SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg

Football club infobox
clubname = SV Viktoria 96 Magdeburg


fullname = Sportverein Viktoria 96 Magdeburg e.V.
nickname =
founded = June 15, 1896, disbanded 1937 (bankruptcy)
colours = Blue/Yellow
ground = Stadion am Gübser Damm (1912-1938)
capacity =
chairman =
manager =
coach =
league = Verband Mitteldeutscher Ballspielvereine
season =
position =
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Viktoria 96 Magdeburg was a German football club playing in the Cracau district of Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt.

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History

The club was founded under the name "Magdeburger FC Victoria 1896" on June 15, 1896 and was the city's first football club.

With the failure of the short-lived Ring Magdeburger Ballspielvereine there was no organized local league at the time. The team spent its first four years playing friendly games throughout Germany. "Victoria 1896" became well known among the country's football pioneers and soon began to receive payments to make appearances against other clubs.

"MFC Victoria 1896" later joined the Verband Magdeburger Ballspielvereine (VMBV), and alongside local rival "Cricket Viktoria Magdeburg", became a founding member of the DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) at Leipzig in 1900. As champions of the VMBV in 1903 the club played in the final round of Germany's national championship, but went out 1:8 to "Altonaer FC 93" in the first round.

"Victoria" repated as Verband Magdeburger Ballspielvereine champions in 1904. That league merged with the Verband Mitteldeutscher Ballspielvereine in 1905 where the club played in the Gau Mittelelbe and continued their winning ways capturing six league championships between 1906 and 1917. Despite this record they were unable to make a return to the national stage.

The club grew rapidly at this time and by 1920 had 728 members. Several new sports were adopted with track-and-field and watersports being especially popular. In 1912 the name was changed from "Magdeburger FC Victoria 1896" to "Sportverein Viktoria 96 Magdeburg" and a new logo was introduced. Over the next years the club produced a number of outstanding athletes who became well known as they won several national and international titles. The football team, however, became simply an average regional side.

In 1933 German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen new top-flight divisions known as Gauligen. "Viktoria 96" qualified for play in the Gauliga Mitte where they played until a last place finish and bankruptcy in 1937 drove them out of first division football. The team merged with "Männer-Turnverein 1860 Neustadt" the following year to form "VfL 1860 Viktoria Neustadt" which was disbanded at the end of World War II in 1945. However, the team have recently been revived at amateur level and play in lowly regional leagues, though the legendary "Viktoria 96" lives on.

tadium

The home ground of the club was the Sportplatz am Gübser Damm, also known as "Viktoriaplatz" in the eastern part of Magdeburg. It was opened in 1912 in front of 1,500 spectators with a friendly match against Hertha BSC (0:9). The stadium hosted the German championship final in on May 31, 1914 in a contest that saw "SpVgg Fürth" beat VfB Leipzig 3:2 in extra time.

After the bankruptcy of "Viktoria 96" in 1937 the Allianz Insurance Company became the new owner of the stadium and the ground was renamed "Allianz Stadion". The stadium was totally destroyed in heavy bombardments by Allied air forces in 1944. Construction of a new stadium in almost at the same spot began in 1954 with the raising of the Ernst Grube Stadion, which would later become the home ground of "1. FC Magdeburg". In the opening match there, the B-squad of the East German youth side defeated their Romanian counterparts 3:1.

Notable Players

* Paul Matthes, German national appeared in the first leg of a 1:5 loss to England on April 20, 1908 in Berlin

Honours

* Verband Magdeburger Ballspielvereine Champions: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905
* Gau Mittelelbe Champions: 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1916, 1917