SV Darmstadt 98

SV Darmstadt 98
society
Surname	Sports club Darmstadt 1898 e. V.
Seat	Darmstadt , Hesse
founding	May 22, 1898
Colours	Blue White
Members	7,600 (April 11, 2020)
president	Klaus Rüdiger Fritsch
Website	sv98.de
First team
Head coach	Markus beginning
Venue	Stadium at the Böllenfalltor
Places	17,400
league	2nd Bundesliga
2019/20	5th place
home Away

The SV Darmstadt 98 is the most famous sports club in Darmstadt . The club's colors are blue and white. In addition to soccer , numerous other sports are offered. Because of the lily in the Darmstadt city coat of arms as well as in the club's logo, SV 98 is also called The Lilies .

The football department plays its home games in the stadium at Böllenfalltor . She plays in the 2nd Bundesliga in the 2020/21 season .

History of the club

1898–1919: Establishment of a Darmstadt sports club

The Ensgrabers

The founding date of May 22nd, 1898 corresponds to that of FK Olympia 1898 Darmstadt, that of Professor Ensgraber, his five sons Fritz, Bernhard, Karl, Wilhelm and Ernst as well as other students, mainly high school students, who occasionally play football with the Ensgrabers the Schlossgartenplatz met, was founded. Thus, SV 98 is one of the oldest clubs in the German football landscape and in the Rhine-Main area . In 1901, the higher schools in Darmstadt forbade their students from playing football, which was viewed as English. But the spread of this sport could no longer be stopped in Darmstadt either, so that the ban was dropped again in 1903. Locally, the FK Olympia soon ousted the pioneering club Darmstädter FC as the leading force in football, nationally they celebrated their first success in 1908 with the western district championship of the B-Class, among other things after a 14-1 win against the reigning Saar champion Völklingen 03 . Until 1913 the "Olympians" played in the top division, but could not prevail against the more ambitious clubs from Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern; the fifth place in the 1909/10 season was the best placement.

The first match against an international opponent took place in 1910. The Paris Champions Club Athlétique de Vitry was a guest in Darmstadt . The game ended 5-0 for the Darmstadt team. Through the drafting of numerous players into the army during the First World War , gaming communities, so-called war teams, also emerged in Darmstadt . As a result of the positive experiences in the cooperation of the Darmstadt clubs during the war, the FK Olympia finally merged officially with the city rival SC Darmstadt 1905 on November 11, 1919. SV Darmstadt was founded in 1898 with 1,000 members, the largest sports club in Darmstadt. Taking into account the sporting development, the stadium at Böllenfalltor was built as the new home of SV 98.

1919–1945: Between the world wars

Cigarette picture of the Garbáty cigarette factory from the 1930/31 season

After the merger of the Darmstadt clubs in 1919 to form SV Darmstadt 1898 eV, construction work began on a corresponding venue. Two years later the stadium at the Böllenfalltor was officially opened. However, the hopes of developing into a top regional talent through the merger were initially not fulfilled. Although it was possible to establish itself in the top league for a time, as the divisions in the Weimar Republic hardly reached beyond the regional level and were also often restructured, SV 98 was rarely able to attract national attention. In 1923, the footballers were relegated to the second division, while the handball players and the track and field athletes came to the fore due to their performances. The handball department was a total of six South German champions and was in the 1931 final of the German handball championship (4: 7 against Police SV Berlin ). In the field of athletics dominated the later Olympic medal winner Hermann Engelhard , who was over the 800 meters South German champion and second at the German championships in 1927 in Berlin. The SV 98 footballers were temporarily back in the top division, the Main / Hessen district league, from the late 1920s onwards, but never got above average and were relegated to the second division again in the 1932 season .

Sports were not spared the consequences of the NSDAP's seizure of power in 1933. As in politics, democratic structures were also abolished in the clubs. In their place came the so-called Führer principle . As early as 1933, most of the sporting officials at SV 98 resigned from their posts. This also included long-time President Karl Hess , who had held the office since 1928. The association kept a critical distance from the new rulers. In order to promote the alignment of the associations, the large association GfL Darmstadt was formed in Darmstadt in 1938 at the instigation of the local National Socialists , which the Lilien should also join. However, those responsible for SV 98 successfully resisted, and so SV Darmstadt 98 was the only Darmstadt sports club to maintain its independence. However, the lilies subsequently had to forego any state funding, which, among other things, resulted in sporting stagnation. After all, during the war years, the 1941/42 season briefly made it to the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau , from which the club was relegated in 1943. Due to the numerous conscription of the players to the Wehrmacht , the face of the team often changed from game to game. After the British air raid on Darmstadt in September 1944, at the latest , in which almost 80 percent of the city was destroyed, regular sports activities were no longer possible with the lilies either.

1945–1978: The first successes

SV 98 was re-established just six months after the end of the war . In the next few years, more and more former players returned from captivity. Gradually, the sporting performance of the club increased again. However, the American occupation forces confiscated the Böllenfalltorstadion for their own purposes. The first years after the end of the war were mainly characterized by local derbies against SG Arheilgen , VfR Bürstadt and SKV Mörfelden , which attracted numerous spectators to the games. Under player-coach Adam Keck, the playful performance of the lilies increased from year to year. The 1949/50 season was particularly successful. In front of 12,000 spectators in the university stadium , which is now part of the University of Darmstadt , SV 98 defeated the greatest pursuer Viktoria Aschaffenburg 3-2 and qualified for the relegation round for promotion to the Oberliga Süd, the top German division at the time. With five wins out of six games, the lilies, treated as outsiders, mastered their tasks victoriously against 1. FC Bamberg , Union Böckingen and 1. FC Pforzheim and triggered an unprecedented football fever in Darmstadt. The very first game in the new division led the German champions from 1949 , VfR Mannheim, to Darmstadt, who were beaten 5-4. This success could not be continued in the first league season . In the end, despite victories u. a. against 1860 Munich , Bayern Munich and two draws against the reigning German champions VfB Stuttgart , the unfortunate relegation as fourth from bottom, as the league was reduced to 16 teams.

The outstanding player in the post-war years was striker Werner Böhmann, who became a regular in the first team at the age of 17. Böhmann is still the most successful Darmstadt player with 123 goals in 261 competitive games for the lilies. In 1952, the rebuilt Böllenfalltorstadion could again be used by the Lilien. The increased audience interest after the rise made an expansion to 25,000 spectators necessary. In the following years, SV 98 finally established itself in the 2nd League South and ended up mostly in midfield at the end of the season. In 1961 , 1963 and 1970 , SV 98 had to accept relegations to the amateur league Hessen, which was followed by promotion to the second highest division the following year. In 1971/72 Udo Klug took over as coach for the lilies and fundamentally rebuilt the team. Klug, who was previously the head coach of the amateur team at Eintracht Frankfurt , relied on a mix of experienced and young players from the Rhine-Main area and propagated willingness to run, fighting spirit and game intelligence. To build a new Darmstadt team, he took a number of young players such as Walter Bechtold , Dieter Ungewitter , Hans Lindemann , Edwin Westenberger and Joachim Weber from Frankfurt to Darmstadt. This group of players was supplemented by the Darmstadt goalkeeping legend Dieter Rudolf , who also moved from Eintracht Frankfurt a year later, and young players from the central Hessian province such as Willi Wagner or Peter Cestonaro . These footballers would shape the face of Darmstadt 98 for years. Under coach Klug, the lilies established themselves in the top field of the southern German teams.

On May 5, 1973 SV 98 defeated SSV Reutlingen 05 4-2 away and was then able to take part in the promotion round to the Bundesliga . A week later there was a memorable game against 1. FC Nürnberg , which was beaten 7-0 at the local Böllenfalltor in front of over 20,000 spectators. The lilies were South German soccer champions for the first time . In the promotion round, the team finally came second behind Rot-Weiss Essen and thus missed promotion. In the following season, SV 98 managed to qualify for the newly created 2nd Bundesliga . During the 1976/77 season Lothar Buchmann took over as coach. Economic constraints did not allow large acquisitions. Again the lilies had to look around for players from southern Hesse. The team got off to a bumpy start into the 1977/78 season. But the tide turned in the second half of the season. After twelve wins in a row and a draw at Waldhof Mannheim , 1. FC Nürnberg came back to the expanded Darmstadt Böllenfalltor. In front of 26,000 spectators, SV 98 defeated Nuremberg 2-0. With only one defeat in the second round and a 6: 1 win against FK Pirmasens handed the lily a 2: 2 against Stuttgarter Kickers to rise . The championship celebration took up large parts of Darmstadt's city center, and the winning team was received by Mayor Heinz Winfried Sabais at the Luisencenter . SV Darmstadt 98 was first class.

1978–1982: The after-work footballers from Böllenfalltor

Coach Lothar Buchmann led the lilies to the Bundesliga for the first time in 1978

After promotion to the Bundesliga, the club faced numerous tasks. First the stadium at the Böllenfalltor had to be expanded to 30,000 seats. With the help of the city of Darmstadt, the back straight was extended. Another problem concerned the team itself. Many were skeptical about the adventure of being first class and were not prepared to put their professional existence at risk. Out of this situation, coach Buchmann created the so-called Darmstadt model : Most of the SV 98 players had a full-time job and were not full professionals. Shortened working hours were compensated for by the association and training camps were moved to vacation time. This meant that you could only train after work. This is why the term “ after-work footballers from the Böllenfalltor ” came up in the press . The squad was largely held together, with only Jürgen Kalb and Kurt Eigl signed as major reinforcements .

The start in the top German league was successful. On November 11, 1978, the lilies played 1-1 with Bayern in Munich. Two minutes before the final whistle, Uwe Hahn scored goal of the month from 25 meters . After that, the defeats piled up and SV 98 found themselves on a relegation zone at the end of the first half of the season. Even in the second half of the season, things could not be turned around despite good games. After a 3-1 defeat against Nuremberg in front of a home crowd, Lothar Buchmann was dismissed and assistant coach Klaus Schlappner became head coach. Under him there were still successes against Frankfurter Eintracht and Werder Bremen ; Nevertheless, after only one year in the House of Lords, relegation was unavoidable and the best and most famous players, including Bum-Kun Cha , left the club.

The following second division season closed the SV Darmstadt 98 with a team changed in many positions with fourth place in the table. The realization from the descent was that even in Darmstadt there would be no way around full profitability. Under coach Werner Olk , the club went into the 1980/81 season. The aim was to "play along" and at the same time to qualify for the new single-track 2nd Bundesliga. The team started the season well, with the storm being the most successful part of the team. High victories against VfR Bürstadt (5: 0), ESV Ingolstadt (9: 2), Freiburg FC (6: 3), FC Homburg (7: 1) and Wormatia Worms (5: 0) reflected the strength of the lilies. In the end, they were again confidently first in the 2nd division south and promoted to the Bundesliga . DFB requirements followed again , which SV 98 had to meet. Among other things, these provided for the construction of a floodlight system . This time the lilies received no financial support from the city. In order to go the way to the first class, the club borrowed for years. This also meant that the team could hardly be reinforced with new players.

Nevertheless, the start of the second Bundesliga season was successful and they held up better than two years earlier. The highlight of the first half of the season was the 1-1 draw against leaders 1. FC Köln . In the second half of the season, tensions within the team and in the club's board of directors led to a decline in performance. After Olk was released, Manfred Krafft took over the sporting management. But even this could no longer prevent the repeated relegation to the second division as the table penultimate.

1982–2007: High goals, deep fall

After the last relegation from the Bundesliga, the club faced a large mountain of debt. Nevertheless, they tried with all their might for direct re-emergence. Wolfgang Trapp moved from Eintracht Frankfurt to the Böllenfalltor. From Prague it obliged the Czechoslovak national team Luděk Macela . But again there were problems within the team. During the winter break, other well-known players were bought, including the 1976 European champion , Zdeněk Nehoda . With Willi Wagner , who played eleven and a half years for Südhessen and is still the record player in Darmstadt 98 with 401 appearances, and Peter Cestonaro , two of the team's defining faces ended their involvement with the Lilien during the 1982/83 winter break. Wagner switched to coaching in the highest amateur area in Hesse, while Cestonaro was transferred to the second division club KSV Hessen Kassel . At the end of the season, liabilities had risen to over DM 8 million. The spectacular new purchases hadn't borne fruit. The following years were marked by frequent changes at the top of the club and in the coaching staff. At the end of 1984 Udo Klug returned to Darmstadt. In the medium term, he aimed to play for promotion again with a much younger team. From a sporting point of view, the lilies held their own in the second division and only gradually established themselves in the midfield. After Klug left as coach, Eckhard Krautzun took over the team for the 1986/87 season . He strived for a running-intensive and offensive game system and in the meantime led the lilies to second place; the team ended up in fourth place just behind the relegation place, which FC St. Pauli reached with two points. Too little for those responsible for the club, who presented a familiar face with Klaus Schlappner as the new coach at the Böllenfalltor. In the new season , the promotion should be successful. SV 98 stayed among the top teams in the league for the entire season and ended up in third place. On June 1, 1988, the first relegation game against the third-bottom of the Bundesliga , SV Waldhof Mannheim , came about . The lilies won the first leg in Darmstadt in front of 25,000 spectators 3-2 (after 0-2 deficit). In the second leg they saved themselves by the late connection goal to 2-1 in a playoff. After 120 minutes, no further goal was scored - a penalty shoot-out had to decide. Oliver Posniak , Karl-Heinz Emig and, most recently, Willi Bernecker missed their penalties and Waldhof stayed first class. Numerous unsuccessful second division seasons followed. In 1993, the lilies were the last to be relegated to the Hessen league . After 22 years in professional football, SV 98 was back in third class.

After relegation to the second division, the club had to be completely rebuilt, but qualification for the newly established regional league as the new third division succeeded straight away. In the years that followed, the lilies were more or less third-rate, but in 1998 they were no longer able to keep up on their own after a 2-0 defeat on the penultimate matchday against their direct opponents SC Weismain . A week later, the direct opponent for relegation SC Neukirchen sealed the first relegation of the Darmstadt team after World War II to fourth division with a 3-0 win against the amateurs of Karlsruher SC . This shock initially had a healing effect. After significant changes in the club and board of directors, SV 98 managed to get back on the rise under Slavko Petrović . Due to the reform of the third division (to two instead of four subdivisions), the promoted team had to be among the eleven best teams. After a year of relegation battle, the lilies mastered the qualification with a ninth place. A year later, the Darmstadt team were even among the favorites for promotion to the second division. However, their dream was not fulfilled by coach Michael Feichtenbeiner . The following season 2001/02 was the starting point for another sporting crisis; the contender for the first two places was only 14th. Under the new coach Hans-Werner Moser the situation worsened and Moser separated from SV 98, who was on a non-relegation place after the 28th matchday, at the end of the 2002 season / 03 finally had to relegate to the Oberliga Hessen after four years in the third division with ups and downs , after he had been able to hope for promotion to the second division until matchday 13.

Player and coach with the lilies: Bruno Labbadia

With the claim of direct resurgence, SV Darmstadt 98 went into the 2003/04 season , which was to be one of the most impressive in recent years. Under the new coach Bruno Labbadia , the lilies achieved their goal of the season with 88 out of 102 points, the highest yield in league history to date. In a memorable duel against KSV Hessen Kassel , the Darmstadt team prevailed by four points. The following year was similarly successful. Started with the goal of staying in class, the lilies immediately reached fifth place and even had hopes for the second division in between. In the 2005/06 season the soaring of the 98s ended for the time being. After a bumpy start, the board of directors had doubts about the achievement of the specified season goal, which led coach Labbadia to resign in 2006. This did not change anything in terms of the team's performance and so the lilies took a disappointing fifth place for the fans this season.

After that, the board decided to start over in the sporting field. Only five players were retained from the entire squad. Gino Lettieri was hired as a coach ; With the modest financial means, he was supposed to form a completely new team, which ultimately consisted largely of leading players from his former club SpVgg Bayreuth , which was refused a license for the regional league for financial reasons. Lettieri was given a leave of absence after only ten match days, as SV 98 was on a relegation zone with nine out of 30 possible points. He was succeeded by Gerhard Kleppinger on October 6, 2006 , but the situation did not improve under him either. On the last day of the 2006/07 season , Bayern Munich's second team sealed their relegation to fourth division with a 2-0 win against the lilies.

2007–2017: From the Hessenliga to the Bundesliga

After relegation to the Oberliga Hessen , a new presidium was elected and the team experienced a complete upheaval. The goal of immediate resurgence was achieved on April 18, 2008 after 14 unbeaten games in a row, and they also won the Hessen Cup (2-0 in the final against Viktoria Aschaffenburg ). On March 5, 2008, the Presidium announced that bankruptcy proceedings would have to be initiated because of financial burdens running into the millions. Under the leadership of President Hans Kessler, fans and the environment braced themselves against a possible bankruptcy of the club. Through numerous campaigns, donations and with the help of the friends and fans of SV Darmstadt 98, the license for the regional league season 2008/09 was successfully applied for and in June 2009 the application for insolvency at the Darmstadt District Court was withdrawn.

In the fourth-class regional league, the lilies were only represented in the relegation battle in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons under the coaches Gerhard Kleppinger and Živojin Juškić , success only emerged under Kosta Runjaic . As early as 2010/11 , the 98ers surprisingly managed to get promoted to the third division with a series of nine wins in the last nine match days . The decisive 4-0 on the last matchday against FC Memmingen was watched by 17,000 spectators in the stadium, and the game was broadcast live on Hessischer Rundfunk .

The first games of the lilies in the third division season 2011/12 were accompanied by great euphoria, favored by a 5-1 victory of the 98 against the promotion candidate Arminia Bielefeld . On October 2, 2011, the 12th matchday, the Böllenfalltorstadion was sold out for the SV 98 derby against Kickers Offenbach , before the Lilien managed to keep the league early with a 3-1 win against SV Babelsberg 03 on the third last matchday . In the 2012/13 season they slipped under coach Runjaic after eight league games on a relegation place. Runjaic moved to second division MSV Duisburg on September 3, 2012 . On September 5, 2012 Jürgen Seeberger was introduced as the new coach of SV 98, under whose direction only ten points were scored in 13 games, which resulted in the last place in the table. On December 17, 2012, immediately after the last game before the 2012/13 winter break, the 3-0 defeat at Preußen Münster , the club announced Seeberger's dismissal. On December 28, 2012, Dirk Schuster was introduced as the new coach, under whose leadership the situation improved and the Darmstadt team came closer and closer from 20th place in the table from the saving bank. The 2012/13 season finale resulted in a "final" on the last day of the match (May 18, 2013) against Schuster's club in the first half of the season, the Stuttgarter Kickers . The winner of the game would have secured relegation in any case. The game ended 1: 1 in front of 13,600 spectators, which was not enough for the Stuttgart team, but not enough for SV 98 based on the results from the other places. But despite the lack of relegation from a sporting point of view, the lilies remained in the third division, as they moved up for Kickers Offenbach, which was not granted a license for the third division.

In the third division 2013/14 season , the lilies made headlines in the first round of the DFB Cup with a 5-4 win on penalties against Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach , but then had to face the headlines in the second round match against FC Schalke 04 , which was broadcast live on the first at prime time , were beaten 1: 3. In the championship, the team of the previous year's relegated team showed surprisingly strong performances, in which the striker Dominik Stroh-Engel played a large part with 27 third division goals in 34 league games and thus also became the record scorer in third division history. Up until the penultimate matchday, the 98ers kept the opportunity to move up directly as second-placed, so that due to the increased interest in the club, almost every SV 98 league game in the last third of the season was broadcast live on TV and on the Internet via live stream , mostly from HR . After 38 match days the lilies occupied the third place in the table, which to participate in the promotion relegation to the 2. Bundesliga right where they met the third last of the 2. Bundesliga 2013/14, Arminia Bielefeld - both games were from HR and from WDR live broadcast on TV. The team lost the first leg at Böllenfalltor with 1: 3, in the second leg at the Bielefelder Alm the Darmstadt were able to equalize the first leg result; they finally won 4-2 in extra time with a goal from Elton da Costa in the 120 + 2. Minute. With this surprising success, SV 98 rose again to the 2nd Bundesliga after 21 years and, due to the drama and tension of the relegation, especially the decision in the last minutes of extra time, it attracted nationwide attention.

The stadium at Böllenfalltor after promotion to the Bundesliga on May 24, 2015

After the rise, the lilies were also perceived much more positively regionally. The chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck became the name sponsor of the Darmstadt venue, so that the stadium at the Böllenfalltor was officially renamed the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor . As a climber, Darmstadt had a convincing season in 2014/15 . After losing to eventual cup winners VfL Wolfsburg in the first round of the DFB Cup on penalties , the 98ers settled in the first four places in the table after eleven match days, which they did not leave until the end of the season. After the key victories over the direct promotion rivals 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Karlsruher SC on the last four days of play, the team finally made it through to the top with a 1-0 win over FC St. Pauli with a free kick that Tobias Kempe transformed directly into the top First class, with which the lilies became first class again after 33 years. And as the first club to be promoted directly to the Bundesliga with only 44 goals scored, and also only the seventh club to have managed such a march. In the 2014/15 season, SV 98 had the lowest budget and the smallest squad in the league at around € 5 million.

In the 2015/16 Bundesliga season , Darmstadt's third season in the Bundesliga, the lilies started with three draws and a 1-0 away win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen before FC Bayern Munich suffered their first defeat on matchday 5. In the DFB-Pokal they were eliminated in the second round with 0: 1, also against Bayern, after they had been able to prevail in the second cup round 2: 1 against league rivals Hannover 96 . On March 8, 2016, longtime lily fan Jonathan Heimes , whose "You must fight" campaign had received solidarity from fans, coaching team and players in previous years, died in the fight against cancer. With a clear weakness at home, but a sensational away record, SV Darmstadt 98 consistently collected points over the entire Bundesliga season, for which not only top scorer Sandro Wagner but also captain and central defender Aytaç Sulu with 7 goals, all scored away (6 of the 7 goals as well head, only to be a guest at Borussia Dortmund with the foot), before on the penultimate matchday, on May 7, 2016, with a 2-1 away win against Hertha BSC, the relegation could be celebrated in the Olympiastadion Berlin . With 14th place, Darmstadt 98 was also the best-placed Hessian football club this season for the first time.

Following the successful relegation in the Bundesliga announced Dirk Schuster his move to FC Augsburg , so that the lilies with the new coach Norbert Meier in the Bundesliga season 2016/17 started. He redesigned the squad with a total of 18 exits and 18 additions, but was only able to get 8 points in 12 games. After five defeats in a row, including against the direct competitors for relegation Hamburger SV and FC Ingolstadt 04 , as well as elimination from the DFB Cup in the second round against the regional division FC-Astoria Walldorf , Norbert Meier was dismissed on December 5, 2016 . He was followed by manager Holger Fach and assistant trainer Frank Heinemann . For the last three games of the calendar year, the sporting director of the Lilien performance center, Ramon Berndroth, took over the management of the team on a transitional basis. On December 27, 2016, the former national player Torsten Frings was introduced as the new head coach, who was unable to keep SV 98 in the Bundesliga despite a noticeable upward trend compared to the first half of the season: On May 6, 2017, the third from last game day, after 0: 1 defeat at Bayern Munich , relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga .

Since 2017: Establishment in the 2nd Bundesliga

After a good start to the second division season 2017/18 , the contracts of the entire coaching team around Torsten Frings were extended to 2020 on September 5, 2017 , before a sporty negative series then moved the lilies from the promotion to the relegation zone of the 2. Bundesliga promoted. After eleven games without a win, coach Frings and the coaching team separated on December 9, 2017, and the coaching position was then taken over by the returning Dirk Schuster . The performance and the point earnings returned only gradually, but after staying in the relegation places from December 2017 to May 2018, with twelve games without defeat in a row on the last twelve game days, on May 13, 2018, the last game day, with a 1: 0 against the direct competitor FC Erzgebirge Aue the relegation can be made perfect. Due to the close table constellation, the season was even finished in 10th place.

In the 2018/19 season , the contract with coach Schuster was terminated on February 18, 2019 due to ongoing relegation concerns. After interim coach Kai Peter Schmitz was in charge of a game, Dimitrios Grammozis took over the coaching position and was able to achieve early relegation on the third last match day thanks to a good second half of the season. Again the season ended with 10th place in the table. The 2019/20 season , which was interrupted for months from March 2020 due to the coronavirus and continued without spectators from mid-May 2020, finished SV98 in 5th place in the table. After negotiations regarding the extension of coach Dimitrios Grammozis' contract did not lead to a result, the club introduced Markus Anfang as the new head coach for the 2020/21 season in April 2020 .

Athletic course

In the all-time Bundesliga table, the Darmstadt team occupy 40th place. In the 4 seasons and 136 games so far, 28 have been won, 33 have ended in a draw and 75 games have been lost. The goal difference is 152: 273.
In the Eternal Table of the 2nd Bundesliga , the lilies can be found in 9th place. From 786 games in 21 seasons, the club scored 323 wins, 205 draws and 258 defeats with a goal difference of 1241: 1096 (as of July 2020).

successes

• South German champion : 1973, 1978, 1981, 2011
• Hessian champion : 1950, 1962, 1964, 1971, 1999, 2004, 2008
• Hessenpokal winner: 1966, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013
• Promotion to the Bundesliga : 1978, 1981, 2015
• Promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga : 1974, 2014
• Promotion to the 3rd division : 2011

DFB Cup

Entry ticket for the 3rd round of the DFB-Pokal against the later cup winner Schalke 04 from the 2001/02 season

The greatest success in this competition, the quarter-finals, dates from the 1986/87 season . The lilies last made it into the round of 16 of the DFB Cup in the 2015/16 season . The lilies achieved their highest victory in 1980 in a 10-0 win against the amateurs of FSV Hemmersdorf . The lilies had to admit defeat three times with a difference of five goals, twice at Werder Bremen (each 0: 5) and most recently in 1988/89 in Cologne at 1. FC (1: 6). There was one decision on penalties three times in cup history. In 2001/02 the Bundesliga club SC Freiburg was defeated 6: 4 at the Böllenfalltor, another victory followed in the 2013/14 season against a Bundesliga club: Borussia Mönchengladbach was beaten 5: 4 . The game of the 2nd round against FC Schalke 04 (1: 3) was broadcast live on ARD during prime time. However, the lilies suffered a defeat in the first round of the 2014/15 season against eventual cup winners VfL Wolfsburg . In the penalty shootout they lost 4: 5.

Before being promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga , the lilies had to qualify for the DFB Cup via the Hessen Cup. For the Hessen Cup, SV 98 was automatically qualified as a third division team, while the club first had to qualify for the Hessen Cup by winning the regional cup (formerly the district cup) during the upper and regional league times. But in order to be able to participate in the regional cup, victory in the district cup of the previous season was necessary. With one exception, the 98 always managed to qualify for the Hessen Cup; on April 20, 2010 you lost under Živojin Juškić as a regional division to the group division Germania Pfungstadt in the semi-finals of the district cup with 5: 6 after penalties. With this elimination in the 2009/10 district cup, participation in the 2010/11 regional cup was not possible, so the 2010/11 Hessen cup was also blocked and participation in the 2011/12 DFB cup was excluded.

See also : List of all DFB Cup games of SV Darmstadt 98

Personal details

Current squad

Squad season 2020/21
No.	player	Nat.	Date of birth	since	Contract until	Last club	Second division games	Second division goals
goalkeeper
01	Marcel shoes		01/13/1993	2019	2022	SV Sandhausen	82	0
13	Carl Klaus		01/16/1994	2019	2021	Atlético Baleares	1	0
31	Florian Stritzel		January 31, 1994	2017	2021	Karlsruher SC	9	0
Defense
05	Patric Pfeiffer		08/20/1999	2019	2022	Hamburger SV	6th	1
15th	Mathias Wittek		03/30/1989	2019	2021	1. FC Heidenheim	125	7th
17th	Lars Lukas May		March 31, 2000	2020	2021	FC Bayern Munich II	0	0
21st	Immanuel Höhn		December 23, 1991	2016	2021	Sc freiburg	90	7th
23	Nicolai Rapp		December 23, 1991	2019	2021	1. FC Union Berlin	76	1
26th	Matthias Bader		06/17/1997	2020	2022	1. FC Cologne	33	1
32	Fabian Holland		07/11/1990	2014	2021	Hertha BSC	137	2
36	Silas Zehnder		06/30/1999	2013	2021	Viktoria Aschaffenburg	0	0
37	Patrick Herrmann		March 16, 1988	2019	2021	Holstein Kiel	74	0
midfield
04th	Victor Pálsson		04/30/1991	2019	2022	FC Zurich	46	3
06th	Marvin Mehlem		09/11/1997	2017	2022	Karlsruher SC	85	8th
08th	Fabian Schnellhardt		01/12/1994	2019	2022	MSV Duisburg	84	2
11	Tobias Kempe		06/27/1989	2017	2021	1. FC Nuremberg	242	46
14th	Seung-Ho Paik		03/17/1997	2019	2022	FC Girona	28	2
18th	Mathias Honsak		12/20/1996	2019	2022	FC Red Bull Salzburg	47	6th
27	Tim Skarke		09/07/1996	2019	2022	1. FC Heidenheim	89	6th
33	Braydon Manu		03/28/1997	2019	2022	Hallescher FC	4th	0
34	Leon Mueller		08/11/2000	2016	2022	1. FSV Mainz 05	1	0
Storm
07th	Felix plate		02/11/1996	2016	2021	FC Schalke 04	41	7th
19th	Serdar Dursun		October 19, 1991	2018	2021	SpVgg Greuther Fürth	127	39
22nd	Aaron Seydel		02/07/1996	2020	2022	1. FSV Mainz 05	0	0
39	Ensar Arslan		08/01/2001	2014	2022	Eintracht Frankfurt	2	0
40	Erich Berko		09/06/1994	2019	2022	Dynamo Dresden	91	12
	Henry Crosthwaite		10/14/2002	2018	2023	TSG Wieseck	0	0

• As of August 18, 2020

Transfers summer 2020

Accesses	Departures
Henry Crosthwaite Own youth Lars Lukas May FC Bayern Munich II a. Aaron Seydel 1. FSV Mainz 05 Adrian Stanilewicz Bayer 04 Leverkusen EUR Silas Zehnder Viktoria Aschaffenburg w.a.	Ihor Berezovskyi still open Dario Đumić FC Utrecht w.a. Marcel Heller still open Sebastian Hertner still open Carl Leonhard 1. FC Kaiserslautern II Ognjen Ožegović destination unknown Yannick Stark Dynamo Dresden Johannes Wurtz SV Wehen Wiesbaden

Transfers winter 2019/20

Accesses	Departures
Matthias Bader 1. FC Cologne Nicolai Rapp 1. FC Union Berlin a.	Mandela Egbo New York Red Bulls

^a. borrowed

^wa was borrowed

^EURuntil after the Europa League season from Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Current sporting management and club management

Surname	function
Trainers and supervisors
Markus beginning	Head coach
Florian Young	Assistant coach
Kai Peter Schmitz	Athletics coach
Dimo guard	Goalkeeping coach
Uwe Zimmermann	Goalkeeping coach
Carsten Wehlmann	Sports director
Michael Stegmayer	Team manager
Michael Richter	supervisor
Matthias Neumann	supervisor
Alex Lesch	Team doctor
Bureau
Klaus Rüdiger Fritsch	president
Markus Pfitzner	Vice President
Volker Harr	Vice President
Anne Baumann	Finances
Wolfgang Arnold	Amateur departments
Tom Eilers	Licensed player area
Uwe Kuhl	Young talent center
Office
Michael Weilguny	Managing directors
Florian wood breaker	Head of Marketing & Events
Oliver Keller	Head of Sales
Alex Hein	Head of Event & Security
Jan Bergholz	Head of Media & PR
Bjorn Kopper	Head of the youth training center
Tim Kuhl	Head of football school & organization NLZ
Alexander Lehné	Fan representative

→ see also : List of known, former players of SV Darmstadt 98
→ see also : List of coaches of SV Darmstadt 98
→ see also : List of club presidents of SV Darmstadt 98

Stadion

→ Main article : Stadium at Böllenfalltor

Aerial view of the stadium at Böllenfalltor with back straight under construction (April 2019)

The lilies play in the stadium at the Böllenfalltor , named after poplars , the so-called Böllen. The rest of the name is derived from a former (self-closing) gate that gave access to the nearby forest and which was located in the immediate vicinity of today's stadium.

The stadium, which was built in 1921, recently underwent numerous renovations and modernizations. During the summer break of the 2014/15 season , the first phase of the stadium's renovation work began with the installation of underfloor heating and the modernization of the infrastructure. The expansion of two mobile tubular steel grandstands in 2016 in the north and south curves increased the spectator capacity. In addition, the spectators moved closer to the pitch. In 2019 , the newly built back straight was put into operation. The next planned construction phase is the construction of the main grandstand.

Since summer 2014 , the stadium has been named Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor as part of a name sponsorship by the Darmstadt-based chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA .

For the 2016/17 Bundesliga season , the stadium was renamed the Jonathan Heimes Stadium at Böllenfalltor . The sponsor Merck waived its naming rights for this time in honor of Jonathan Heimes, who died in 2016 .

Youth performance center

SV Darmstadt 98 has a wide range of football options for children and young people between the ages of ten and 19. The club's young players are known as young lilies. Björn Kopper is the head of the youth training center, while Georg-Martin Leopold, Patrick Kurt and Flávio Sanguinheira Diogo are responsible for the sport. The latter is also employed as a coordinator in the basic and advanced areas, while Tim Kuhl is responsible for the organization.

The youth teams play their games in the HEAG stadium . The two artificial turf pitches are located in the immediate vicinity of the Böllenfalltorstadion , are equipped with floodlights and have an official capacity of 1500 standing places.

The SV 98 offers various support programs for young players. Since 2012, the association has been offering the bauverein-Lilien support training, in which girls and boys between the ages of five and twelve receive weekly support from trainers. Since 2016, this support training has only been offered specifically for goalkeepers.

Since 2004, SV 98 has held the MERCK Lilien soccer camp at regular intervals. Behind this is a holiday soccer school organized by SV 98, which takes place during school holidays both on the Lilien grounds and at various clubs in the region. The lilies offer at least ten Merck Lilien soccer camps each year for up to 60 children aged six to twelve during the holidays.

Since the summer of 2017, SV 98 has had its own boarding school to promote young talent. An old building was rented for the boarding school, which enables the NLZ to permanently accommodate up to ten players. There are currently eight players from the ages of U15 to U19 who go to the corresponding partner schools and are looked after around the clock. The aim of the boarding school is to train talents for the professional sector.

Particularly successful in the youth departments of SV 98 is the U19 team, which attracted attention in 2006 when it reached the DFB Cup quarter-finals. On June 21, 2009, the A-Juniors were promoted to the Bundesliga Süd after they had prevailed in the relegation against Saarbrücken, but the relegation in the highest German A-youth class was between the youth departments of the ambitious Bundesliga clubs such as FC Bayern Munich , VfB Stuttgart or 1. FSV Mainz 05 not reached and the relegation followed in 12th place out of a total of 14 participants. In the 2015/16 season, the club rose again to the Bundesliga, but in the same season as bottom of the table again. From the 2020/21 season, the team will play in the A-Juniors Bundesliga again .

The U17 failed in 2010 in the relegation for the Bundesliga against Mainz. The U17 has been represented in the Bundesliga since the 2019/20 season.

Until the 2013/14 season, the lilies led a U23 team as the second team in the Association League Hessen South . However, since the young talents in the club were always pulled up from the U19s to the 1st team, the U23 team withdrew for conceptual and structural reasons when the first team was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2014 , and thus more to focus on the U19 and U17 teams.

In the 2019/20 season, the U10 juniors will play games in the U11 regional league. The U11 juniors play in the U13 district league, while the U12 play in the U13 group league. The U13 juniors don't take part in any league, but the U14 juniors do in the U15 Hessenliga. The U15 juniors play in the U15 Regionalliga Süd, the U16 in the U17 Hessenliga. The U17 returned to the U17 Bundesliga, while the U19 are only in the U19 Hessenliga.

Fan team

Six years after the dissolution of the U23 team, the club decided to start with a fan team in the D-Liga Darmstadt from the 2020/21 season. The team is trained by Andreas Degenhardt and plays its home games on the Germania Pfungstadt sports grounds .

Sponsors

Parts of this article seem to be out of date as of 2018/19 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

The main and jersey sponsor of SV Darmstadt 98 is Software AG . On May 20, 2008, the international software solutions company replaced the Darmstadt-based hair care company Wella , which had withdrawn as the main investor around three months earlier due to the pending insolvency proceedings. Software AG's willingness to support the lilies and the resulting financial security for the 2008/09 season led to the fulfillment of the conditions set by the DFB in the licensing process for the new Regionalliga Süd. Software AG's CFO Arnd Zinnhardt saw the reasons for the unusual sports sponsorship of Software AG in the close ties between two Darmstadt institutions and in the importance of youth development and popular sports.

For the 2014/15 season, the Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck KGaA took over the naming rights of the stadium at Böllenfalltor for five years , which has since been called the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor . The naming right contract was extended for another seven years for the 2018/2019 season. Another important pillar in the financial planning of SV 98 are the five premium sponsors. These are the Darmstadt-based energy supplier Entega , the Darmstadt-based PEAK group, the Krombacher brewery , Merck KGaA and ROWE Mineralölwerk GmbH, who are also sleeve sponsors. In addition to the premium sponsors, there are also six top sponsors. These include the company MKM, Sparkasse Darmstadt, Loop5 in Weiterstadt, BAUHAUS AG and the radio station Hitradio FFH. Furthermore, SV Darmstadt 98 is supported by 11 co-sponsors and over 100 sponsors as well as 250 so-called "partners of the lilies" who support the association.

The official supplier will be Craft Sports from the 2018/19 season .

Fan scene

Back straight on September 10, 2006 against Hertha BSC

SV Darmstadt 98 has a very broad fan scene. The average attendance in the 3rd division was more than 7,000. In the 2014/15 season in the 2nd Bundesliga , an average of 14,000 spectators came to the games, in the Bundesliga the home area was sold out at every game.

Mainly responsible for the acoustic and optical support at home and away games are the Ultras in Block 1898 , which was founded for the 2012/13 season and is made up of fan groups such as the Usual Suspects (formerly Allesfahrer Darmstadt / AFD) , Ultrà de Lis and Underdogs . At the other end of the main grandstand is the A-block, which is determined by individual fans and stands for classic English old-school support.

In the course of the 2016 season, the active fan scene will move to the south curve specially designed for this newly roofed over.

The ultras of SV 98 maintain a fan-friendship with the ultras of the Young Boys from the Ostkurve Bern. The fans regularly visit the other club's games.

The club has been running a voluntary fan radio since the 2012/13 season .

Rivalries

The biggest rivalry between SV Darmstadt 98 and Kickers Offenbach has a long history steeped in tradition. However, after the OFC had played in the 2nd Bundesliga in the 2007/08 season and the SVD had to compete in the Oberliga Hessen , the two rival teams only met in 2011/12 (both league games ended in a draw) and 2012/13 (Darmstadt won both league games) in the 3rd soccer league again. When the Offenbachers did not receive a license for the third division at the end of the third division season 2012/13, the lilies of all people benefited; they were able to celebrate relegation by withdrawing their license. After the Kickers were relegated to the Southwest Regional Football League , SV 98 was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga .

The situation with Eintracht Frankfurt is just as tense . Even in the league and regional league times of the lilies, both fan camps mobilized in the games against the U23 team of Eintracht, before they faced each other again in the Bundesliga seasons 2015/16 and 2016/17: Darmstadt won two games, Frankfurt decided two games themselves. When at the end of the 2015/16 season the 98ers occupied a higher place in the table than Eintracht, SV 98 was the best Hessian football club that season.

Another special rivalry exists with the regional division KSV Hessen Kassel . After fighting for promotion to the Regionalliga Süd in the 2003/04 league season, which Darmstadt was able to record for itself in the end, duels in the third-tier regional league followed until the lilies returned to the league in 2007, but after one Year rose again; This was followed by a reunion in the fourth-class Regionalliga Süd, from which KSV Hessen Kassel has been trying to move up to the 3rd soccer league since 2008 , but fails season after season shortly before the goal. In 2010/11 this was SV Darmstadt 98, which in the second half of the season overtook Northern Hesse with an enormous point lead and rose due to the negative trend in Kassel at the same time. To this day Kassel has to compete in the fourth-class regional league. Furthermore, the fronts to SV Waldhof Mannheim , against whom they last competed in the Regionalliga Süd in 2008/09, have hardened since the lost Bundesliga relegation in 1988 at the latest.

The next largest Darmstadt club, Rot-Weiß Darmstadt , which plays in the sixth-class Verbandsliga Hessen Süd , said the lilies had only one league difference at times (2007/08 and 2010/11, the 98s only played one league over the "red-whites") the fight on, but this settled due to the following ascents of SV 98. There has always been a friendly relationship with the third largest Darmstadt club 1. FCA Darmstadt , which played fifth class until 2013, but was relegated to the end of the 2016/17 season 8. League had to complain.

Futsal

In futsal too, SV Darmstadt 98 has been in the top German division, the Regionalliga Süd, since this season. A few years ago, through a cooperation with the TU Darmstadt , sport was incorporated as a new department. In 2014, a second team was also reported that could be promoted directly from the Association to the Hessen League. The greatest success is winning the 2015 South German Cup in the final against the Futsal Club Portus from Pforzheim.

Table tennis

The table tennis department is the second most successful of SV 98. As early as 1932/33, the men's team, which u. a. Karl-Heinz Eckardt was a German runner-up. Later on, the women in particular ensured success. The first women's team has been one of the best Hessian women's teams since the early 1960s. Until the first relegation in 1960, the team belonged to the Oberliga Südwest . After returning to the second-rate league in 1974, the lilies soon established themselves in the top group and in 1978 became runner-up behind the TTC Olympia Koblenz . A year later, he was promoted to the table tennis league , from which he was relegated immediately. The immediate resurgence failed because in 1981 the Darmstadt women only finished second behind the ATSV Saarbrücken in the now regional league. Currently the women's and men's teams play in the association league.

Esports

SV Darmstadt 98 has played in the Virtual Bundesliga since the 2018/19 season . The club finished the first season as penultimate with Luca Bernhard, Adrian Starkbaum, Jurek Röder and Timm Vögl.

The club competed in the 2019/20 season with Luca Bernhard, Marc Horle and Yannick de Groot and finished the season in 17th place out of 22. During the COVID-19 pandemic , the club also competed in the Bundesliga Home Challenge. In the competition, an e-athlete and a professional had to play against a different team. The tournament lasted four match days and the lilies didn't lose a game and in the end they were the most successful team alongside TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and FC Augsburg . Felix Platte and Erich Berko were employed as professionals with the lilies .

Other sports

The judo department founded in 1951 is mainly known for its youth work. The male judoka are currently fighting in the Oberliga Hessen.

The sports club also offers basketball , hiking , athletics , modern sports karate , senior sports and headis.

See also

• SV Darmstadt 98 / names and numbers

literature

• Hardy Greens : Legendary football clubs. Hesse. Between FC Alsbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tuspo Ziegenhain. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-89784-244-0 , pp. 186-191.
• Wolfgang Knöß, Heinz Wenck: SV Darmstadt 98 . Sutton, Erfurt 2006, ISBN 3-86680-042-8 .
• Ralf Panzer: SV Darmstadt 98. The flowers of the lilies . AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-89784-383-7 .

Web links

Commons : SV Darmstadt 98  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of SV Darmstadt 1898 e. V.
• SV Darmstadt 98: Merck Stadium at the Böllenfalltor

Individual evidence

1. ^ SV Darmstadt 98 in the database of kicker.de
2. ↑ Become part of the lily family! In: sv98.de. SV Darmstadt 1898 e. V., accessed on April 11, 2020 . 
3. ↑ The eternal table of the Bundesliga. In: fussballdaten.de. Retrieved July 4, 2020 . 
4. ↑ The eternal table of the 2nd Bundesliga. In: fussballdaten.de. Retrieved July 4, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Kader , sv98.de
6. ↑ Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor. In: echo-online.de. July 31, 2014, accessed November 11, 2019 . 
7. ↑ bauverein-Lilien support training. In: sv98.de. Retrieved April 11, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Merck Lilien Football Boarding School. In: sv98.de. Retrieved April 11, 2020 . 
9. ↑ The big dream: running up with the lily on your chest. In: sv98.de. July 13, 2020, accessed July 13, 2020 . 
10. ↑ About us. In: fanradio.fufa-sv98. SV Darmstadt 1898 e. V., accessed on November 11, 2019 .