The footballing world is full of clubs with rich history that lift them into the upper echelon of greatness, a level above their competitors. These clubs are steeped in triumphs, failures, history and personality, and have become synonymous with the greats of years gone by. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus are but a few of these giants who defined an era, inspired a generation and set the tone for future successes.
However, some of the great clubs with historical significance seem to fade away, out of sight of the general footballing community, yet still there. 1.FC Saarbrücken is one of these sleeping giants, with a nearly unrivaled history. Yet as time has gone by, the club has seemingly disappeared into mediocrity, currently playing in the far from glamorous 3.Liga. Be it as it is, because nothing can erase the incredible history that this club possesses, it just needs somebody to dig it up and chronicle for the masses.
1.FC Saarbrücken is based in the city of Saarbrücken, Saarland, beginning it's existence as the football deprtment of Turnverein Malstatt in 1903. However, four years later, this division split off and became the independent footballing entity FV Malstatt-Burbach, soon to be renamed as FV Saarbrücken in 1909. The club played in local leagues until 1919, when an invitation was accepted to play in the tier-one Kreisliger Saar, where 1.FC Saarbrücken achieved moderate success, with a second place finish in the 1922-1923 season being the stand out result. However, this was to be their last season in this league, as the club started playing in the Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar, winning the title in 1927-1928. Despite this success, FV Saarbrücken missed out on qualification to the newly-formed Gauliga in 1933.
In 1935, the club made it into the Gauliga Südwest, one of the sixteen new top-tier divisions began in Germany under the Third Reich. Yet another league-shuffle saw 1.FC Saarbrücken moved to the Gauliga Südwest-Saarpfals in 1940, where the club achieved great success, winning the league to earn a move to the Gauliga Westmark. Another league title ensued shortly after in 1943, which enabled them to advance to the play-offs en route to the National Finals. Unfortunately, 1.FC Saarbrücken were unable to go all the way to the showpiece event on two occasions, being knocked out by Dresdner SC and 1.FC Nürnberg respectively.
After World War II came to an end, Allied forces dissolved all organizations within Germany, including sports federations and football clubs. However, the club was allowed to re-form in 1945 under the new name of 1.FC Saarbrücken, which survives to this day. At this time, the German state of Saarland was occupied by the French, which saw various efforts to see the state become independent of Germany and join France come to the fore. In 1948, 1.FC Saarbrücken was among a number of clubs which were exiled out of German football, which lead to the club joining the French second-division. The club went on to win the second-division at a canter, which resulted in the French Football Association refusing 1.FC Saarbrücken promotion to the top-flight due to concerns of the potential embarrassment of a German club winning the French title.
This lead to 1.FC Saarbrücken withdrawing from the league and playing a variety of friendlies over the course of the next two years. After great success in these friendlies against highly rated European teams, the German Football Association came to the conclusion that re-admitting teams from Saarland into the league system would be beneficial, and thus a return to German football was achieved. However, the nationality of the Saarland district was not to be completely determined for some time yet, which lead to the occurance of the Saarland district being represented in the 1954 FIFA World Cup preliminary rounds, after having established a separate football association with membership in FIFA. This side was filled with 1.FC Saarbrücken players, with the club being the pre-eminent force in Saarland at that particular juncture in time.
After re-admission, the club joined the Regionalliga Südwest, capturing the title and advancing to the National Finals, only to be defeated by VfB Stuttgart. after another Oberliga title in 1961, 1.FC Saarbrücken sealed their participation in the newly-formed Bundesliga in 1963. However, the club would join SC Preußen Münster as the first two teams to be relegated under the new football hierarchy. After numerous strong finishes in the 2.Bundesliga without quite managing to clear the final hurdle, the club finally made it back into the top division in the 1976 season. After two seasons the club were relegated yet again, though, and slipped down to the amateur Oberliga Südwest. However, they would fight back and reach professional levels soon after, making two returns to the Bundesliga in 1986 and 1993, with both campaigns ending in relegation.
A financial crisis in 1995 lead to 1.FC Saarbrücken being refused a license, which sent them back down to the largely amateur Oberliga Südwest. Since then, the club has become the prototypical elevator club, frequently traveling between the second and fifth divisions of German football, even though they still were the dominating force within Saarland, with half-a-dozen Saarland Pokal victories to their name.
This brings us to the present day, where 1.FC Saarbrücken is a quiet, unassuming mid-table 3.Liga side, with no hint of the fascinating history that the club possesses apparent to the outsider looking in.
Who knows, maybe this sleeping giant might wake up again sometime soon and grace us with it's presence in the Bundesliga that we love so much.
