Football in Germany

Football in Germany is about youngest members of the Junior League (E-Jugend) fighting their way to the top, dreaming about becoming as great as Sammer, Ballack and Beckenbauer. It is also about amateur kick-abouts in the park, and pub tournaments, like the FC Halbe Lunge or the SC Vorwärts Bauchspeck. What would football be without the faithful supporters of its clubs who are there in all weathers to spur on their team and who never miss an away game? It’s about the “Sportschau” (sports show) on Saturday evenings being enough for some people – they are all fans. In short: Football is Germany’s top sport.
 
The German Football Association (DFB)
 
The official history of football in Germany began when the German Football Associationwas founded in Leipzig on 28 January 1900. Last year, it counted as one of Germany’s biggest sporting associations with exactly 6,272,803 members in 26,010 clubs. Football as a form of sport has never been more appealing to children and young people than it is today. A third of DFB’s active members play in Germany’s junior teams, which number more than 100,000.
 
The positive trend in women’s and girls’ football is also encouraging. Currently, DFB has 857,220 registered female members. Also noticeable is the clear rise in the number of teams for girls under 16. This is no surprise: It is clear - not just since the German Women’s National Team won the World Cup in autumn 2003 - that football is not an all-male affair. At present, 6,866 women’s and girls’ teams participate in DFB matches.
 
Great Successes
 
The English footballer Gary Lineker once said that football is a simple game in which 22 players run around after a ball and in the end Germany always wins. Of course, that is not true – and it would be very boring if it were. Yet, if you consider the results achieved by the German Men’s National Football Team, you can understand why the Germans have a reputation for being a strong team in tournaments: three-times World Cup winners, four-times World Cup runners-up, two-times third place in the World Cup, three-times European champions, two-times European champions runners-up, taking part in all World Cup competitions since 1954 and in all European Cup competitions since 1972: These results put the German National Team in the top group of all international ranking lists and forms the crucial basis for the high regard in which German football is held worldwide.
 
This now applies to women too: The DFB’s Women’s National Team became world champions for the first time in 2003. Before then, five European Cup titles (1989, 1991, 1995, 1997 and 2001) were among the outstanding achievements of Germany’s women footballers.
 
The gold medal won by the German Democratic Republic’s Team at the Olympic Summer Games in Montreal in 1976 is also remembered as part of Germany’s footballing history. The Football Association of the German Democratic Republic (DFV) was reunified with the DFB in 1990.