1.
3. Liga
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Liga, is the third division of football in Germany. The league started with the beginning of the 2008–09 season, when it replaced the Regionalliga as the third football league in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2, Bundesliga and the semi-professional Regionalliga, which became the fourth division and initially consisted of three groups of 18 clubs playing separately. Liga is the highest division that a football clubs reserve team can play in, on 8 September 2006, the German Football Association, the DFB, announced the formation of the 3. It was originally anticipated that the name would be 3. Bundesliga, but the DFB chose 3, Liga instead, reflecting the fact that the league will be directly administered by the DFB, not by the German Football League DFL who runs both Bundesliga and 2. The first match of the 3, Liga was played on 25 July 2008 between FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt and Dynamo Dresden at the Steigerwaldstadion in Erfurt. Dynamo Dresden won the match 1–0, with Halil Savran scoring the goal in the closing stages of the first half. From its foundation in 2008 to 2013 the league had been operating on a financial loss, the 2013–14 season saw the league make a profit for the first time, being €4.9 million in the plus. This makes it the third-most economically successful professional league in all German sports, the teams which are not reserve teams of Bundesliga teams among the 20 teams in the league compete for promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, while the three teams are relegated to one of the five Regionalligen, Regionalliga Nord, Regionalliga Nordost, Regionalliga West, Regionalliga Südwest. If, however, a team is playing in the 3. Liga and the respective first team is relegated to the 3, Liga, the reserve team will be relegated to the Regionalliga regardless of its league position. At the end of the 2007–08 season, the two best non-reserve teams from each of the two divisions of the Regionalliga were promoted to the 2, the teams ranked third to tenth in both Regionalliga entered the new 3. Liga, joining the four teams relegated from the 2, Bundesliga to form the new 20-team league. Teams finishing 11th or lower in their Regionalliga remained where they were, on 18 May 2008, at the end of the 2007–082. Bundesliga season, four clubs were relegated from the 2, Bundesliga and became charter members of the 3. Liga, Kickers Offenbach, FC Erzgebirge Aue, SC Paderborn 07, on 31 May 2008, at the end of the 2007–08 Regionalliga seasons, clubs placing third through tenth in the Regionalliga Nord and the Regionalliga Süd also qualified for the new 3
2.
Kit (association football)
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In association football, kit is the standard equipment and attire worn by players. The sports Laws of the Game specify the minimum kit which a player must use, footballers generally wear identifying numbers on the backs of their shirts. Professional clubs also usually display players surnames or nicknames on their shirts, Football kit has evolved significantly since the early days of the sport when players typically wore thick cotton shirts, knickerbockers and heavy rigid leather boots. The Laws of the Game set out the equipment which must be worn by all players in Law 4. Five separate items are specified, shirt, shorts, socks, footwear, goalkeepers are allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms instead of shorts. While most players wear studded football boots, the Laws do not specify that these are required, shirts must have sleeves, and goalkeepers must wear shirts which are easily distinguishable from all other players and the match officials. Thermal undershorts may be worn, but must be the colour as the shorts themselves. Shin pads must be covered entirely by the stockings, be made of rubber, plastic or a similar material, and provide a reasonable degree of protection. The only other restriction on equipment defined in the Laws of the Game is the requirement that a player must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player. In the event of a match between teams who would wear identical or similar colours the away team must change to a different colour. The England national team plays in red shirts even when it is not required. Many professional clubs also have a kit, ostensibly to be used if both their first-choice and away colours are deemed too similar to those of an opponent. Most professional clubs have retained the basic colour scheme for several decades. Teams representing countries in international competition generally wear national colours in common with other sporting teams of the same nation, shirts are normally made of a polyester mesh, which does not trap the sweat and body heat in the same way as a shirt made of a natural fibre. Depending on local rules, there may be restrictions on how large these logos may be or on what logos may be displayed, competitions such as the Premier League may also require players to wear patches on their sleeves depicting the logo of the competition. The captain of team is usually required to wear an elasticated armband around the left sleeve to identify him as the captain to the referee. Most current players wear specialist football boots, which can be either of leather or a synthetic material. Modern boots are cut slightly below the ankles, as opposed to the high-ankled boots used in former times, studs may be either moulded directly to the sole or be detachable, normally by means of a screw thread
3.
Away colours
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Away colours are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports. They are required to be worn by one team during a game between teams that would wear the same colours as each other, or similar colours. This change prevents confusion for officials, players, and spectators, in most sports it is the visiting team that must change – second-choice kits are commonly known as away kits or change kits in British English, and road uniforms in American English. Some sports leagues mandate that teams must always wear an alternative kit. In some sports, conventionally the home team has changed its kit, in most cases, a team wears its away kit only when its primary kit would clash with the colours of the home team. However, sometimes teams wear away colours by choice, occasionally even in a home game, at some clubs, the away kit has become more popular than the home version. Replica home and away kits are available for fans to buy. Some teams also have produced third-choice kits, or even old-fashioned throwback uniforms, in American sports, road teams usually wear a change uniform regardless of a potential colour clash. Further, almost all road uniforms are white in American football, in the National Basketball Association, home uniforms are white or yellow, and visiting teams wear a darker colour. In the United States, color vs. color games are a rarity, most teams choose to wear their color jerseys at home, with the road team changing to white in most cases. White road uniforms gained prominence with the rise of television in the 1950s, a white vs. color game was easier to follow in black-and-white. According to Phil Hecken, until the mid 1950′s, not only was color versus color common in the NFL, even long after the advent of color television, the use of white jerseys has remained in almost every game. The NFLs current rules require that a home jerseys must be either white or official team color throughout the season. If a team insists on wearing its home uniforms on the road, the road team might instead wear a third jersey, such as the Seattle Seahawks Wolf Grey alternate. According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, the Cleveland Browns wore white for home game of the 1955 season. The only times they wore brown was for games at Philadelphia and the New York Giants, in 1964 the Baltimore Colts, Browns, Vikings and Rams wore white regularly for their home games according to Tim Brulias research. The St. Louis Cardinals wore white for several of their home games, until 1964 Dallas had worn blue at home, but it was not an official rule that teams should wear their colored jerseys at home. The use of white jerseys was instigated by general manager Tex Schramm, the Cowboys still wear white at home today
4.
North Rhine-Westphalia
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North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with a population of approximately 18 million, and the fourth largest by area. Its capital is Düsseldorf, the most populous city is Cologne, four of Germanys ten largest cities—Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, and Essen—are located within the state, as well as the largest metropolitan area on the European continent, Rhine-Ruhr. North Rhine-Westphalia was formed in 1946 as a merger of the provinces of North Rhine and Westphalia, the state has been run by a coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens since 2010. The Ubii and some other Germanic tribes such as the Cugerni were later settled on the west side of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Inferior, North of the Sigambri and the Rhine region were the Bructeri. By the 8th century the Frankish dominion was established in western Germany. But at the time, to the north, Westphalia was being taken over by Saxons pushing south. The Merovingian and Carolingian Franks eventually built an empire which controlled first their Ripuarian kin, the Ottonian dynasty had both Saxon and Frankish ancestry. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split into small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes. Such struggles as the War of the Limburg Succession therefore continued to create military, Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulked largely in German history. Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves and about a century later Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. At the peace of Basel in 1795 the whole of the bank of the Rhine was resigned to France. In 1920, the districts of Eupen and Malmedy were transferred to Belgium, around 1 AD there were numerous incursions through Westphalia and perhaps even some permanent Roman or Romanized settlements. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place near Osnabrück and some of the Germanic tribes who fought at this came from the area of Westphalia. Charlemagne is thought to have spent considerable time in Paderborn and nearby parts and his Saxon Wars also partly took place in what is thought of as Westphalia today. Popular legends link his adversary Widukind to places near Detmold, Bielefeld, Lemgo, Osnabrück, Widukind was buried in Enger, which is also a subject of a legend. Along with Eastphalia and Engern, Westphalia was originally a district of the Duchy of Saxony, in 1180 Westphalia was elevated to the rank of a duchy by Emperor Barbarossa. The Duchy of Westphalia comprised only an area south of the Lippe River. Parts of Westphalia came under Brandenburg-Prussian control during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, signed in Münster and Osnabrück, ended the Thirty Years War
5.
Football
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Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. Unqualified, the football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called football in certain places include, association football, gridiron football, Australian rules football, rugby football and these different variations of football are known as football codes. Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games, contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century. The expanse of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, in 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world. They tend to use throwing and running as the ways of moving the ball. Body tackling is a skill, and games typically involve short passages of play of 5–90 seconds. Association football, Australian rules football and Gaelic football tend to use kicking to move the ball around the pitch, body tackles are less central to the game, and players are freer to move around the field. Common rules among the sports include, Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players, some variations that have fewer players are also popular, a clearly defined area in which to play the game. Scoring goals or points by moving the ball to an opposing teams end of the field and either into a goal area, goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts. The goal or line being defended by the opposing team, players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying, or hand-passing the ball. Players using only their body to move the ball, in all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching and kicking. In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, there are conflicting explanations of the origin of the word football. It is widely assumed that the word refers to the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is an explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe. There is no evidence for either explanation. The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played ball games
6.
Tennis
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Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent or between two teams of two players each. Each player uses a racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return, the player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society, the sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis and it had close connections both to various field games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport of real tennis. The rules of tennis have changed little since the 1890s, two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. Tennis is played by millions of players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. Historians believe that the ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France. Louis X of France was a player of jeu de paume, which evolved into real tennis. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, in due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. Because of the accounts of his death, Louis X is historys first tennis player known by name. Another of the enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France. It wasnt until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called tennis, from the French term tenez, an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in England and France, although the game was played indoors where the ball could be hit off the wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, during the 18th century and early 19th century, as real tennis declined, new racket sports emerged in England. This in turn led to the codification of rules for many sports, including lawn tennis, most football codes, lawn bowls. In 1872, along with two doctors, they founded the worlds first tennis club in Leamington Spa. Evans, turfgrass agronomist, Sports historians all agree that deserves much of the credit for the development of modern tennis, according to Honor Godfrey, museum curator at Wimbledon, Wingfield popularized this game enormously
7.
Sport of athletics
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Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running. The results of racing events are decided by finishing position, while the jumps, the simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes performances for a team score, organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BCE. The rules and format of the events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century. Most modern top level meetings are conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, other top level competitions in athletics include the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής from ἆθλον or ἆθλος, initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in general – i. e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term acquired a more narrow definition in Europe. This definition continues to be the most prominent one in the United Kingdom, furthermore, foreign words in many German and Roman languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning. In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, the word athletics is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to most athletics events, including racewalking, Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival, the Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BCE, and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BCE was a running event known as the stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon, Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BCE. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a festival which emerged in 17th century England. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, LOlympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, the premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display
8.
Handball
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Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the goal of the other team. A standard match consists of two periods of 30 minutes, and the team scores more goals wins. Modern handball is played on a court 40 by 20 metres, the goals are surrounded by a 6-meter zone where only the defending goalkeeper is allowed, goals must be scored by throwing the ball from outside the zone or while diving into it. The sport is played indoors, but outdoor variants exist in the forms of field handball and Czech handball. The game is fast and high-scoring, professional teams now typically score between 20 and 35 goals each, though lower scores were not uncommon until a few decades ago, body contact is permitted by the defenders trying to stop the attackers from approaching the goal. The game was codified at the end of the 19th century in northern Europe, the modern set of rules was published in 1917 in Germany, and had several revisions since. The first international games were played under rules for men in 1925. Mens handball was first played at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin as outdoors, and the time at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich as indoors. Womens team handball was added at the 1976 Summer Olympics, the International Handball Federation was formed in 1946 and, as of 2016, has 197 member federations. The sport is most popular in the countries of continental Europe, in the womens world championships, only two non-European countries have won the title, South Korea and Brazil. The game also enjoys popularity in the Far East, North Africa, There is evidence of ancient Roman women playing a version of handball called expulsim ludere. There are records of games in medieval France, and among the Inuit in Greenland. By the 19th century, there existed similar games of håndbold from Denmark, házená in the Czech Republic, handbol in Ukraine, the team handball game of today was codified at the end of the 19th century in northern Europe—primarily in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The first written set of team handball rules was published in 1906 by the Danish gym teacher, lieutenant and Olympic medalist Holger Nielsen from Ordrup grammar school, north of Copenhagen. The modern set of rules was published on 29 October 1917 by Max Heiser, Karl Schelenz, after 1919 these rules were improved by Karl Schelenz. The first international games were played under rules, between Germany and Belgium by men in 1925 and between Germany and Austria by women in 1930. In 1926, the Congress of the International Amateur Athletics Federation nominated a committee to draw up rules for field handball. The International Amateur Handball Federation was formed in 1928 and later the International Handball Federation was formed in 1946, Mens field handball was played at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin
9.
Fistball
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Fistball is a sport of European origin. It is similar to volleyball in that players try to hit a ball over a net, the current mens fistball World Champion is Germany, winners of both the 2011 World Championships and the fistball category at the 2013 World Games. When exactly the game of fistball was invented, is not known, what is certain, however, is that the roots lie in the southern part of Europe, perhaps in Italy. The earliest known mention of the game is by Roman Emperor Gordian III. Rules for an Italian version of fistball were recorded by Antonius Scaiono in 1555, in the 16th century the game experienced a renaissance. However, it was less as a game of competitive nature and more as a pastime for nobles. In 1786, Johann Wolfgang Goethe mentioned fistball games between four noblemen from Verona and four Venetians in his diary An Italian Journey and it was only in 1870 that fistball was introduced to Germany, led by Georg Weber. The sport was played by gymnasts and was soon seen as a gymnastic sport. Fistball was first presented in 1885 at the German Gymnastics Festival in Dresden, in 1894, Georg Weber, along with Dr. Heinrich Schnell, drafted the first German rules that outlined a sport with competitive elements. The play and scoring however differed significantly from fistball as it is known today, Fistball was first introduced to the United States in 1911 by high school teacher Christopher Carlton who had experienced it first hand on a summer vacation to Italy. At the 1913 German Gymnastics Festival in Leipzig, the first German mens championships were held, due to the First World War, no German Championships were held between 1914 and 1920. In 1921, the first womens championship was held, with Hamburger Turnerschaft emerging victorious against TV Krefeld. Fistball, while still a game affiliated to the Gymnastics Association, in 1927, almost 12,000 teams played organized fistball in Germany. Due to the spread of the fistball game and improved game skills, further changes in the rules were necessary. This style of play was more athletic and dynamic, and tactics began to changing significantly, the development of fistball was halted by the Second World War. It was not until 1947 that regular German Championships were able to be carried out, the first IFA World Championships for men were held in Linz, Austria in 1968, with West Germany winning gold. The first IFA World Championships for women were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994, both tournaments are currently held quadrennially. A relative latecomer to fistball, Australia established their own fistball federation in 2013, Fistball is a team sport in which two teams compete against each other on two half-fields, similar to volleyball
10.
Gauliga Westfalen
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The Gauliga Westphalia was the highest football league in the Prussian province of Westphalia and the small Free State of Lippe from 1933 to 1945. The league was introduced by the Nazi Sports Office in 1933, the Gauliga Westfalen was established with ten clubs, all from the Province of Westphalia. The Gauliga replaced as such a number of separate leagues covering the areas of Westphalia, South Westphalia and Ruhr, in its first season, the league had ten clubs, playing each other once at home and once away. The league winner qualified for the German championship while the two teams were relegated. The league remained unchanged until 1940, throughout its existence, the league was dominated by what became the golden era of the FC Schalke 04, who won it in every of its eleven completed seasons. Schalke also took out the championship in 1934,1935,1937,1939,1940,1942. A cup win in 1937 and four lost finals in 1935,1936,1941 and 1942 were also added to this. Despite no other club from the region having any national success, the start to the 1939-40 season was delayed with the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 September 1939 and league football was suspended. It only resumed at the beginning of November, with a number of cup competitions having been played to bridge the gap. In 1940-41, the league expanded to twelve clubs, with the four teams relegated. The season after, it returned to its original set-up and remained so until 1944, the imminent collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945 gravely affected all Gauligas and the leagues last season, 1944–45, was meant to be staged in three regional groups with altogether 20 teams. Play never really got under way and no club absolved more than three matches, most none before it had to be suspended, with the end of the Nazi era, the Gauligas ceased to exist and the region of Westphalia found itself in the British occupation zone. Football in Westphalia restarted in 1946 with the Landesliga Westfalen, note that, in the 1944–45 season, the league was split into three separate groups but the competition was barely started before it came to a halt. 1 Germania Bochum and TuS Bochum merged in 1938 to form VfL Bochum,2 The VfL Bochum and Preussen 07 Bochum formed the KSG Bochum for the 1943-44 season. 3 The VfB Bielefeld and Arminia Bielefeld formed the KSG Bielefeld for the 1943-44 season,4 Gelsenguss Gelsenkirchen became Alemannia Gelsenkirchen in 1942. com
11.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
12.
1. FC Kaiserslautern
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Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V. also known as 1. FC Kaiserslautern, is a club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is internationally known, especially through its football division, on 2 June 1900, Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC1900. In 1909, the club went on to join FC Palatia, in 1929, they merged with SV Phönix to become FV Phönix-Kaiserslautern before finally taking on their current name three years later. As a founding member of the Bundesliga the FCK played from 1963 to 1996 through in the first league, Kaiserslautern have won four German championships, two DFB-Pokals, and one DFL-Supercup and is by titles among the most successful football clubs in Germany. The FCK currently occupies the place in the All-time Bundesliga table. The clubs international successes included reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 1999 as well as participation in the UEFA Cup semi-final. Kaiserslautern won the German championship in the 1997/98 season as a promoter which is unique in German football, since 1920, Kaiserslauterns stadium is the Fritz-Walter-Stadion, named after the captain of the DFB national team, who won the world title in 1954. In addition to the division, it operates also in basketball, boxing, handball, hockey, running, athletics, wheelchair basketball. Two of the predecessors, Bavaria and FC1900 Kaiserslautern, were part of the Westkreis-Liga when this league was formed in 1908. From 1909 through 1918, the new FV Kaiserslautern performed well, the clubs performance was unremarkable in the years leading up to World War II, but improved after 1939. They captured the Gauliga Südwest/Staffel Saarpfalz title, but lost the division title to Staffel Mainhessen winners Kickers Offenbach. They were decisively put out 3–9 by eventual champions Schalke 04, the performance of the team slipped and they finished last in their division in 1944. The following year saw the collapse of league play in part of Germany as the Third Reich crumbled under the advance of Allied armies. After the war, Southwestern Germany was part of the occupation zone held by the French, teams there were organized into northern and southern divisions and played to determine which of them would join the new Oberliga being put together. FC Kaiserslautern resumed play in the Oberliga Südwest in 1945 and finished the season just one point behind 1 and this marked the beginning of the clubs dominance of the Oberliga Südwest as they went on to capture the division title eleven times over the next twelve seasons. FCK advanced to Germanys first post-war national final in 1948, Kaiserslautern became a presence on the national scene through the early 1950s, capturing their first German championship in 1951 with a 2–1 victory of their own, this time over Preußen Münster. They won a title in 1953, followed by two losing final appearances in 1954 and 1955
13.
Ottmar Walter
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Ottmar Kurt Herrmann Walter was a German footballer. He played together with his brother, Fritz Walter, at the club 1 and they also played together for the Germany national football team in the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Walter scored four goals in the tournament as West Germany won their first ever World Cup title, in total, Walter earned 20 caps and scored 10 goals for Germany. FC Kaiserslautern he scored unequaled 336 goals in 321 league and cup matches, Walter debuted in the first team at the age of 18 in 1942 as an outside left in a 7–1 rout of 1. FC Kaiserslautern against SV Waldhof Mannheim, during World War II, Walter was drafted into the Kriegsmarine and suffered heavy injuries in his right knee. After several operations, he was forced to end his career in 1958, born in Kaiserslautern, Walter and his two brothers Fritz and Ludwig all joined local club,1. After making his debut for the club in 1942 he was posted to Kiel, by the late-1940s, Walter was the center forward of 1. Like his brother Fritz, he treated the ball elegantly and was also pacy, as a center forward he also often moved to the wing. After the end of his career, he concentrated on operating a gas station which he had taken at rent in 1954 and this happened in 1969 and in consequence of this Walter tried to commit suicide. However, he survived and later described that attempted suicide as a panic reaction, later Walter found a job as an employee of the city of Kaiserslautern
14.
Bundesliga
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The Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germanys primary football competition, the Bundesliga is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Seasons run from August to May, most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. A total of 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding, FC Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 25 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries. The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963, the structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germanys other football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, the Bundesliga is composed of two divisions, the 1. Bundesliga, and, below that, the 2, Bundesliga, which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. Below the level of the 3, Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas, the league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany, every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As in other leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support, average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1, Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities
15.
Kickers Offenbach
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Offenbacher Kickers, also known as Kickers Offenbach, is a German association football club in Offenbach am Main, Hesse. The club was founded on 27 May 1901 in the Rheinischer Hof restaurant by footballers who had established local clubs including Melitia, Teutonia, Viktoria, Germania. From 1921 to 1925 they were united with VfB1900 Offenbach as VfR Kickers Offenbach until resuming their status as a separate side, since 2012, Kickers Offenbachs stadium has been the Sparda Bank Hessen Stadium. The club became one of the members of the Nordkreis-Liga in 1909. In post-First World War Germany, Kickers played in the Kreisliga Südmain, the club played as a mid-table side in the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen through the late 1920s and early 1930s. German football was re-organized in 1933 under the Third Reich into sixteen first division Gauligen, Kickers joined the Gauliga Südwest, where the team immediately captured the title and entered the national playoffs for the first time. They fared poorly there, but did manage to raise their level of play in the following seasons. In the early 1940s the Gauliga Südwest had been split into the Gauliga Westmark and the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau, by 1944, Allied armies were rolling through Germany and the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau did not play the 1944–45 season. The club found itself in the new Regionalliga Süd and play in the Bundesliga would have to wait until 1968, the team was immediately relegated, but returned to the upper league for play in 1970–71. In addition to their return to the Bundesliga, the club would win its one of its few honours in 1970 with a 2,1 German Cup victory over 1, however, the end of the 1971 season would find Kickers Offenbach at the centre of the Bundesliga scandal. Receiving no help from league officials, Canellas began gathering evidence of how widespread the payoffs were, the club central to the scandal – Arminia Bielefeld – would not be punished until the following season, too late to save Offenbach. The scandal had a negative effect on the young league. One outcome of the affair was the further evolution of German football, salary restrictions were removed. Bundesliga also became a professional league, for the players it meant that having ones club sent down no longer also meant losing ones status as a paid professional. Kickers immediately returned to top level, the best finish was 7th in 1972–73 season. They were leaders for 5 rounds and beat Bayern Munich 6–0 in 1974–75 season and they relegated to second level in 1975–76 season. Kickers would spend the next seven years in the division before making a return to the Bundesliga for just a single season in 1983–84. In 1985, financial problems led to the club being penalized points and they recovered themselves only to be denied a license in 1989 and be sent back down again
16.
Oberliga Westfalen
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The Oberliga Westfalen is the highest level football league in the region of Westphalia, which is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The league existed from 1978 to 2008, but was replaced by the NRW-Liga. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football, the tier of the German football league system. The league was formed in 1978 as a highest level of play for the region of Westphalia, the main reason for the creation of this league was to allow its champion direct promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga Nord rather than having to go through a promotion play-off. The league was created from nine clubs from the Verbandsliga Westfalen-Nordost, the SC Herford was relegated from the 2. Bundesliga Nord to the new league, the league was founded as the Amateur-Oberliga Westfalen, but from 1994 the name was shortened to Oberliga Westfalen. With the introduction of the unified 2nd Bundesliga in 1981, direct promotion for the Oberliga champions became impossible again because there were eight of them competing for four promotion spots. The champion of the Oberliga Westfalen had to compete with the winner and the runner-up of the Oberliga Nord, upon creation of the Regionalligas in 1994, the champions of the Oberligas were directly promoted again, however the Oberligas slipped to fourth tier in the German football league system. However, the Sportfreunde Siegen, based in the south of the region. With the creation of the 3rd Liga in 2008 the Oberliga Westfalen was replaced by the NRW-Liga, the Oberliga Westfalen ceased to exit after 30 seasons. Its clubs were split up over three league levels, the first four teams were promoted to the new Regionalliga West, clubs from place five to eleven went to the new Oberliga while the bottom seven teams were relegated to the Verbandsligas. The league was reintroduced in 2012 after the NRW-Liga was disbanded again
17.
Roger Schmidt (football manager)
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Roger Schmidt is a German football manager and a former player who last managed Bayer Leverkusen. Schmidt was manager of Delbrücker SC from 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2007, Schmidt was appointed manager of Preußen Münster in May 2007. Schmidt officially started the position on 1 July 2007, Schmidt was sacked on 21 March 2010. Schmidt became manager of Paderborn 07 on 1 July 2011, on 24 June 2012 he was named new manager of Red Bull Salzburg succeeding Ricardo Moniz. In his second season in charge he led Red Bull Salzburg to their title in three years. He also led them to the round of sixteen of the UEFA Europa League before being beaten by Basel 2–1 in the leg to lose the match on aggregate after drawing the first game 0–0. On 25 April 2014, Bayer Leverkusen hired Schmidt to become the coach at the start of the 2014–15 season. On 21 February 2016, Schmidt was sent off by the referee in a game against Dortmund after disputing a free kick led to a goal for Dortmund. Schmidt initially refused to leave, causing the referee to suspend the game and lead the players off the field, causing an eight-minute delay, on 5 March 2017, Schmidt was sacked by Bayer Leverkusen following a 6–2 loss to Borussia Dortmund. As of 4 March 2017 Red Bull Salzburg Austrian Football Bundesliga, 2013–14 Austrian Cup, 2013–14 Profile at kicker. de
18.
Regionalliga West
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The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football and Athletics Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations, being the single flight of the Western German state association, the Regionalliga is currently a level 4 division of the German football league system. It is one of five leagues at level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga Nordost, Regionalliga Nord. The league came into existence in August 2008 and was formed from the five Regionalliga clubs in its region which did not achieve admittance to the new 3, the number of clubs in the new league was set at eighteen. Along with the formation of this there was a merger of the Oberligas below it, with Nordrhein and Westfalen forming the new NRW-Liga. It also shares its name with the old Regionalliga West, which operated from 1963 to 1974, in 2008-09, with the BV Cloppenburg, it included a club from Lower Saxony while, in 2009-10, with Waldhof Mannheim, a club from Baden-Württemberg played in the league. This moving-around of clubs is done to balance out the three Regionalligas in numbers, in 2010-11, in turn, Wormatia Worms, a club nominally belonging to the West, played in the South. In its first season, the league was won by the team of Borussia Dortmund. The best non-reserve side in the league was the Preußen Münster, at the bottom of the table,1. FC Kleve and BV Cloppenburg suffered relegation, while 16th placed Wormatia Worms was spared because FSV Oggersheim, in 12th place, did not apply for a licence for the next season. The league had an number of 1,372 spectators by game. Second in this ranking was Preußen Münster with 3,649 spectators per game while the side of Bayer Leverkusen came last in this ranking, attracting only 247 spectators per home game. Sascha Mölders of Rot-Weiss Essen was by far the best scorer in the league scoring 28 times during the season, nine more than the second-best. The reserve team of Fortuna Düsseldorf,1, FC Saarbrücken and the Bonner SC were promoted to the league for the following season, while Waldhof Mannheim crossed over from the southern division to the west. The second edition of the competition was won by the 1, FC Saarbrücken, a club freshly promoted from the Oberliga who had played in the Fußball-Bundesliga in the past but fallen down the ranks in the league system. FCS beat Sportfreunde Lotte by eight points to the top spot, all three however were spared from relegation. The top goal scorers in the season of the league were Ercan Aydogmus and Christian Knappmann. At the end of the 2009-10 season, Rot-Weiss Essen, Waldhof Mannheim and Bonner SC were all refused a Regionalliga licence and this meant, the three last-placed teams in the league that season were after all reprieved and not relegated
19.
DFB-Pokal
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The DFB-Pokal or German Cup is a German knockout football cup competition held annually. Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and it is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the German Football Association, and runs from August until June, the winner qualifies for the DFL-Supercup and the UEFA Europa League unless the winner already qualifies for the UEFA Champions League in the Bundesliga. The competition was founded in 1935, then called the Tschammer-Pokal, in 1937, Schalke 04 were the first team to win the double. The Tschammer-Pokal was suspended in 1944 due to World War II, in 1952–53, the cup was reinstated as the DFB-Pokal, named after the DFB, and was won by Rot-Weiss Essen. Bayern Munich have won the most titles with 18 wins, also being the incumbent title holders, fortuna Düsseldorf hold the record for most consecutive tournament game wins between 1978 and 1981, winning the cup in 1979 and 1980. The competition format has varied considerably since the inception of the Tschammer-Pokal in 1935, the DFB-Pokal begins with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the Bundesliga and 2, Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the 3. Liga are automatically qualified for the tournament, of the remaining slots 21 are given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokale. The three remaining slots are given to the three regional associations with the most mens teams and they may assign the slot as they see fit but usually give it to the runner-up in the association cup. Reserve teams like Borussia Dortmund II are not permitted to enter, the pairings for the DFB Cup are not entirely random as the teams are split into two pots of 32 teams each. One pot contains all the amateur teams including teams from the 3, liga and the teams just being promoted to the 2. The other pot contains the teams from the Bundesliga and the teams of the 2, Bundesliga who has not just been promoted. Therefore, in the first round of the cup each professional team plays an amateur team, since 1982, the amateur generally plays at home when facing a professional team. For the second round, the teams are divided into two pots according to the same principles. This time, the dont have to be of equal size, though. Amateur teams get paired with professional teams until one pot is empty, the remaining teams are then drawn from the nonempty pot with the team first drawn playing at home. For the remaining other than the final the teams are drawn from one pot
20.
1. FSV Mainz 05
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Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V. usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 or simply Mainz, is a German association football club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. FSV Mainz 05 have played in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system, for seven consecutive years, the clubs main local rivals are Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. In addition to the division,1. FSV Mainz 05 have handball and table tennis departments, a failed attempt to start a soccer team in the city in 1903 was followed up two years later by the successful creation of 1. After a number of years of play in the Süddeutschen Fußballverband, Mainzer Fussballverein Hassia 05, which dropped Hassia from its name in August 1912. Another merger after World War I, in 1919, with Sportverein 1908 Mainz, in the late 1920s and early 1930s the club earned decent results in the Bezirksliga Main-Hessen – Gruppe Hessen, including first-place finishes in 1932 and 1933. This merited the team a place in the Gauliga Südwest, one of sixteen new first division formed in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. Unfortunately, they managed a single season at that level before being relegated. Karl Scherm scored in 23 out of 44 games with Mainz during his last season, in 1938, they were forced into a merger with Reichsbahn SV Mainz and played as Reichsbahn SV Mainz 05 until the end of World War II. After the war the team joined the upper ranks of league play in Germanys Oberliga Südwest. They played in the top flight until the founding of the new professional league and they withdrew for a time – from the late 1970s into the late 1980s – to the Amateur Oberliga Südwest, as the result of a series of financial problems. Mainz earned honours as the German amateur champions in 1982, the club returned to professional play with promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for a single season in 1988–89 with Bodo Hertlein as president, before finally returning for an extended run in 1990–91. Initially, they were perennial relegation candidates, struggling hard each season to avoid being sent down, Mainz failed in three attempts to make it to the top flight in 1996–97, 2001–02, and 2002–03, with close fourth-place finishes just out of the promotion zone. The last failed attempt stung as they were denied promotion in the 93rd minute of the last game, a year earlier, they became the best non-promoted team of all time in the Second Bundesliga with 64 points. But their persistence paid dividends with an ascent into the Bundesliga in 2003–04 under the leadership of coach Jürgen Klopp, the team played three seasons in the top flight, but were relegated at the end of the 2006–07 season. Mainz then secured promotion back to the top flight just two later, after the 2008–09 season. Due to the Bruchweg stadiums limited capacity, the games in UEFA cup were played in Frankfurts Commerzbank-Arena
21.
VfL Bochum
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Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum, is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The Turnverein zu Bochum was then established on 18 February 1849. The club was banned on 28 December 1852 for political reasons, the club was reorganized in May 1904 as Turnverein zu Bochum, gegründet 1848 and formed a football department on 31 January 1911. On 1 April 1919 the club merged with Spiel und Sport 08 Bochum to form Turn- und Sportverein Bochum 1848, on 1 February 1924 the two clubs from the earlier merger split to into the Bochumer Turnverein 1848 and Turn- und Sportverein Bochum 1908. Bochumer Turnverein 1848 was forced by the Nazi regime to merge with Turn- und Sport Bochum 1908, after the merger VfL Bochum continued to compete in the top flight as part of the Gauliga Westfalen. As World War II progressed, play throughout Germany became increasingly difficult due to shortages, travel problems. VfL became part of the wartime side Kriegsspielgemeinschaft VfL 1848/Preußen Bochum alongside Preußen 07 Bochum before re-emerging as a side after the war. Following the war the football section resumed play as the independent VfL Bochum 1848, Oberliga West in 1949, while Preußen Bochum went on to lower tier amateur level play. VfL captured the title in 1953 to advance to the Oberliga West for a single season. They repeated their win in 1956 and returned to the top-flight until again being relegated after the 1960–61 season. With the formation of the Bundesliga, Germanys new professional league, in 1963, a first-place result there in 1965 raised them to the Regionalliga West from where they began a steady climb up the league table to the Bundesliga in 1971. During this rise Bochum also played its way to the final of the 1968 German Cup where they dropped a 1,4 decision to 1. In spite of being a lower table side, Bochum developed a reputation for tenaciousness on the field in a run of twenty seasons at the top flight. The club made a appearance in the German Cup final in 1988. Relegated after a 16th-place finish in 1993, the team has become a classic yo-yo club, bouncing up, the clubs best Bundesliga results have come relatively recently as 5th-place finishes in 1997 and 2004, which earned them appearances in the UEFA Cup tournament. In 1997, they advanced to the round where they were put out by Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam. Todays sports club has 5,000 members with the football department accounting for over 2,200 of these. Other sections now part of the association include athletics, badminton, basketball, dance, fencing, gymnastics, handball, hockey, swimming, table tennis, tennis, as of 13 January 2017 Note, Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules
22.
Hertha BSC
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Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V. commonly known as Hertha BSC, Hertha Berlin or simply Hertha, is a German association football club based in the Charlottenburg locality of Berlin. Hertha BSC play in the Bundesliga, the division of German football. Bundesliga table at the end of the 2012–13 season, Hertha BSC was founded in 1892, and was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. The team won the German championship in 1930 and 1931, since 1963, Herthas stadium has been the Olympiastadion. The club is known as Die Alte Dame in German, which translates to The Old Lady, in 2002, the sports activities of the professional, amateur, and under-19 teams were separated into Hertha BSC GmbH & Co. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology, Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905. In May 1910, Hertha won a match against Southend United. However, their success was not matched financially and in 1920 the staunchly working-class Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg. Notwithstanding, Hertha emerged as the Germanys second most successful team during the inter-war years, German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 top-flight divisions, which saw Hertha playing in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club continued to enjoy success within their division, regularly finishing in the half of the table. It faded from prominence, however, unable to advance out of the rounds of the national championship rounds. Politically, the club was overhauled under Hitler, with Hans Pfeifer, after World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned most organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Hertha was re-formed late in 1945 as SG Gesundbrunnen and resumed play in the Oberliga Berlin – Gruppe C, by the end of 1949, it had re-claimed their identity as Hertha BSC and earned a return to the top-flight. Tensions between the western Allies and the Soviets occupying various sectors of the city, and the developing Cold War, led to chaotic conditions for football in the capital. Hertha was banned from playing against East German teams in the 1949–50 season after taking on several players, a number of sides from the eastern half of the city were forced from the Oberliga Berlin to the newly established DDR-Liga beginning with the 1950–51 season. Through the 1950s, a rivalry developed with Tennis Borussia Berlin. A proposal for a merger between the two clubs in 1958 was resoundingly rejected, with three of the 266 members voting in favour
23.
VfL Wolfsburg
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Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V. commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg or Wolfsburg, is a German sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. It is best known for its department, but other departments include badminton, handball. The mens professional football play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, the DFB-Pokal in 2015, professional football is run by the spin-off organization VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. Since 2002, Wolfsburgs stadium is the Volkswagen Arena, the city of Wolfsburg was founded in 1938 as Stadt des KdF-Wagen to house autoworkers building the car that would later become famous as the Volkswagen Beetle. The first football club affiliated with the autoworks was known as BSG Volkswagenwerk Stadt des KdF-Wagen and this team played in the first division Gauliga Osthannover in the 1943–44 and 1944–45 seasons. On 12 September 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, on 15 December 1945, the club went through a crisis that almost ended its existence when all but one of its players left to join 1. The only player remaining, Josef Meyer, worked with Willi Hilbert to rebuild the side by signing new players, the new group adopted the moniker VfL Wolfsburg, VfL standing for Verein für Leibesübungen. This can be translated as club for gymnastics or club for exercises, within a year they captured the local Gifhorn title. The club made slow but steady progress in the following seasons, Wolfsburg, however, struggled in the top flight, narrowly missing relegation each season until finally being sent down in 1959. Wolfsburg remained a second division fixture over the dozen years with their best performance being a second-place finish in 1970. That finish earned the entry to the promotion round playoffs for the Bundesliga. From the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s, Die Wölfe played as a third side in the Amateur Oberliga Nord. Consecutive first-place finishes in 1991 and 1992, followed by success in the promotion playoffs, Wolfsburg continued to enjoy some success through the 1990s. Early predictions were that the club would immediately be sent back down, but instead, losing 6–1 away to MSV Duisburg in the final fixture, the Wolves finished in sixth place with 55 points and qualified for next seasons UEFA Cup. They also qualified for the Intertoto Cup in 2000,2001,2003,2004 and 2005 and this was followed by a couple of seasons of little success for the club, just narrowly avoiding relegation with two 15th-place finishes in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. This also enabled the Wolves to qualify for the UEFA Cup for only the time in their history
24.
2. Bundesliga
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Bundesliga is the second division of professional football in Germany. Bundesliga is ranked below the Bundesliga and above the 3, liga in the German football league system. Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the annual German Cup competition, a total of 125 clubs have competed in the 2. The decision to establish the league as the level of football in West Germany was taken in May 1973. The league started operating in August 1974, then two divisions of 20 clubs. It was reduced to a division in 1981. From the 1991–92 season onwards clubs from former East Germany started participating in the league and it returned to a single division format again at the end of that season and has had 18 clubs as its strength since 1994. Bundesliga are directly promoted to the Bundesliga, while a third promoted club has been determined through play-offs from 1974 to 1991, between 1991 and 2008 the third-placed club in the league was directly promoted. The bottom clubs in the league are relegated to the division which has been, from 1974 to 1994 the Oberliga, from 1994 to 2008 the Regionalliga. The number of relegated clubs has fluctuated over the years, since 2008 two clubs are directly relegated while the third-last team has the opportunity to defend its league place in play-offs against the third placed team of the 3. FC Nürnberg holds the number of championships in the league with four. The club also holds the record for number of promotions from the 2, for the 2015–16 season, an average of 19,176 spectators watched 2. Bundesliga the worlds most-watched secondary football league, the decision to establish the 2. Bundesliga as a professional league below the Bundesliga was made at the annual convention of the German Football Association. The league replaced the five Regionalligas that were at this level from 1963 to 1974, the qualified teams were established through a ranking that took the last five seasons of the Regionalliga into account. Bundesliga was split into a northern and a division with 20 clubs each. Each division had its champion directly promoted to the Bundesliga while the two runners-up would contest a two-leg play-off to determine the promoted team. The first-ever game of the league was played on Friday,2 August 1974 between 1, FC Saarbrücken and SV Darmstadt 98 and ended in a 1–0 win for Saarbrücken, with Nikolaus Semlitsch scoring the first-ever goal of the new league
25.
SV Werder Bremen
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Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. commonly known as Werder Bremen, is a German sports club located in Bremen in the northwest German federal state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The club was founded in 1899 and has grown to 40,400 members and it is best known for its association football team. Bremens football club has been a mainstay in the Bundesliga, the top league of the German football league system, Bremen have won the Bundesliga championship four times and the DFB-Pokal six times. Their latest Bundesliga championship came in 2004, when they won a double, Bremen have also had European success, winning the 1992 European Cup Winners Cup. Since 1924, Werder Bremens stadium is the Weserstadion, Werder Bremens coach Viktor Skrypnyk was dismissed in September 2016. Werder Bremen has a rivalry with Hamburger SV, another Bundesliga club in northern Germany, the club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of 16 vocational high school students who had won a prize of sports equipment. The students took the name from the seldom-used regional German word for river peninsula. The predecessor to Bremen, known as SV Werder, played its first ever match on 10 September 1899 against ASC1898 Bremen coming away with a 1–0 victory, in 1900, FV Bremen was represented at the founding of the German Football Association at Leipzig. The club then enjoyed some success, fielding competitive sides. They became the first club to charge spectators a fee to attend their games, in April 1914, the club became a department of Allgemeiner Bremer Turnverein 1860 and was briefly known as Sportabteilung Werder des ABTV. The relationship was short-lived, however, and the club went its own way again less than two months later, steady growth after World War I led the club to adopt other sports and, on 19 January 1920, change their name to the current Sportverein Werder Bremen. Football remained their primary interest, so much so that in 1922, the team made regular appearances in year-end NFV qualification round play through the 1920s and on into the early 1930s, but did not enjoy any success. German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 first division known as Gauligen. The club scored its first real successes, capturing titles in 1934,1936, and 1937. The shape of the Gauligen changed through the course of World War II and in 1939, SV played in the Gauliga Niedersachsen/Nord where they captured a fourth title in 1942. As the war overtook the country, the Gauligen became progressively more local in character, the Gauliga Niedersachsen/Nord became the Gauliga Weser-Ems and then the Gauliga Weser-Ems/Bremen over the next two years. Werders 1944–45 season was cut short after just two matches, like other organizations throughout Germany, the club was disbanded on the order of the occupying Allied authorities after the war. They re-constituted themselves on 10 November 1945 as Turn- und Sportverein Werder 1945 Bremen, the team played in the Stadtliga Bremen, and after capturing the title there, participated in the northern German championship round, advancing to the quarter-finals
26.
FC Augsburg
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Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V. commonly known as FC Augsburg or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system, the team was founded as Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg in 1907 and played as BC Augsburg from 1921 to 1969. With over 12,200 members, it is the largest football club in Swabian Bavaria, FC Augsburg, which has long fluctuated between the second and third division, experienced a difficult time in the early 2000s, suffering relegation to the fourth division for two seasons. FCA recovered from this, returning to football in 2006. At the end of the 2010–11 season, Augsburg were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time, since 2009, FC Augsburgs stadium has been the WWK ARENA. A first serious meeting between the two sides was held in 1964, both clubs having dropped out of football by then. The leadership of the multi-sports club Schwaben was completely behind a merger but the football department was not. In 1968, with BCA struggling in the division after relegation from professional football the year before and Schwaben soon to follow. In April 1969, a meeting between the two club bosses brought the decision to merge the clubs and name the new side FC Augsburg. FCA was to be a football only with no other sports department. The then-mayor of Augsburg, Hans Breuer, was one of the forces behind the move. In June,256 of 265 of BCAs members present voted for the merger while, shortly after,75 percent of Schwabens members approved the motion, too. Schwaben, however, opted for the small club was to remain independent with only its football department merging into the new club. But even this move was not universally popular within the club, with former members forming a new football club, Eintracht Augsburg. For this reason, FCA is generally not considered to carry on the traditions of TSV Schwaben, a year later, the footballers of Eintracht rejoined Schwaben but, since then, have always remained an amateur club. It took the new department until 1981 to regain its third-division status. The new FCA played its first game on 30 July 1969, FC Nürnberg in Augsburg in front of 13,000, losing 0–3 in extra time. After the formation of the club in 1969, the side was to spend most of its time in tier-two, the new side, despite now concentrating Augsburgs football forces, was no instant success
27.
FC St. Pauli
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Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e. V. commonly known as simply FC St Pauli, is a German sports club based in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. Until the end of 2013, the also had a department in American football. FC St. Pauli has 22,000 members as of 1 July 2015, the mens professional football team dropped down to the Regionalliga in 2003, at that time the third highest football division in Germany and remained there for four years. In 2007, they won back to the 2. Bundesliga and in 2010, they were promoted to the Bundesliga, since the 2011–12 season, they have played in 2. Bundesliga, the second-highest division in Germany, FC St Pauli has a cross-town rivalry with Hamburger SV, the matches between the two are known as the Hamburger Stadtderby or simply Derby. The club also has a rivalry with Hansa Rostock, while the footballers have enjoyed only modest success on the field, the club is widely recognised for its distinctive culture and has a large popular following as one of the countrys Kult clubs. FC St. Pauli supporters are identified with left-wing politics. The club began its existence in 1899 as a loose, informal group of football enthusiasts within the Hamburg-St. Pauli Turn-Verein 1862 and this group did not play its first match until 1907, when they faced a similar side assembled from the local Aegir swimming club. Officially established on 15 May 1910, the club played as St. Pauli TV in the Kreisliga Groß-Hamburg until 1924 and they were immediately relegated, but returned to the top flight in 1936. Relegated again in 1940, St. Pauli re-appeared in the Gauliga Hamburg in 1942, after the war, the club resumed play in the Oberliga Nord in 1947. A second-place finish in the 1947–48 season led St. Pauli to its first appearance in the championship rounds. They advanced as far as the semi-finals, where they were knocked out 2–3 by eventual champions 1, in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, St. Pauli were overtaken by rivals such as Werder Bremen and VfL Osnabrück, but finished fourth a number of times. In 1963, the Bundesliga – West Germanys new top-flight professional league – was formed, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, and Eintracht Braunschweig joined the new circuit as the top-finishers from the Oberliga Nord, while St. Pauli found themselves in the second-tier Regionalliga Nord. Nearly a decade-and-a-half of frustration followed, St. Pauli won their division in 1964, but finished bottom of their group in the promotion play-off round. Division championships in 1972 and 1973, and runner-up finishes in 1971 and 1974, were followed by promotion-round play-off disappointment. The success of the Bundesliga, and the growth of football in West Germany. St. Pauli was part of the new professional circuit in the 2
28.
Ralf Loose
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Ralf Loose is a German football coach and former player. He is most noted for his stint with the Liechtenstein national football team, Loose played as a sweeper between 1981 and 1986 for Borussia Dortmund, and also for a year for Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. Between 1987 and 1994 he was at Fortuna Düsseldorf and he has also been captain for the Germany national under-21 football team. Between 1996 and 1998 Loose was the coach for the Liechtenstein Under-18s team, on 1 July 1998, he was appointed to Liechtenstein national team manager. Ralf held this position until 29 July 2003, on 1 July 2004 he became coach at a regional team Sportfreunde Siegen. After a brief spell with FC St. Gallen he returned to Sportfreunde Siegen, ralf Loose replaced Rainer Hörgl as coach at FC Augsburg in October 2007. Loose was sacked in April 2008 after a season that has left Augsburg teetering close to relegation. He was appointed as manager of Dynamo Dresden in April 2011 and he earned promotion in his first season, after a playoff victory over VfL Osnabrück, but was sacked in December 2012 after a poor start to the 2012–13 season
29.
Bundestag
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The Bundestag is a constitutional and legislative body at the federal level in Germany. For its similar function, it is described as a lower house of parliament along the lines of the US House of Representatives. The German constitution, however, does not define the Bundestag, since 1999 it has met in the Reichstag Building in Berlin. Norbert Lammert is the current President of the Bundestag, Members of the Bundestag are usually elected every four years by all adult German citizens in a mixed system of constituency voting and list voting. There are currently 631 seats, however, one – belonging to the CDU – remains vacant. The Election Day, however, can be if the Federal Chancellor loses a vote of no confidence. In the 19th century the name Bundestag was the designation for the assembly of the sovereigns and mayors of the Monarchies. Its seat was in the Free City of Frankfurt on the Main, two decades later, the current parliament building was erected. The Reichstag delegates were elected by direct and equal male suffrage, the Reichstag did not participate in the appointment of the Chancellor until the parliamentary reforms of October 1918. After this the Reichstag met only rarely, usually at the Krolloper following the Reichstag fire starting in 1933 to unanimously rubber-stamp the decisions of the government and it last convened on 26 April 1942. With the new constitution of 1949, the Bundestag was established as the new German parliament, the Bundeshaus in Bonn is the former Parliament Building of Germany. The sessions of the German Bundestag were held there from 1949 until its move to Berlin in 1999, today it houses the International Congress Centre Bundeshaus Bonn and in the north areas the branch office of the Bundesrat. The southern areas became part of German offices for the United Nations in 2008, the former Reichstag building housed a history exhibition and served occasionally as a conference center. The Reichstag building was occasionally used as a venue for sittings of the Bundestag and its committees and the Bundesversammlung. In 2005, an aircraft crashed close to the German parliament. It was then decided to ban private air traffic over Central Berlin, together with the Bundesrat, the Bundestag is the legislative branch of the German political system. The committees play a prominent role in this process, Plenary sessions provide a forum for members to engage in public debate on legislative issues before them, but they tend to be well attended only when significant legislation is being considered. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, for example, the Bundestag can conduct a question hour, in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member
30.
German amateur football championship
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The German amateur football championship was a national football competition in Germany organized by the German Football Association and in existence from 1950 to 1998. The championship was established in 1950 as a counterpart to the German football championship, to qualify for the German amateur championship, a club had to play in the highest amateur league of its regional football federation. The majority of leagues were tier-three leagues. Only in Niedersachsen, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin were these leagues set at the second level, from 1963, with the introduction of the Fußball-Bundesliga, all these leagues became tier-three leagues too. To qualify for the championship, a club either had to win its highest local amateur league. A club could also decline to take part in the promotion round, also, league winners who were reserve teams of professional clubs were ineligible for promotion to the professional level and had to play in the amateur championship instead. Mostly however, the playing in the championship were the runners-up of their leagues. In the first five editions of the competition, the modus remained unchanged from season to season, fifteen clubs competed in a knock-out system, whereby one club had a bye for the first round. Clubs paired against each other would play one game to determine the winner of the tie. The competition only included teams from West Germany and West Berlin, also, clubs from the Saarland did not take part either at this stage. This four winners then went on to the semi-finals, the modus was altered in 1955, when, from then on, the five regions each determined their own champion. The five regional winners then qualified for the German amateur championship, two semi-final games The final This system remained in place until the end of the 1963–64 season. From the 1964–65 season, the sixteen regional champions, now with the Saarland, were qualified for the competition. In a knock-out system, now with home-and-away games, the winner was determined, only the final was played as an on-off match on neutral ground. Only in 1976–77 and 1977–78 was the final played as a home-and-away contest. Otherwise, the modus remained unchanged until 1978, when the Amateur Oberligas were formed, a league reform in 1978 reduced the number of tier-three leagues from sixteen to eight. Also, the leagues were renamed to Amateur Oberliga, from 1979 to 1980, the final was again played as a single game, but now as a home game for one of the two teams involved, to improve attendance figures. The amateur championship was played out by the league runners-up from then on
31.
FIFA eligibility rules
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In the 20th century, FIFA allowed a player to represent any national team, as long as the player held citizenship of that country. FIFA has used its authority to overturn results of competitive matches that feature ineligible players. FIFAs eligibility rules also demand that in mens competitions, only men are eligible to play, historically, it was possible for players to play for different national teams. For example, Alfredo di Stefano played for Argentina and Spain, di Stefanos Real Madrid team-mate Ferenc Puskás also played for Spain after amassing 85 caps for Hungary earlier in his career. Other 20th century examples of players officially representing more than one country – excluding those resulting from changes to geopolitical borders e. g. e, fixtures not recognised by FIFA as full internationals. These caps are not officially recognised due to a dispute between FIFA and the Colombian Football Federation at the time, the first player to do so was Antar Yahia, who played for the France under-18s before representing Algeria in qualifiers for the 2004 Olympic Games. In March 2004, FIFA amended its policy on international eligibility. An emergency FIFA committee ruling judged that players must be able to demonstrate a connection to a country that they had not been born in. Defender Nikola Vujadinović, for example, would be eligible to play for the teams of Serbia or Montenegro. In June 2009, FIFA Congress passed a motion that removed the age limit for players who had played for a countrys national team at youth level to change national associations. This ruling features in Article 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes, thiago Motta has three caps for Brazil in matches deemed friendlies for Brazil and now represents Italy. Mehdi Carcela-González was born and raised in Belgium, and won two caps for Belgium in official friendly matches before switching to his nation of Morocco in 2011. Diego Costa represented Brazil in 2 friendlies before switching his allegiances to Spain in 2013, apostolos Giannou represented Greece in a friendly in 2015, before switching his allegiances to Australia, making his debut for the latter in March 2016. A FIFA Players Status Committee is responsible for making such judgements, FIFA takes punitive action against teams that field ineligible players. In August 2011, FIFA expelled Syria from the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification process following the appearance of George Mourad in a qualification match against Tajikistan. Mourad had made friendly match appearances for Sweden earlier in his career, after the game, a protest was lodged by their opponents Vanuatu, on the basis that Wynne was not an eligible player. As Wynne was 20 years old, it was impossible for him to have lived in New Zealand for five years after the age of 18. This protest was upheld by the Oceania Football Confederation, resulting in New Zealand being disqualified, there are 25 FIFA member associations that share a common nationality with at least one other FIFA member association
32.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
33.
Goalkeeper (association football)
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Goalkeeper, often shortened to keeper or goalie, is one of the major positions of association football. It is the most specialised position in the sport, the goalkeepers primary role is to prevent the opposing team from successfully moving the ball over the defended goal-line. This is accomplished by the moving into the path of the ball. Within the penalty area goalkeepers are able to use their hands, goalkeepers usually perform goal kicks, and also give commands to their defence during corner kicks, direct and indirect free kicks, and marking. Goalkeepers play an important role in directing on field strategy as they have a view of the entire pitch. If an attacker on the opposing team obstructs the keeper from catching or saving the ball, for example, in a corner, it will normally be a free kick. If a goalkeeper is injured or sent off, a goalkeeper has to take their place. In order to replace a goalkeeper who is sent off, a team usually substitutes an outfield player for the backup keeper and they then play the remainder of the match with nine outfield players. Goalkeepers often have longer playing careers than players, many not retiring until their late thirties or early forties. This can be explained by noting that goalkeepers play a physically demanding position that requires significantly less running. For example, Peter Shilton played for 31 years between 1966 and 1997 before retiring at the age of 47. Because only one player can play in goal and the position is so specialised many professional teams on average especially at the highest level have one player as first-choice for many years, for example Gianlugi Buffon has played as first choice keeper for Juventus for more than 15 years. Petr Cech prior to his move to Aresnal was first choice keeper for Chelsea between 2004 and 2015, the squad number for a first choice goalkeeper is generally number 1. Although this is common, some goalkeepers now wear other numbers when in goal, association football, like many sports, has experienced many changes in tactics resulting in the generation and elimination of different positions. Goalkeeper is the position that is certain to have existed since the codification of the sport. The earliest account of football teams with player positions comes from Richard Mulcaster in 1581, the earliest specific reference to keeping goal comes from Cornish Hurling in 1602. One of these is appointed by lots, to the one side, there is assigned for their guard, a couple of their best stopping Hurlers. Other references to scoring goals begin in English literature in the early 16th century, for example, in John Days play The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, Ill play a gole at camp-ball
34.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
35.
Defender (association football)
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In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to prevent the opposing team from scoring goals. There are four types of defenders, centre-back, sweeper, full-back, the centre-back and full-back positions are essential in most modern formations. The sweeper and wing-back roles are more specialised for certain formations, a centre-back defends in the area directly in front of the goal, and tries to prevent opposing players, particularly centre-forwards, from scoring. Centre-backs accomplish this by blocking shots, tackling, intercepting passes, contesting headers, with the ball, centre-backs are generally expected to make long and pinpoint passes to their teammates, or to kick unaimed long balls down the field. For example, a clearance is a long unaimed kick intended to move the ball as far as possible from the defenders goal, during normal play, centre-backs are unlikely to score goals. In this case, other defenders or midfielders will temporarily move into the centre-back positions, in the modern game, most teams employ two or three centre-backs in front of the goalkeeper. The 4–2–3–1, 4–3–3, and 4–4–2 formations all use two centre-backs, the sweeper is a more versatile centre-back who sweeps up the ball if an opponent manages to breach the defensive line. This position is more fluid than that of other defenders who man-mark their designated opponents. Because of this, it is referred to as libero. For example, the system of play, used in Italian football in the 1960s. The more modern libero possesses the qualities of the typical libero while being able to expose the opposition during counterattacks. The Fundell-libero has become popular in recent time with the sweeper transitioning to the most advanced forward in an attack. This variation on the position requires great pace and fitness, while rarely seen in professional football, the position has been extensively used in lower leagues. Modern libero sit behind centre-backs as a sweeper before charging through the team to join in the attack, some sweepers move forward and distribute the ball up-field, while others intercept passes and get the ball off the opposition without needing to hurl themselves into tackles. If the sweeper does move up the field to distribute the ball, they will need to make a speedy recovery, in modern football, its usage has been fairly restricted, with few clubs in the biggest leagues using the position. Though it is used in modern football, it remains a highly respected. A recent and successful use of the sweeper was made by Otto Rehhagel, Greeces manager, Rehhagel utilized Traianos Dellas as Greeces sweeper to great success, as Greece surprisingly became European champions. The full-backs take up the wide positions and traditionally stayed in defence at all times
36.
Midfielder
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A midfielder is an association football position. Midfielders are generally positioned on the field between their teams defenders and forwards, some midfielders play a disciplined defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are otherwise known as defensive midfielders. Others blur the boundaries, being mobile and efficient in passing, they are commonly referred to as deep-lying midfielders, play-makers, box-to-box. The number of midfielders on a team and their assigned roles depends on the teams formation, most managers assign at least one midfielder to disrupt the opposing teams attacks, while others may be tasked with creating goals, or have equal responsibilities between attack and defence. Midfielders are the players who typically travel the greatest distance during a match, central or centre midfielders are players whose role is divided roughly equally between attack and defence. When the opposing team has the ball, a midfielder may drop back to protect the goal or move forward. The 4–3–3 and 4–5–1 formations each use three central midfielders, the 4−4−2 formation may use two central midfielders, and in the 4–2–3–1 formation one of the two deeper midfielders may be a central midfielder. The term box-to-box midfielder refers to central midfielders who have abilities and are skilled at both defending and attacking. These players can track back to their own box to make tackles and block shots. A good box-to-box midfielder needs good passing, vision, control, stamina, tackling and marking in defence, left and right midfielders have a role balanced between attack and defence, similar to that of central midfielders, but they are positioned closer to the touchlines of the pitch. They may be asked to cross the ball into the penalty area to make scoring chances for their teammates. Common modern formations that include left and right midfielders are the 4−4−2, the 4−4−1−1, the 4–2–3–1, a notable example of a right midfielder is David Beckham. Defensive midfielders are players who focus on protecting their teams goal. These players may defend a zone in front of their teams defence, defensive midfielders may also move to the full-back or centre-back positions if those players move forward to join in an attack. Sergio Busquets described his attitude, The coach knows that I am an obedient player who likes to help out and if I have to run to the wing to cover someones position, great. A good defensive midfielder needs good positional awareness, anticipation of play, marking, tackling, interceptions, passing and great stamina. A holding or deep-lying midfielder stays close to their teams defence, a player in this role will try to protect their goal by disrupting the opponents attacking moves and stopping long shots on the goal. The holding midfielder may also have responsibilities when their team has the ball and this player will make mostly short and simple passes to more attacking members of their team but may try some more difficult passes depending on the teams strategy
