Hannover 96 is a German
football club in Hanover
, Lower Saxony
.
History
Foundation to WWII
Logo of foundation club
Hannoverscher FC 1896
Hannover 96 was founded on 12 April 1896 as
Hannoverscher Fußball-Club 1896, upon the suggestion of
Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke,
founder of the
Deutscher FV
1878 Hannover. Their initial enthusiasm was for athletics and
rugby; football did not become their
primary interest until
1899. Most of the
membership of
Germania 1902 Hannover became part of
96 in 1902, while others of the club formed
Hannoverscher Ballspielverein. In 1913, they merged with
Ballverein 1898 Hannovera (formed in the 1905 merger of
Fußballverein Hannovera 1898 Hannorver and Hannoverscher
BV
) to become Hannoverscher Sportverein
1896
.
Hannoverscher FC's colours were black-white-green, but
they played in blue, while
BV played in red. The newly
united team kept black-white-green as the club colours, but they
chose to take to the field in red, giving the team the nickname
Die Roten (en: The Reds). The team's third jersey is in
the club's official colours.
The club made regular appearances in the national playoffs through
the early 1900s, but were unable to progress past
Eintracht Braunschweig, planting
the seeds of a rivalry that has survived to this day.
HSV
continued to field strong sides and make national level appearances
on into the 1920s.
Under the
Third Reich German football
was re-organized into sixteen top-flight leagues in 1933 and
Hannover became part of the
Gauliga Niedersachsen. They appeared
in the country's final rounds in 1935 and sent representatives to
the national side the next year. They won their first national
championship in 1938 in what was one of the biggest upsets in
German football history when they beat
FC Schalke 04, the most dominant side in
the country in the era. The two sides played to a 3:3 draw before
Hannover prevailed 4:3 in a tension filled re-match. In
1942, the team moved to the newly formed
Gauliga
Braunschweig-Südhannover.
Post-War era
Like most other German organizations, the club was dissolved after
World War II by occupying Allied
authorities. A combined local side was assembled in August, 1945
and the next month a mixed group of players from
Hannover
96 and
Arminia Hannover played their first post-war
match against a British military team.
HSV was later
formally re-established as
Hannoverscher SV on 11 November
1945 before re-adopting its traditional name on 27 April
1946.
The club resumed league play in
1947 in the
first division
Oberliga Nord
and was relegated, but quickly returned to the top-flight in
1949.
Hannover 96's next appearance in
a national final would not come until
1954 when
they soundly defeated
1. FC Kaiserslautern 5:1. The beaten
side included five of the same players who would go on later that
year to win Germany's first
World
Cup in a surprise victory known as the
Miracle of Bern.
In
1963, the
Bundesliga, Germany's new professional
football league, began play with sixteen of the nation's top teams.
Hannover played in the
Regionalliga Nord (II) that
season, but earned promotion to the senior circuit in the following
year. The club's advance to the Bundesliga in 1964 was well
received as they set a league attendance record in their first
year, averaging 46,000 spectators a game.
96 played at the upper level for a decade, until finally
relegated to the
2nd
Bundesliga Nord for the 1974-75 season. They bounced right
back, but were again sent down, this time to spend seventeen of the
next twenty years in the second tier.
Reunification to present
The club suffered from money problems in the late 70s and again in
the early 90s. Then, in
1992,
Hannover
put together an impressive run that would lead them to the capture
of their first
German Cup (DFB-Pokal) and
help to set their finances right. That run included victories over
Bundesliga sides
Borussia
Dortmund,
VfL Bochum,
Karlsruher SC,
Werder Bremen, and
Borussia Moenchengladbach, as
they became the first lower division side to win the competition.
Hero for the cupwinners was goalkeeper Jörg Sievers who made two
saves when the semi-final match went to penalties and then scored
the winner in his own turn at the spot. In the cup final, he again
made two saves when that match was also decided on penalties.
The team's low point came with demotion to
Regionalliga Nord (III) for two years in
1996-
98: the fact that the
fall from the second league came during their anniversary year
unfortunately made them a laughing stock among fans of rival teams
for years to come.
Hannover made a fresh start with a new
team of hungry youngsters, many of whom went on to play for the
national team (
Gerald Asamoah,
Sebastian Kehl,
Fabian Ernst) or impress in the Bundesliga.
96 returned to tier II play in
1998,
and to the Bundesliga in
2002 on the strength
of a record setting 75 point season.
Since their promotion the club have consolidated in the top flight,
achieving a string of mid-table finishes under the command of
several managers. Current coach
Dieter
Hecking was brought in just weeks into the 2006-07 season after
a disastrous start under
Peter
Neururer, in which the club lost the first 3 matches by a
combined 11 goals. Season 2007-2008 showed some early promise with
impressive pre-season wins over
Rangers and
Real Madrid. However, they earned mixed
results in their opening six Bundesliga matches. The team then put
together a three match winning run, capped by a 2:0 win at
champions
VfB Stuttgart, to
surge into the top six. Following the winter break
Hannover slipped after putting forth some disappointing
performances which they turned around to be defeated only 2 times
in their last 11 matches of the season. This secured a points
record of 49 for Die Roten in the Bundesliga thus ending them in
8th place.
The 2008-2009 season started undesirably for 96 with losses.
However it looked to have been rectified with a 5-1 thrashing of
Borussia Monchengladbach, a shock 1-0 win over Bayern Munich at
home,which hadn't occurred for 20 years and a thrilling 3-0 victory
over Hamburg SV. Hannover settled in the lower mid table until the
winter break. The second half of the season consisted of
inconsistent results, relying almost entirely on home form to keep
Hannover in the top league. 96 finally achieved an away win with a
few games remaining which boosted them away from trouble and
stabilized them which led to an 11th place finish. The season was
one of inconsistent form and long injuries to key players.
The 2009-2010 season was launched with new optimism with a new kit
being released which included traditional away and alternative
kits. Hannover also signed a new technical director in
Jörg Schmadtke which brought a new
perspective to the club. The new signings were
Karim Haggui and
Constant Djapka from
Bayer Leverkusen,
Valdet Rama from
FC
Ingolstadt plus
Sofien Chahed and
Manuel Schmiedebach from the
youth team. The season started undesirably with a late 1-0 loss to
Hertha BSC and a disappointing home draw
to
Mainz 05, after which coach
Dieter Hecking resigned voluntarily. He was
succeeded by former assistant
Andreas
Bergmann. As the season continues, once again Hannover have had
many key players injured including the majority of attacking
players and key defenders, as well as the shocking and tragic death
of German international goalkeeper
Robert
Enke. The season appears to be a repeat of the previous.
Recent seasons
| Year |
Division |
Position |
| 1999-2000 |
2.
Bundesliga (II) |
10th |
| 2000-01 |
2. Bundesliga |
9th |
| 2001-02 |
2. Bundesliga |
1st (promoted) |
| 2002-03 |
Bundesliga
(I) |
11th |
| 2003-04 |
Bundesliga |
14th |
| 2004-05 |
Bundesliga |
10th |
| 2005-06 |
Bundesliga |
12th |
| 2006-07 |
Bundesliga |
11th |
| 2007-08 |
Bundesliga |
8th |
| 2008-09 |
Bundesliga |
11th |
Honours
German Cup play has long been dominated by first division teams:
Hannover's 1992 German Cup win made them the only
non-Bundesliga side to take that prize since the formation of the
professional league in 1963.
- Südkreisliga champions: 1921
- Gauliga Niedersachsen
champions: 1935, 1938
- Gauliga Niedersachsen-Süd champions: 1940, 1941
- Oberliga Nord champions: 1954
- 2.Bundesliga-Nord champions: 1975
- 2.Bundesliga champions: 1987, 2002
- Regionalliga Nord champions: 1997, 1998
- German champions: 1938, 1954
- German Cup winners: 1992
Reserve team
Youth
Stadium
Hannover 96 plays in the AWD-Arena
, built in 1954 as the
"Niedersachsenstadion", which now has a capacity of 49,000
spectators. During the
2006
World Cup the stadium was the site of four first round matches
and one Round of 16 match. The stadium had also served as a site
for matches of the
1974 World
Cup and the
1988 European
Championships.
Club culture
Hannover's main rival is
Eintracht Braunschweig while
other less ancient rivalries include those with
Werder Bremen and
VfL Wolfsburg.
Hannover fans
have developed some recent ill feeling towards
FC Energie Cottbus based on an
incident in the 1997 Regionalliga (III) promotion round for the 2.
Bundesliga. The floodlights at the
Cottbus ground broke
down during the game and many
Hannover fans believed this
was done deliberately and the effort to fix the lighting was
half-hearted.
Cottbus later won the rescheduled match 3:1
to advance.
Hamburger SV is seen as a
friendly club whose supporters share the rivalry with
Werder
Bremen. Both clubs are often referred to as
HSV.
Hannover's supporters also have a good relationship with the fans
from
Odense Boldklub. Both clubs's
fans have traveled to each others games to support one another.
There is also a friendship to Arminia Bielefeld a German club plays
in the second German league (2. Bundesliga).
Players
For recent transfers, see List of German
football transfers summer 2009.
Current squad
Out on loan
Retired numbers
Manager History
Hannover 96 Amateure (II)
Hannover fields a successful amateur side that has three
German amateur championships to its credit (1960, 1964, 1965) as
well as losing appearances in the 1966 and 1967 finals. The second
team has also taken part in the German Cup tournament and currently
plays in the Oberliga Nord (IV).
Honours
- Amateurliga Niedersachsen-West champions: 1960
- Amateurliga Niedersachsen-Ost champions: 1964
- Amateurliga Niedersachsen champions: 1965, 1966, 1967
- German Amateur champions: 1960, 1964, 1965
Hannover 96 II squad
As of August 1, 2009
Manager:
Thomas Flath
External links
References
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
