VfL Gummersbach

VfL Gummersbach

Full name	Association for physical exercises Gummersbach von 1861 eV (main club) VfL Handball Gummersbach GmbH (professional handball operations)
Founded	March 3, 1861
Club colors	Blue White
Hall	Schwalbe-Arena alternative hall: Westfalenhalle , Dortmund
Places	4.132
president	Dieter Brüning
executive Director	Christoph Schindler
Trainer	Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson
league	2. Handball Bundesliga
2019/20
rank	4th place ( Second Bundesliga )
DHB Cup	Four-way tournament
Website	vfl-gummersbach.de
home Away
Greatest successes
National	German champion 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991 DHB cup winner 1977, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1985
International	European Cup Winner of National Champions 1967, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1983 European Cup Winner 1978, 1979, 2010, 2011 IHF / EHF Cup Winner 1982, 2009 European Club Champion 1979, 1983

The Verein für Leibesübungen Gummersbach von 1861 eV , VfL Gummersbach for short , is a sports club from Gummersbach , which is best known for the success of its handball team. In addition, the association also has departments for athletics , tennis , cycling , karate , table tennis and gymnastics .

The Union

The Gummersbacher Turnverein (GTV) was founded on March 3, 1861 . At first there was only gymnastics in the GTV. Just three years after its founding, the association organized the Bergisch Gauturnfest for the first time, which took place several times in Gummersbach. The youth department of the GTV was founded in 1884, and women were accepted as members for the first time in 1906. As a result, the sports hall used up until then turned out to be too small. This problem was solved two years later when a second hall was made available, which enabled an expanded training facility. After the end of the First World War , the association was reactivated and received new statutes .

In April 1937, the GTV merged with other local sports clubs, including SSV Gummersbach, and from then on called itself VfL Gummersbach from 1861 . With this merger, other sports were also incorporated into the club, including handball , football , athletics and winter sports . As between 1914 and 1918, there was no sporting activity at VfL during World War II . On September 29, 1945, the association was re-established again.

Handball at VfL

history

The VfL Gummersbach team at a European Cup match in Dortmund in 1977

VfL Gummersbach with the EHF Cup won on June 1st, 2009 in the Lanxess-Arena in Cologne

The handball department of VfL Gummersbach was founded in 1923. While field handball was still mainly played in Germany, VfL concentrated on indoor play very early on. 1966 , field handball was still clearly popular at this time, VfL won his first German championship in the hall and qualified for the newly established Bundesliga . A year later, the club caused a sensation in the European Cup when several top European teams were defeated and the title was brought to the Bergisches Land for the first time . After two further championships, in 1967 and 1969, VfL again reached the European Cup final in 1970, which it won against the team from East Berlin. Overall, the 1970s were the most successful in the club's history with four championships, two cup wins and five titles in the European Cup. In addition, VfL provided some players from the 1978 world championship team , most of whom came from the club's very successful youth work.

In the 1980s, VfL Gummersbach remained the strongest team in Germany alongside TUSEM Essen and TV Großwallstadt . These three teams have made the German champions almost exclusively among themselves since 1972. VfL won the title in 1982 , 1983 , 1985 and 1988 . There were also further successes in the German and European cup competitions. Among other things, Gummersbach was the first team to win the EHF Cup , which was introduced in 1982 .

In 1997 the enormous financial problems of VfL became known. Players had to forego part of their salary or be sold. At this time VfL Handball Gummersbach GmbH was founded, professional handball was spun off from the parent club and financial consolidation was achieved.

In the 2004/2005 season , VfL reached a European competition for the first time after 13 years of abstinence with the EHF Cup. The final stop was in the semi-finals of SC Magdeburg. Before that, Grasshoppers Zurich , US Dunkerque HB and Dunaferr SE were switched off. In the 2006/07 season , VfL reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and failed there against BM Valladolid . In the 2007/08 season , VfL again took part in the Champions League and failed in the main round at the eventual winner BM Ciudad Real . For the 2008/09 season Gummersbach qualified for the EHF Cup and won the first international title in 26 years by beating RK Velenje in the final . On the way to the final, the team led by Sead Hasanefendić eliminated the German competitor SC Magdeburg in the round of 16.

Just one year after winning the trophy, VfL won the EHF European Cup Winners' Cup ( 2009/10 ) by beating Spanish club BM Granollers in the final (first leg 34:25, second leg in Granollers 33:37). The outstanding player on the side of the Gummersbachers was the Austrian Viktor Szilágyi , who was sold to SG Flensburg-Handewitt after the triumph. The title was successfully defended in the 2010/11 season against the French club Tremblay-en-France after a 30:28 away win at home in Cologne in front of 7800 spectators with a 26:26 (10:15). In keeping with the club's 150th anniversary, VfL achieved a historic success - again under coach Sead Hasanefendić : Even in the most successful times, the traditional club had not won three European Cups in a row.

The team started to defend their title after a preliminary license refusal for the 2011/12 Bundesliga season became known . The cause was a liquidity gap in the budget of over 2 million euros, which, however, was closed by fans and sponsors within a week. However, by improving the documents, an objection was successfully filed against the license withdrawal. This led to the issuing of the license under strict conditions by the handball Bundesliga. For the fourth time in its history (1996, 2000, 2009, 2011), the association succeeded in averting an impending financial end.

On the 34th and last matchday of the 2018/19 season, VfL Gummersbach was relegated from the handball Bundesliga for the first time after a 25:25 draw at Bietigheim, as Ludwigshafen simultaneously won its game against Minden by 31:30. After VfL Gummersbach finished its first season in the 2nd handball Bundesliga , which had to be prematurely canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in fourth place in the table, the Oberbergische have the goal in the coming season 2020/21 To rise to the handball Bundesliga .

Current squad 2020/21

VfL Gummersbach season 2015/16

No.	Surname	position	birthday	size	place of birth
12	Diogo Valério	TW	02/10/1999	1.95 m
21st	Matthias Puhle	TW	10/11/1985	1.92 m	Duisburg
25th	Let rabbits away	TW	08/12/1997	1.91 m
02	Tobias Schröter	RA	01/23/1993	1.83 m	Engelskirchen
03	Julius Fanger	RM	11/17/2002
08th	Lukas Blohme	RA	11/07/1994	1.89 m	Flensburg
09	Tin Kontrec	KM	09/09/1989	1.96 m	Našice
11	Mathis Häseler	RA	06/25/2002
18th	Alexander Hermann	RL	12/10/1991	1.92 m	Linz
19th	Timm Schneider	RL / RM	06/15/1988	1.96 m	to water
22nd	Fynn Herzig	RM	09/16/1998	1.94 m	Gummersbach
23	Malte Meinhardt	LA	09/02/1996	1.89 m	Gummersbach
24	Luis Villgrattner	RM	07/23/1998	1.85 m
26th	Raul Santos	LA	06/01/1992	1.79 m	Santo Domingo
30th	Tom Kiesler	RL	04/24/2001	1.88 m	Gummersbach
32	Robin Haller	RL	04/20/1986	1.91 m
40	Jonas Stüber	KM	05/02/1999	1.84 m
77	Janko Božović	RR	07/14/1985	2.03 m	bar
	Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson	Trainer	08/08/1979	1.87 m	Reykjavík
	Anel Mahmutefendic	Assistant coach	01/21/1978

Additions 2020/21

• Timm Schneider ( MT Melsungen )
• Raul Santos ( SC DHfK Leipzig )
• Julius Fanger (own youth)
• Mathis Häseler (own youth)
• Diogo Valério ( Benfica Lisbon )

Departures 2020/21

• Florian Baumgärtner ( TuS N-Lübbecke )
• Filip Ivić ( RK Celje )
• Yonatan Dayan ( DJK Rimpar )
• Pierre Busch ( TV Großwallstadt )
• Marvin Sommer (destination unknown)
• Alexander Becker ( VfL Eintracht Hagen )

Well-known former players

Kristjan Arason Alexander Bommes Heiner Brand Jochen Brand Klaus Brand Frank Dammann Joachim Deckarm Andreas Dörhöfer Traian Dumitru Mark Dragunski Rune Erland Nándor Fazekas Jochen Feldhoff Claus Fey Christian Fitzek Róbert Gunnarsson Stefan Hecker François-Xavier Houlet

Momir Ilić Gunnar Jaeger Rolf Jaeger Klaus Hangover Helmut Kosmehl Stefan Kretzschmar Thomas Krokowski Julius Kühn Michael Lehnertz Holger Löhr Kentin Mahé Daniel Narcisse Rudiger Neitzel Klaus-Dieter Petersen Adrian stake Christian Ramota Erik Veje Rasmussen

Rudi Rauer Dirk Rauin Gerd Rosendahl Franz-Josef Salewski Klaus Schlagheck Hansi Schmidt Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson Goran Stojanović Viktor Szilágyi Andreas Thiel Frank von Behren Drago Vuković Adrian Wagner Klaus Westebbe Henning Wiechers Erhard Wunderlich Kyung-Shin Yoon Vedran Zrnić Carsten Lichtlein

Well-known former coaches

• Heiner Brand
• Zlatan Siric
• Alfreð Gíslason
• Petre Ivănescu
• Thomas Happe
• Horst Dreischang

Venues

"Gummi", the mascot of VfL Gummersbach

The LANXESS Arena at a game of VfL Gummersbach

Ever since VfL has had professional handball, the Eugen-Haas-Halle in Gummersbach has been the home ground of the blue-whites. Due to the low capacity of the hall with 2100 seats today, VfL moved to other halls for selected games in the 1960s. The club played European Cup games first in the Cologne sports hall , from 1970 then usually in the Dortmund Westfalenhalle , occasionally also in the Cologne sports hall. After the LANXESS Arena in Cologne was completed in 1998 , there were early plans to move to the large multifunctional hall. However, VfL did not play their first game in Cologne until November 30, 2001. It was against THW Kiel with 18576 and 2004 in the game against SC Magdeburg positioned with 19.154 spectators the unofficial world record for audience visits to club team games, which, however, half a year later by a Bundesliga game of TBV Lemgo against THW Kiel in the Schalke Arena again was broken. The highest official number of spectators at a game of VfL Gummersbach was reached on March 16, 2007 in the Bundesliga top match against THW Kiel with 19,403 spectators. From 2005, VfL played regular league games in the LANXESS Arena. In the 2007/08 season , all 17 Bundesliga home games of VfL were played in the Kölnarena. As a result, the club hoped for additional income in the six-figure range per season. All EHF Champions League games also took place in Cologne. But this calculation did not work out. The high hall costs and the only moderate response from the audience in Cologne made VfL return to the Eugen-Haas-Halle.

The latest international successes prompted the city of Gummersbach to approve the construction of a new arena. There were no costs for VfL. The € 10.7 million multifunctional hall was financed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the city and a sponsoring company that has secured the naming rights for the new arena. The new hall bears the name Schwalbe-Arena , named after the bicycle tire manufacturer and former main sponsor of the professional handball players. It offers space for 4,132 spectators and has an attached business area and VIP boxes. Construction began on October 17, 2012 with the groundbreaking, and the hall was inaugurated on August 9 and 10, 2013 with a handball tournament. The VfL moved to the Bundesliga season 2013/14 to the arena. With the new hall, the club hopes that it will be more attractive for possible sponsors and players, as well as increasing audience income.

Greatest successes

• German champion 1966, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991
• German runner-up in 1968, 1970, 1972, 1978, 1980, 1981
• German cup winner 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1985
• European championship winner in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1983
• European Cup Winner 1978, 1979, 2010 , 2011
• IHF / EHF cup winners 1982, 2009
• European champion of club teams 1979, 1983

Development of audience numbers

season	Average audience
2004/05	7.106
2005/06	10,484
2006/07	8,702
2007/08	6,067
2008/09	4,884
2009/10	3,708
2010/11	2,675
2011/12	2,421
2012/13	2.012
2013/14	3,586
2014/15	3,643
2015/16	4,271
2016/17	3,779
2017/18	3,410
2018/19	3,232
2019/20	2,991

Honors

VfL Gummersbach office

• 1983: Team of the Year

2nd team

The second team of VfL played in the eighties for a time in the Handball-Regionalliga West , the then third division. Since the 2011/2012 season, VfL's second representative has been playing in third class again in the new 3rd League West .

youth

• 2nd place German U17 Championship 2009
• 2nd place German U19 Championship 2012
• 3rd place German U17 Championship 2014

• The Green Belt for exemplary talent promotion in the association 2007
• The Green Belt for exemplary talent promotion in the club 2015

Football at VfL

On January 23, 1910, the FC Teutonia Gummersbach was founded, which was renamed Viktoria Gummersbach in the same year . In April 1913, the Victoria merged with FC comet Gummersbach and the Sports Association of the company Steinmüller for SSV Gummersbach . In the 1930s, the SSV played in the then second-rate district class before the club was absorbed by VfL Gummersbach in 1937. After the end of the Second World War , the SSV Gummersbach was re-established on August 12, 1945. But already during the 1945/46 season the club rejoined VfL and played in the 1st district class Oberberg . In 1954 the VfL footballers became district champions and rose to the district class.

There the Gummersbachers were runner-up behind SV 09 Eitorf in 1958 . In 1967 VfL ended the district class season tied with TuS Lindlar . In front of 5,000 spectators in the neutral Engelskirchen, the Gummersbachers won 1-0 and were promoted to the state league . In the state league, the team first fought against relegation before they became runner-up behind TuS Lindlar in 1975 and only missed promotion to the Mittelrhein Association , the then highest amateur league, by just one point. Three years later, the VfL footballers played a friendly against the Japanese national team before the Gummersbachers had to relegate to the district league in 1979 and four years later to the district league A. After the immediate resurgence, the Gummersbachers returned to the state league in the 1988/89 season and then commuted between the district league and district league A. When VfL Gummersbach threatened to go bankrupt in 2000 due to the high debts of the handball department, the VfL split Footballer in March 2000 as 1. FC Gummersbach .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gummersbach does not receive a license for the handball Bundesliga . In: Spiegel.de . Retrieved May 23, 2011.
2. ↑ Gummersbach receives license for the handball Bundesliga . In: RP-Online.de . Retrieved on May 30, 2011.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Gummersbach saved: Bundesliga license granted . In: rhein-zeitung.de . Retrieved May 30, 2011.
4. ↑ Handball Bundesliga: Flensburg is champion - Gummersbach is relegated for the first time , Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 9, 2019
5. ↑ ^{a b} handball-world.news: "Impresses with its versatility": VfL Gummersbach secures Melsungen all-rounder Timm Schneider on February 17, 2020, accessed on February 17, 2020
6. ↑ vfl-gummersbach.de: VfL Gummersbach signs Raul Santos on May 7, 2020, accessed on May 7, 2020
7. ↑ ^{a b} handball-world.news: Gummersbach equips two home growners with professional contracts from May 14, 2020, accessed on May 14, 2020
8. ↑ handball-world.news: "A very talented goalkeeper" starts working at VfL Gummersbach on June 5, 2020, accessed on June 5, 2020
9. ↑ www.handball-world.news: Who is coming in summer - and who is going? The exchange exchange of the 2nd men's handball league from April 2, 2020, accessed on April 7, 2020
10. ↑ rk-celje.si: V RK Celje Pivovarna Laško prihaja Filip Ivić from January 14, 2020, accessed on May 12, 2020
11. ↑ handball-world.news: DJK Rimpar Wölfe confirm the transfer of playmaker Dayan from VfL Gummersbach on February 17, 2020, accessed on February 17, 2020
12. ↑ handball-world.news: Captain Alexander Becker leaves VfL Gummersbach and signs long-term contract with Eintracht Hagen on March 10, 2020, accessed on March 10, 2020
13. ↑ stadionwelt.de: Groundbreaking ceremony in Gummersbach, article from October 17, 2012
14. ↑ My handball ticket: DKB Handball Bundesliga - spectators 2017/18 , accessed on October 16, 2018.
15. ↑ ^{a b c d} VfL Gummersbach. Oberberg-Fußball, accessed on January 18, 2015 . 
16. ^ German Sports Club for Soccer Statistics : Soccer in West Germany 1952-1958 . Hövelhof 2012, p. 264 .

literature

• 100 years of VfL Gummersbach 1861–1961 , Luyken: Gummersbach 1961
• Hans Werheid, VfL Gummersbach. A top team in world handball , Gummersbach o. J. (approx. 1977)
• Erik Eggers, VfL Gummersbach. The Chronicle , Göttingen 2015. ISBN 978-3730701997 .

Web links

Commons : Category: VfL Gummersbach  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Website of the main club VfL
• Handball department website
• Background to the club's history - from geschichte.nrw.de