Eintracht Frankfurt

History

Club origins

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

Pre-Bundesliga history

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

Through the late 20's and into the 30's Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships, first in the Kreisliga Nordmain, then in the Bezirksliga Main, and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen, but never made it very far in the national championship rounds except for 1932 when they became runners-up in the German national championship (the final was lost 0-2 to Bayern Munich). In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauligen under the Third Reich and the club played first division football in the Gauliga Südwest, consistently finishing in the upper half of the table and winning their division in 1938.

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

Founding member of the Bundesliga

The side continued to play good football and earned themselves a place as one of the original sixteen teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, formed in 1963. Eintracht played Bundesliga football for thirty-three seasons finishing in the top half of the table more often than not. Their best Bundesliga performances were five third-place finishes: they ended just two points back of champion VfB Stuttgart in 1991-1992.

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

It looked as though they would be out again in 1998-1999, but they pulled through by beating defending champions Kaiserslautern 5-1, while Nuremberg unexpectedly lost at home, to give Eintracht the break they needed to stay up. The following year, in another struggle to avoid relegation, the club was "fined" two points by the DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund or German Football Association) for financial misdeeds, but pulled through with a win by a late goal over SSV Ulm on the last day of the season. The club was plagued by financial difficulties again in 2004 before once more being relegated.

Between 1997 and 2005, Eintracht has bounced between the top two divisions and has often kept its fans on edge over whether or not the side would be demoted, but in the 2005-06 season supporters learned earlier than is often the case that the club would stay up, as they finished their Bundesliga season in 14th place, three points clear of relegation.

In 2008-09 Eintracht had the 20th highest attendance in Europe, ahead of such prominent clubs as Feyenoord, Liverpool and Atlético Madrid.

Success outside the Bundesliga

The club has enjoyed considerable success in competition outside the Bundesliga. Eintracht famously lost the European Cup final to Real Madrid on May 18, 1960 at Hampden Park 7-3 in front of 127,621 spectators. It is one of the most talked about European matches of all time, with Di Stéfano scoring 3 and Puskás scoring the other 4 for Real.

They won the German Cup in 1974, 1975, 1981, and 1988, and took the UEFA Cup over another German team – Borussia Mönchengladbach – in 1980. More recently, Eintracht were the losing finalists in the 2006 German Cup. Their opponents in the final, Bayern Munich, Bundesliga champions that year, qualified to participate in the Champions League. As a result Eintracht received the Cup winner's place in the UEFA Cup where they advanced to the group stage.

Colours, crest and nicknames

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

The crest has evolved slowly over time, showing little significant change until 1980 when a stylized eagle in black and white was chosen to represent the team. In the centennial year 1999 the club board decided to re-adopt a more traditional eagle crest.

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

Eintracht's eagle (Adler) over the years: the logo of Frankfurter FV 1911, the red eagle of TuS Eintracht Frankfurt 1920, Sportgemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt 1967, and the predominantly black crest in use ca. 1980-1999 before today's more traditional style logo was adopted.

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

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

The players themselves have been referred to as the Schlappekicker - "Slipper Kickers" in the local slang - because, in the days before big-monied professionalism, many of them were employed at a local slipper factory.