Frankfurt Universe

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AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V.Flag of Germany.svg
AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V.
City: Frankfurt am Main
Founded: 2007
Team colors: Purple & Orange
Head coach: Thomas Kösling
League (2018): GFL South
Current uniforms
AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V.
Greatest successes
Champion EFL Bowl 2016
Master GFL2 South / Promotion to the GFL 2015
German Bowl participation 2018
Stadion
Surname:

PSD Bank Arena

Address: Richard-Herrmann-Platz 1
60386 Frankfurt am Main
Play surface: Natural grass
Capacity: 12,542
Spectators (2017): 33,049
Average audience (2017): 4.131
Contact
Internet: frankfurt-universe.de
Data status
23 October 2018
Eternal GFL balance
year total home Selection TD ratio
S. N U S. N U S. N U
2016 12 2 0 6th 1 0 6th 1 0 546: 173
2017 12 2 0 6th 1 0 6th 1 0 588: 125
2018 12 2 0 6th 1 0 6th 1 0 504: 143
2019 11 3 0 5 2 0 6th 1 0 478: 252
total 47 9 0 23 5 0 24 4th 0 2116: 693

The AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V. is an American football club from Frankfurt am Main . He has a 100 percent stake in FUB-Frankfurt Universe Betriebs GmbH, which operates the GFL team Frankfurt Universe.

history

2007–2011: first years

The AFC Frankfurt Universe was founded on July 18, 2007 by fans and players of the former NFL European team Frankfurt Galaxy in order to offer the former Galaxy fans a new home.

2008 was the first season of the then still young club. The season ended with a good second place in the Landesliga Hessen Gruppe Süd-West (5th division). Frankfurt Universe rose after this season together with the first-placed Gießen Golden Dragons in the Oberliga Hessen / Rheinland-Pfalz (4th division).

Just like in the previous year, there was a head-to-head race with the Giessen Golden Dragons in the 2009 season , but this time Universe won and ended with a perfect season in first place and thus rose again.

The team ended their first year in the Middle Regional League (3rd division) in 2010 with a mixed record of five wins and five defeats. During this season you could gain a lot of experience for the coming year.

In the second year in league three, you could attack again in 2011. Again there was a tough duel this time with the Kaiserslautern Pikes . It was only decided on the last match day when Kaiserslautern defeated Frankfurt 27-0 at home. It was the only game of the season in which Universe could not score points, which was certainly also due to the fact that the then Universe regular quarterback Ian Mitchell was injured. The season ended in second place in the overall table. A league reform of the 1st and 2nd football Bundesliga, in which the leagues were increased to 16 teams each, gave Frankfurt Universe the chance to rise again.

2012–2015: GFL 2

Thus, the team played in the 2nd Bundesliga for the first time in the 2012 season. Together with the Allgäu Comets , who had also been promoted to the second division, the newcomer mixed up the league. At the end of the season, however, they clearly had to admit defeat to the Comets. The 16-0 home win against the Allgäu Comets, the Allgäu's only zero defeat this year, will be remembered.

The 2013 season was as successful as 2012 with a similar result. The Allgäu Comets came first in the GFL2 Süd, Frankfurt Universe came second again. The Allgäu Comets rose to the first division after a successful relegation against the Wiesbaden Phantoms .

For 2014, the goal of promotion to league one was issued. However, after a bad 4-1 start to the season, this goal had to be corrected downwards quite early in the season. In the meantime, you were even on the bottom of the table and you played for relegation instead of promotion. The team was able to turn things around again with an increase in performance in the second half of the season and in the meantime move up to second place in the table.

On June 6, 2014, it was decided at a general meeting that the first team would be spun off into FFB-Frankfurter Football Betriebs GmbH & Co. KG under the management of the entrepreneur Matthias Mämpel. Furthermore, it was announced in September that the first team will appear under the new name Galaxy Frankfurt by Universe in the 2015 season, based on the former professional team . The aim of the spin-off was to make football in Frankfurt more professional again.

With the 20:17 win on August 16, 2015 against the Ingolstadt Dukes in front of around 7,000 spectators, the team was already champion of the German Football League 2 South three game days before the end of the season . Due to the non-appearance of the last place in the GFL Süd, the Franken Knights , Frankfurt was confirmed as a newcomer and played first class from 2016. This was the first participation of a Frankfurt team in the first division since the end of the Frankfurt Lions in 1985.

Frankfurt versus Nuremberg (2015)

On October 4, 2015, the team won an international comparison for the first time. The friendly game, which was held as the “European Battle of Champions”, won 27:24 against the English champions, the London Warriors . So the record with 15-0 wins in 2015 remains flawless.

On October 28, 2015, the contract with FFB-Frankfurter Football Betriebs GmbH & Co.KG was extraordinarily terminated, as it had been concealed that the naming rights to Frankfurt Galaxy would still be with the NFL, and the concealment of a warning from 8. October 2014 would represent a particularly serious breach of trust. FUB-Frankfurt Universe Betriebs GmbH was then founded as the new operating company, in which the association holds a 100 percent share.

Since 2016: GFL

On April 11, 2016, Frankfurt Universe announced that it had signed a three-year contract with Samsung and that the team will now appear as Samsung Frankfurt Universe .

In 2016, the team took part in an official European competition, the European Football League , for the first time. It was won by a 35:21 victory in the final on June 11, 2016 in Frankfurt against the Amsterdam Crusaders .

In the first GFL season , twelve wins in fourteen games. Only against southern champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns there were two defeats. In the first play-off round, Frankfurt Universe lost 3:10 at home against the north third Kiel Baltic Hurricanes . In the 2017 season , Frankfurt Universe only lost twice in the group games against Schwäbisch Hall, then reached the semi -finals after a 26:16 quarter-final victory over the Dresden Monarchs , where they lost 21:23 at the New York Lions in Braunschweig.

In March 2018, the parent club terminated the contract with the Frankfurt Universe Betriebs GmbH (FUB) responsible for gaming operations in the GFL due to financial problems. Funds for the GFL license and the stadium rental agreement could not be raised. The former manager Matthias Mämpel had previously obtained payments of 165,000 euros in court. The insolvency proceedings were opened on July 2, 2018. Universe was in debt with 1.5 million euros at the time.

In the 2018 season Universe qualified for the German Bowl XL after the New York Lions were defeated 20:17 after extra time. There they lost on October 13, 2018 in Berlin against the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns with 19:21. The runner-up was the biggest national success so far. A year later, the Frankfurt team met the New York Lions from Braunschweig for the third time in a row in the semi-finals. This time the Lower Saxony had the better end for themselves again.

Board

The board of the AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V. consists of (as of November 2018): Alexander Landsiedel (chairman), Michael Bachmann (vice chairman), Matthias Hinkel (vice chairman), Claudia Zuck (treasurer), Bettina Schlezak (vice treasurer), Thomas Leity ( Secretary), Petra Rüdiger (sports director)

Greatest successes

Auditorium at the home game of the Frankfurt Universe against Ravensburg Razorbacks on June 11, 2011
  • 2019 2nd place GFL South; Entry into the play-offs (semi-finals)
  • 2018 participant German Bowl XL
  • 2018 participant Eurobowl XXXII
  • 2017 2nd place GFL South; Entry into the play-offs (semi-finals)
  • 2017 participant Eurobowl XXXI
  • 2016 2nd place GFL South; Entry into the play-offs
  • 2016 EFL Bowl III Champion ( European Football League )
  • 2015 Champion GFL2 Süd and promotion to the German Football League
  • 2013 runner-up GFL2 South
  • 2012 runner-up GFL2 South
  • 2011 Vice-Champion Regionalliga Mitte and at the same time promotion to the German Football League 2
  • 2009 Champion of the Oberliga (Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate) and promotion to the Middle Regional League
  • 2008 runner-up in the regional league and promotion to the major league

Stages

From 2007 to 2013, the club played most of the games on the Blau-Gelb Frankfurt e. V. (formerly PSV Blau-Gelb) in Ginnheim. The stadium had a natural grass pitch with a capacity of around 2500. In order to offer the spectators in Ginnheim a little comfort, spectator stands were set up every year. In addition, from the 2013 season onwards, individual games were played in the stadium on Sommerdamm in Rüsselsheim. This is also a natural grass pitch. The stadium has a capacity of around 7,000.

During the 2014 season, the stadium on Sommerdamm was the club's main venue. The first home game of the 2014 season was played in the Commerzbank-Arena Frankfurt in front of 6395 spectators. At the time, this was the highest number of viewers that Frankfurt Universe had achieved. In 2014, around 11,600 spectators came to the home games of Frankfurt Universe, the average was around 1,650.

The PSD Bank Arena has served as the first team's venue since 2015 . This stadium also had the highest total attendance in Universe history.

season
Total audience		 Home
games		 cut capacity workload
2009 5,719 6th 953 2,500 38.12%
2010 8,372 6th 1,395 2,500 55.80%
2011 9,980 6th 1,663 2,500 66.52%
2012 11.202 7th 1,600 2,500 64.01%
2013 8,999 7th 1,286 7,000 / 2,500 * 51.44%
2014 11,599 7th 1,657 7,000 / 51,500 * 13.64%
2015 38,149 7th 5,450 12,542 43.45%
2016 31,151 8th 3,894 12,542 31.05%
2017 33,049 8th 4.131 12,542 32.94%
2018 14,857 8th 1,857 12,542 14.81%
2019 19,214 8th 2,402 12,542 19.15%

Remarks:

  • colored background of the lines: Mainly Ginnheim Stadium ; Mainly the stadium on the Sommerdamm in Rüsselsheim ; Volksbank Stadium Frankfurt / PSD Bank Arena
  • Capacity information marked with * refer to the fact that some of the games were played in a different stadium.

Head coaches

1John Rosenberg left the club after the 4th matchday in the 2013 season. Patrick Griesheimer and Daniel Garcia took over for him, who at the time were offense and defense coordinators at Frankfurt Universe.

Rivals

The first to be mentioned here are the Gießen Golden Dragons , with which one fought hard and intense battles in the first years of existence. At the moment this duel is mostly only in the youth field, as the first teams of the two clubs no longer play in the same league.

The derbies against city rivals, the Frankfurt Pirates, are of course no less explosive . The first meeting came in the 2010 season when the Pirates were able to keep the upper hand both times and were promoted to the second division before Frankfurt Universe. After a year break, there were new matches against the Pirates in the 2012 season; this time there was a defeat. In 2013 the Pirates could be defeated for the first time ever. This series was continued in the 2014 season, in which there were also two wins. There will be no further clash between the two teams for the time being, as the Pirates were relegated in 2014 as bottom of the table in GFL 2 South.

Another rivalry connects Frankfurt Universe with the Kaiserslautern Pikes due to the hard-fought games in the past.

During their time in the second division, the Wiesbaden Phantoms emerged as another rival. The duels between the two teams were sometimes very emotional, which was probably due to the fact that players from both clubs occasionally switched sides. Frankfurt was able to win every comparison against Wiesbaden in this phase.

Teams in the AFC Universe Frankfurt e. V.

  • Frankfurt Universe Men (Tackle Football)
  • Frankfurt Universe U19 youth (tackle football) / from November 2018 in a syndicate with the Rüsselsheim Crusaders under the name Crusaders of the Universe
  • Frankfurt Universe U17 youth (tackle football) / from November 2018 in a syndicate with the Rüsselsheim Crusaders under the name Crusaders of the Universe
  • Frankfurt Universe U16 youth (tackle football) / from November 2018 in a syndicate with the Rüsselsheim Crusaders under the name Crusaders of the Universe
  • Frankfurt Universe U13 youth (tackle football) / from April 2019 in a syndicate with the Rüsselsheim Crusaders under the name Crusaders of the Universe
  • Purple Flags (Flag Football)
  • Frankfurt Universe (Cheerleading)
  • Frankfurt Universe (Cheerleading Stunt Team)

All season results since 2008 (men)

(group matches only)

season league space Victories Defeats draw
2008 Landesliga Hessen Group South-West 2. 4th 2 0
2009 Oberliga Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate 1. 8th 0 0
2010 Regional league middle 4th 5 5 0
2011 Regional league middle 2. 9 1 0
2012 German Football League 2 South 2. 9 4th 1
2013 German Football League 2 South 2. 9 4th 1
2014 German Football League 2 South 3. 8th 6th 0
2015 German Football League 2 South 1. 14th 0 0
2016 German Football League South 2. 12 2 0
2017 German Football League South 2. 12 2 0
2018 German Football League South 2. 12 2 0
2019 German Football League South 2. 11 3 0

(As of September 2018)

Honors and achievements worth mentioning

withdrawn jersey numbers
No. Nat. Surname position time
20th GermanyGermany Martin Latka 2 Linebacker 2007-2016
8th GermanyGermany Kai Schlegel 3 Defensive line 2007-2016
2Martin Latka was a founding member of Frankfurt Universe and is a former Frankfurt Galaxy player .
3 Kai Schlegel has played for the club since Frankfurt Universe was founded and is the club's record player as of October 2016 with 117 out of 118 possible games.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official statistics page of the German Football League
  2. ↑ a b Dresden calls for exclusion for Frankfurt sz-online.de, July 17, 2018.
  3. ↑ Universe members vote for the GFL2 team to be outsourced to a capital company
  4. ↑ Universe becomes Galaxy
  5. ↑ Frankfurt Galaxy early master ( memento of the original from August 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Hessenschau.de, August 16, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hessenschau.de
  6. ^ Termination of the shareholder and marketing agreement afc-universe.de, October 28, 2015
  7. ↑ Lila Lügen fr-online.de, October 28, 2015
  8. ↑ Samsung is the new namesake and main sponsor of Frankfurt Universe for the next three years. (No longer available online.) In: Frankfurt Universe. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016 ; Retrieved April 11, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frankfurt-universe.de
  9. ↑ EFL Bowl: Samsung Frankfurt Universe celebrates 35:21 victory over Amsterdam Crusaders. In: Eurobowl.info. European Federation of American Football, June 12, 2016, accessed June 12, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Parent club terminates contract with financially troubled GmbH. Frankfurter Neue Presse, March 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ 1.5 million in debt - Universe filed for bankruptcy. Hessenschau, July 2, 2018, accessed on July 4, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Universe in the German Bowl . In: Darmstädter Echo . October 1, 2018, p. 31 .
  13. ↑ AFC Universe Frankfurt eV - Imprint. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Touchdowns on Bornheimer Hang ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fnp.de
  15. ^ Frankfurt Galaxy in future in the FSV stadium
  16. ↑ Sport1.de: GFL: Frankfurt Universe separates from Head Coach Brian Caler. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Hesse-looking de, Frankfurt Germany: Football: Brian Caler and Frankfurt Universe separate. August 6, 2019, accessed on March 15, 2020 (German).
  18. ↑ Crusaders of the Universe! afc-universe.de, November 12, 2018
  19. ↑ Kai Schlegel's number 8 is no longer assigned ( memento of the original from October 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frankfurt-universe.de