History/Background

HAMBURG SV

Hamburg SV, founded in 1887, is the oldest football club in Germany. History has it that British sailors first introduced football to Hamburg, as they used to have a kick-about at the waterfront while waiting for their ships to unload.

Hamburgs youths soon became interested in the new game, and on September 29th, 1887, they founded Germania SC, the club that was to become the 'primordial cell' of Hamburg SV.

The new club soon became a major factor in the sporting life of the city. A document of 1904, an old team photograph with some hand-written comments on it, proves that at this time the first side was not only successful ('Hamburg SV 3 Victoria FC 0') but really multi-cultural: Among them were Dutch, Spaniards, and two Englishmen. As it seems, Kevin Keegan was not the first...

The club established their new home in Rotherbaum, a rather posh part of the city, but forgot to buy the ground instead of just leasing it - a big mistake, as we had to learn later. But success was soon to come: In 1922, Hamburg gained their first League Championship in a final still unparalleled in German soccer history: Two matches and several hours (!) of extra time were needed to win against Nürnberg FC. Further League titles were gained in 1923 and 1928.

In the dark years of the Nazi regime, Hamburg SV suffered as any club in Hamburg, and some good players never returned from the battlefields. Thus, it is the more surprising that there is hardly any club in Germany which dominated the football leagues after the war more than Hamburg: Between 1948 and 1963, the club lost only one out of 15 Northern League championships.

In 1963, the nationwide German Bundesliga was introduced, but it took the club some time to regain the dominance they used to have in the post-war years. Hamburg SV by the way is the only club which always played in the Bundesliga since its introduction.

Without doubt, the years of the late seventies and early eighties were the best and most important in the club's history: Kevin Keegan, signed for the earth-shaking sum of some 2 million Deutschmarks (about 700,000 pounds), helped win the first Bundesliga title in 1979. But that is just one of the reasons why he is still very much in the hearts and minds of all true-blue Hamburg supporters: His skills and devoted fighting spirit set highest standards which, I am afraid to say, even today's side very rarely live up to.

In the last couple of years, Hamburg SV have gone through ups and downs. They have lost their old home, the Rotherbaum ground, as the city claimed the site for building purposes, and are now strangely torn apart: The first team plays at the HSHNordbankArena in Stellingen, the Reserves play at some minor ground north of the city centre. But there are plans now in place to build a mini-stadium in the VolksPark for the reserves and also the Womens team. HSV are even building a cemetery close to the stadium for their devoted fans. The law in Germany forbids scattering of ashes etc other than in certified locations 

Due to the activities and influence of the Hamburg SV Supporters Club it was possible to save terracing for 10.000 supporters. This part of the ground can be switched into 5000 seats easily within 2 hours. AOL signed a five year contract in 2001 to give the Volkspark Stadium the name AOLArena until May 2006. This deal was extended to 2007 but for the duration of the World Cup 2006, it became Hamburg FIFA Arena, so as not to offend FIFA sponsor Yahoo. In the summer of 2007, the stadium naming rights were transferred to HSH-NordBank and the stadium became the HSH NordBank Arena

Hamburg SV were German Bundesliga Champions in 1979, 1982, and 1983. They won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1977 and the European Cup in 1983, and they managed to conquer the German FA Cup in 1963, 1976, and 1987.

Their club colours are black, white, and blue - but do not get confused: Their traditional playing suit is red and white, as a tribute to the colours of their home town: Hamburg.

In season 2008/9 we finished the season in 5th place in the Bundesliga and reached the semi finals of both the UEFA Cup and the DFB-Pokal - sadly we lost out both times to our main rivals Werder Bremen. We have a record average attendance with 55.000. At the end of the season, we lost our coach Martin Jol, who returned to his native Netherlands to coach Ajax. He was replaced by former Leverkusen coach Bruno Labaddia. We now have over 32000 season tickets.

Most popular players with the fans are the Croatian forward Mladen Petric and Czech captain David Jarolim.