Opposition Check: FSV Frankfurt

99 years ago, FSV Frankfurt almost became German champions, only in the championship final did the Bornheimers lose 1-0 to 1. FC Nürnberg after extra time. 40,000 spectators watched the final in Frankfurt’s Waldstadion. Eight years later, in 1933, the FSV was crowned South German champions again. But it was never enough for the big hit; in 1938, the Frankfurt team lost 3-1 in the cup final against Rapid Vienna.

Even after the Second World War, the Bornheimers played in the first division, and it was not until 1962 that they were relegated to the second division. In the next 35 years, the Frankfurt team always played in the second or third league. The big bang followed in 1996: relegation to the fourth-class Oberliga Hessen, and the club was also on the verge of bankruptcy. Although this could be averted, sporting success still failed to materialise.

After several failed attempts, they were promoted to the 3rd league (then regional league) in 2007, and the following summer they managed to move straight through to the 2nd Bundesliga – even though qualifying for the newly founded 3rd league was already considered difficult. After a few years in the second league, the Frankfurt team had to go back to the third league in 2016, and just a year later they even went to the regional league.

Since 2017, the fans on the Bornheimer Hang have been seeing regional league football again, and the FSV has had to be careful twice since then that it doesn’t go down another level. The 2022/23 season, on the other hand, was the best sporting season in recent years, with the team finishing fifth in the table and last season the Bornheimers were ninth.

The past season could hardly have been more spectacular; Schott Mainz was welcomed to the Bornheimer Hang on the first match day. After a 0-2 deficit, the guests from Rhineland-Palatinate made it 1-3 in the 90th minute, and their hope of at least one point at the start sank. But what happened next bordered on a sporting miracle. Frankfurt scored in the second, seventh and ninth minutes of stoppage time and turned the game around to a 4-3 opening win. Five days later, FSV only lost on penalties to Hansa Rostock in the first round of the DFB Cup. In the end, they finished in a single-digit place in the table, but the Bornheimers missed out on winning the Hessen Cup and the associated re-entry into the DFB Cup.

At the end of June, the regional league team announced the early extension of the contract with their head coach Tim Görner. The 28-year-old, who has been working in various roles in both the junior and men’s divisions since 2016, took over the position of head coach in March 2022. At that time, FSV was still in a relegation zone. „Under Tim’s leadership, our team has developed steadily in recent years. The daily hard work of the coaching and functional team as well as their commitment on and off the pitch have convinced us to continue on this path together,“ said managing director Robert Lempka about the extension.