–4. The second match on 18 February 2012 ended in another victory for Eintracht, a 6–1 rout.

Other sections within the club

The sports club Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. is made up of eighteen sections:

The most famous athlete of Eintracht Frankfurt is Betty Heidler, the hammer thrower world champion of 2007. Other Eintracht athletes include the 2008 Olympians Andrea Bunjes, Ariane Friedrich, Kamghe Gaba and Kathrin Klaas.

The club's rugby union section twice reached the final of the German rugby union championship, in 1940 and 1965.

Within the football section, the sports club directly manages only the youth system and the reserve team. The professional footballers are managed as a separate limited corporation, Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball-AG, which is a subsidiary of the parent club.