Bayern Hof

Football club infobox
clubname = SpVgg Bayern Hof


fullname = SpVgg Bayern Hof
nickname =
founded = 1910
ground = Stadion Grüne Au
capacity = 22,000
chairman =
manager =
league = Oberliga Bayern (V)
season = 2007-08
position = 15th
pattern_la1=_black_stripes|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=_black_stripes
leftarm1=ffff00|body1=ffff00|rightarm1=ffff00|shorts1=ffffff|socks1=ffff00
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

SpVgg Bayern Hof is a German football club based in Hof, Bavaria. The club was founded on June 1, 1910 as "Ballspielclub Hof", but within a year was re-named "Britannia Hof". In 1913, they merged with "FC Roland Hof" and "FC Phoenix Hof" to become "FC Bayern Hof".

History

"FC Bayern Hof" was a decent, but unremarkable, local side through its early decades. It spent five seasons in the rier-one "Bezirksliga Bayern" from 1927. In 1944, the team won promotion to the "Gauliga Bayern", Staffel Oberfranken, one of sixteen top flight division that had been created in 1933 in the re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. However, by that time World War II had overtaken that part of the country and Gauliga play was ended there in the fall.

After the war "Bayern Hof" advanced to the Landesliga Bayern (III) in 1946 where they came out on top of the Staffel Nordbayern only to lose the divisional playoff to "Wacker München" (3:4, 0:4). League re-structuring saw the club in the 2nd Oberliga Süd (II) to open the 1951-52 season. They remained competitive throughout the decade, generally finishing in the top half of the table.

A second place result in 1959 put the club into Oberliga Süd (I) to play first division football for the first time. They managed only middling results against the stronger, better established teams there and so did not qualify for play in the Bundesliga – Germany's new professional league – when it was established in 1963. "BH" played in the Regionalliga Süd (II) and through the late 60's and into the early 70's, the team played good football and earned some solid finishes - including a division title in 1968 - but failed in three tries to make it through the promotion rounds to the new top division. In 1980, they slipped to tier III and began a long, slow descent that would land them in Landesliga Bayern-Nord (V).

In 2005 "FC Bayern Hof" merged with "SpVgg Hof" to form "SpVgg Bayern Hof". "SpVgg Hof" had been formed in 1898 as the football department of the gymnastics club "TV Hof", itself founded in 1893. The footballers became independent in 1924 and were distinguished only by single season appearances in the top flight in 1921 and 1929, and an advance to the Amateurliga Bayern for the 1966-67 season.

In 2006 the newly unified club captured the division title in the Landesliga Bayern-Nord (V) and were promoted to the fourth division Oberliga Bayern. A difficult 2007-08 season saw the club in deep relegation trouble all season but eventually they managed to climb one rank above the relegation zone and survive.

Recent seasons

Honours

* Regionalliga Süd (II) champions: 1968
* Regionalliga Süd (II) runners-up: 1967, 1972
* Landesliga Bayern-Nord champions: 1966(SpVgg), 1983, 1988, 1994, 2006

External links

* [http://www.bayern-hof.de/ Official team site]
* [http://www.abseits-soccer.com/clubs/hof.html Abseits Guide to German Soccer]
* [http://www.eufo.de/football/ger/spvg_hof.htm eufo.de] European football club profiles and current team rosters