FC Augsburg

Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (German pronunciation: [ʔɛf t͡seː ˈʔaʊ̯ksbʊʁk]) or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as Fußball-Klub Alemania Augsburg in 1907 and played as BC Augsburg from 1921 to 1969. With over 12,200 members, it is the largest football club in Swabian Bavaria.

FC Augsburg, who has long fluctuated between the second and third division, experienced a difficult time in the early 2000s, suffering relegation to the fourth division for two seasons. FCA recovered from this, returning to professional football in 2006. At the end of the 2010–11 season, Augsburg were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. Since 2009, FC Augsburg's stadium has been the WWK ARENA.

History

Formation

A merger of Augsburg's two most successful clubs, TSV Schwaben and BC Augsburg, was discussed as early as in the late 1940s, but distrust between the two sides and a fear that the other club would dominate the merger caused each side to hesitate, despite the financial trouble both clubs were in. A first serious meeting between the two sides was held in 1964, both clubs having dropped out of tier-one football by then. The leadership of the multi-sports club Schwaben was completely behind a merger but the club's football department was not and once more the process of forming FCA was stalled. Traditionally, BCA saw itself as a working-class club, based in the north of Augsburg, while Schwaben was the club of the more affluent and based south of the city, with the river Wertach forming something of a boundary between the two clubs territories.