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Borussia Dortmund History
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BV Borussia Dortmund is a German football club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia.
History
BVB's Early Years
The club was founded on December 19, 1909 by a group of young men unhappy with church-sponsored Trinity Youth, where they played football under the stern and unsympathetic eye of the local parish priest. Father Dewald was blocked at the door when he tried to break up the organizing meeting being held in a room of the local pub, Zum Wildschütz. The name Borussia is Latin for Prussia and was taken from the nearby Borussia brewery. The team began play in blue and white striped shirts with a red sash, and black shorts. In 1913, they donned the black and yellow uniforms so familiar today.
Over the next decades the club enjoyed only modest success playing in local leagues. They had a brush with bankruptcy in 1929 when an attempt to boost the club's fortunes by signing some paid professional footballers failed miserably and left the team deep in debt. They survived only through the generosity of a local supporter who covered the team's shortfall out of his own pocket.
World War II and the Postwar
The 30s saw the rise of the Third Reich which restructured sports and football organizations throughout the nation to suit the regime's goals. Borussia's president was replaced when he refused to join the Nazi party, and a couple of members who surreptitiously used the club's offices to produce anti-Nazi pamphlets were executed in the last days of the war. The club did have greater success in the newly established Gauliga, but would have to wait until after World War II to make a breakthrough. It was during this time that Borussia developed its intense rivalry with FC Schalke 04, the most successful side of the era. Like every other organization in Germany, Borussia was dissolved by the Allied occupation authorities after the war in an attempt to distance the country's institutions from the so-recent Nazi past. There was a short-lived attempt to merge the club with two others - Werksportgemeinschaft Hoesch and Freier Sportverein 98 – as Sportgemeinschaft Borussia von 1898, but it was as Ballspiel-Verein Borussia (BVB) that they made their first appearance in the national final in 1949 where they lost 2:3 to VfR Mannheim.
The Oberliga West, a first division league which included Borussia, dominated German football through the late 50s. The club claimed its first national title in 1956, followed up with another win the next season, and then made a losing appearance in the 1961 final.
Entry to the Bundesliga
In 1962, the DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) met in Dortmund and voted to finally establish a professional football league in Germany to begin play in August of 1963 as the Bundesliga. Borussia earned its place among the first sixteen sides to play in the new league by winning the last pre-Bundesliga championship. Losing club 1. FC Köln also earned an automatic berth. It was Dortmund's Timo Konietzka who scored the first-ever Bundesliga goal barely a minute into a match which they would eventually lose 2:3 to Werder Bremen.
In 1965, Dortmund captured its first German Cup. They had a mixed result the next year when they won the European Cup, but surrendered a commanding position atop the Bundesliga by losing four of their last five league games and finishing second, three points back of champions Munich 1860. Ironically, much of 1860's success came on the strength of the play of Konietzka, recently transferred there from Dortmund. The 70s were characterized by financial problems and relegation from the Bundesliga relegation in 1972 and the opening of the Westfalenstadion in 1974. The club earned its return to Bundesliga in 1976, but continued to suffer from financial problems through the 80s. BVB narrowly avoided being relegated again in 1986 by winning a third decisive play-off-game against Fortuna Köln after finishing the regular season in 16th place.
The club would not enjoy any significant success again until a German Cup win in 1989. Fortune would smile on them in 1993 with their run to the UEFA Cup final, which they lost 1:6 on aggregate to Juventus. In spite of this result, Borussia walked away with 25 million DM under the prize money pool system in place at the time for German sides participating in the Cup. Flush with cash, they were able to go out and sign the players that would bring them a string of honours through the balance of the decade. They won Bundesliga championships in 1995 and 1996 – with Matthias Sammer from the '96 side being named European Footballer of the Year – and took both the UEFA Champions League and Intercontinental Cup in 1997. Dortmund defeated Juventus 3-1 in a memorable Champions League final in Munich before beating Cruzeiro 2-0 in the Intercontinental Cup Final.
Following the success, Dortmund endured some lean years before reclaiming the Bundesliga title in 2001-02. The club made a remarkable run at the end of the season to overtake Bayer Leverkusen, securing the title on the final day. However, Dortmund has declined steadily since then.
Borussia "Goes Public"
At the turn of the millennium, Borussia Dortmund became the first – and so far the only – publicly traded club on the German stock market. Two years later they won their third Bundesliga title and lost the final of the 2002 UEFA Cup to Dutch side Feyenoord. Poor financial management led to a heavy debt load and the sale of their stadium, Westfalenstadion. The situation was compounded by failure to advance in the 2003 Champions League, and the club was again driven to the brink of bankruptcy in 2005, the original €11 value of its shares having plummeted by over 80% on the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Frankfurt Stock Exchange). The response to the current crisis has included a 20% pay cut to all players.
The team still plays through a lease arrangement at Westfalenstadion, named after their home state of Westphalia. To raise capital, the stadium was renamed Signal Iduna Park after a local insurance company, in 2006 under a sponsorship agreement that runs until 2011. Signal Iduna Park is currently the largest football stadium in Germany with a capacity of 81,264 spectators, and has recently hosted several matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including a semi-final. Borussia Dortmund enjoys the highest average attendance of any football club in Europe, at more than 80,000 per match (2004).
Current notables on the team roster include Alexander Frei, Christoph Metzelder, Sebastian Kehl, and Roman Weidenfeller. The team suffered a miserable start to the 2005-06 season, but rallied to finish 7th. The club failed to gain a berth into the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play draw and thus will not play in any European competitions in 2006-07. Club management recently indicated that the club again showed a profit, however this was largely related to the sale of David Odonkor to Betis Sevilla.
In the 2006-07 season, the club unexpectedly faced serious relegation trouble for the first time in years. The team went through three coaches and appointed Thomas Doll on March 13, 2007 after dropping to just one point above the relegation zone.
source: wikipedia.org
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