1. FC Köln was founded in 1948 by the merger of two successful local teams, Kölner BC 01 and SpVgg Sülz 07. Cologne was one of the founding members of the Bundesliga in 1963 and won its first title the following year. The club enjoyed golden eras in the 1960s and 1980s, winning 3 national championships and 4 DFB-Pokal titles; this includes the first Bundesliga title and the domestic double title in 1978.
After a decline that began in the 1990s, Cologne became known as a "yo-yo club" due to frequent promotions and relegations between the top two leagues. A resurgence in the 2010s brought European qualification and financial stability, but recent seasons have been marked by relegation struggles.
The club is nicknamed Die Geißböcke (The Goats) in reference to its mascot, Hennes, a male goat named after Cologne's veteran player and coach Hennes Weisweiler. The first Hennes were donated by a circus entrepreneur as a joke for the Cologne carnival. The club's mascot is Hennes IX, as of 1 August 2019; Hennes VIII was retired by the club due to old age.
Another nickname for the club, more common locally due to its obscurity, is FC (often written as Effzeh), a common German abbreviation for football clubs. Unique to the dialect spoken around Cologne, it is pronounced "EF-tsay" as opposed to the Standard German pronunciation, where the second syllable of the contraction is stressed.
Cologne plays white and red jerseys in home matches; Both colors have been used as the main jersey colors throughout the club's history. The club's longest and fiercest rivalry is with Borussia Mönchengladbach, whom they faced in the Rhine derby. Although Mönchengladbach is not located on the banks of the Rhine, both clubs are located in the Rhineland cultural district.
Cologne also competes with two other clubs from the Rhine region: Fortuna Düsseldorf and Bayer Leverkusen.
Like many other professional football clubs in Germany, 1. FC Köln is part of a larger sports club that also has teams in other sports such as handball, table tennis and gymnastics. 1. FC Köln has more than 150,000 members, making it the fourth largest club in Germany.
Date
first clubs
II. Cologne had football teams of similar difficulty until World War II. The most important of these were the 1899 VfL Köln, VfR Köln 04 (later renamed Viktoria Köln), SV Mülheim, SpVgg Sülz 07 and Kölner BC 01. These teams were built very close to each other, none of them were very strong, and they were coming after the Ruhr and South German teams.
Between 1903-33, Cologne teams won the West German League 4 times and only reached the quarter-finals of the German championship. While they became champions more easily in the league held between 1933-44, as their rivals were the teams from Aachen, Düren, Trier and Koblenz, they were eliminated in the first round in Germany.
Founding teams
The team was founded under the name "Kölner BC" on June 6, 1901, by a few young people interested in football who were unhappy with the city's gymnastics team, FC Borussia Köln. In 1912, Germany became champions of the Western League and qualified for the national finals. In 1920, he finished second, losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final of the same league.
In 1907, another Cologne team, Sülzer Sportverein, was founded. In 1919, this team merged with Fußball Club 1908 Hertha Sülz to form the "Spielvereinigung 1907 Köln-Sülz". In 1928 they became German western league champions. In 1933, the most important league in Central and Southern Germany, the "Gauliga Mittelrhein", was founded.
Sülz-Köln became one of the most important teams in the league. He became the 1939 champion, but then his success faded. It merged with VfL Köln and became the last champion of the league. II. Football was suspended after 1944 due to World War II. In 1948 the two teams merged and became 1. FC Köln.
before Bundesliga
The most important name that enabled this unification was Franz Kremer. Kremer was already president of Kölner BC. His aim was to create a Cologne club that could play for the national championship. Kremer started with the establishment of 1. FC Köln and served as the club's president until his death in 1967, becoming a legendary name. The successes of the team in the 50s and 60s were achieved with the professionalism provided by Kremer.
The team started playing in the Oberliga West league in 1949-50 and won its first championship in 1954. They became DFB-Pokal runners-up the same year. The team became champion again in 1960 and reached the final of the German Championship, but lost to Hamburg. Cologne also became Western league champions in 1961, 1962 and 1963.
He also won the German Championship in 1962 and came second in 1963. When the Bundesliga was established in 1963 with the support of Franz Kremer, Cologne, with its successful performance, was among the 16 teams selected to play in the league.
Bundesliga era
Cologne continued its championship streak and became the first Bundesliga champion in 1964. He experienced one of the most important matches in his history in the quarter-finals of the 1964-65 Champion Clubs Cup season. The team paired with Liverpool drew 0-0 with its opponent in both matches. The third match ended 2-2. The qualifying team would be determined by a coin toss. The first coin toss fell steeply. Liverpool won the second one.
Compared to other German teams, Cologne stood out with its modern organizational structure and understanding of football. By bringing in Rolf Herrings as goalkeeper coach, he became the first German club to hold this position. In this way, Cologne goalkeepers became among the most important in Germany for the following years.
Young players Harald Schumacher and Bodo Illgner started guarding the goal of their national teams when they were still young.
In 1967, president Franz Kremer recorded his life. In 1968 FC Köln won the DFB-Pokal for the first time. Cologne could not take part in the championship race in general, except for the 1964 championship. Cologne, which was in great danger in the 1968-69 season, avoided relegation by beating the previous year's champion, 1. FC Nürnberg, 3-0 in the last match.
1970s
In the league dominated by Borrussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich in the 1970s, FC Köln generally finished slightly above the middle ranks and generally appeared in the UEFA Cup matches. They started to rise after Hennes Weisweiler took over as head coach of Cologne for the third time. They first won the German Cup in 1977, then came first in the league for the third time in the 1977-78 season.
A few weeks later, they achieved a "Double" by winning the German Cup. The team reached the semi-finals of the 1978-79 Champion Clubs' Cup and were eliminated by that year's champion, Nottingham Forest. After this success, some players such as Hannes Löhr ended their football career, while players such as Wolfgang Weber were transferred.
Because of these, they could not defend the championship and after 3 seasons of failure in the league, they parted ways with Weisweiler.
1980s
Despite the failures in the league and cup, they achieved great success in the 1980-81 UEFA Cup. While they lost to Barcelona 1-0 in Cologne in the first match of the 2nd Round, they won 4-0 at Camp Nou and eliminated their strong opponent. In the semi-finals, they were eliminated by Ipswich Town FC, who won the cup. FC Köln's opponent in the 1983 DFB-Pokal final was Fortuna Köln, the city's second biggest.
FC Köln won the cup by beating its rival in the 2nd Bundesliga, Fortuna Köln, in the derby match played at Müngersdorfer Stadion.
In the 1980s, Cologne's league performance was very uneven. At the end of the 1985-86 season, FC Köln narrowly avoided relegation in the league and reached the final of the 1985-86 UEFA Cup. Cologne, who lost 5-1 away to Real Madrid, played the match they were supposed to play at home in Berlin due to the behavior of their fans in Belgium in the previous round, and the 2-0 victory was not enough for Cologne.
Köln, which had a bad start to the next season, signed young assistant coach Christoph Daum after searching for a coach. Although the sporting situation of the team improved, the president Peter Weiand resigned and the goalkeeper was fired due to the accusations in the book written by Schumacher. The presidency was succeeded by Dietmar Artzinger-Bolten.
In the following years, the team recovered and although it did not capture the championship during the Daum period, it usually finished second or third in the league.
1990s
In the summer of 1990, Daum unexpectedly decided to leave the team. They also lost their important midfielder Thomas Hassler to Juventus. With the new president Klaus Hartmann, it was revealed that the financial situation of the team was very bad and there might be licensing problems. In 1991 the team reached the DFB-Pokal final for the last time to date and lost on penalties.
In 1992 the team participated in the UEFA Cup for the last time. In the 1992-93 season, the team feared relegation for the first time in years. In 1995, they were eliminated in the DFB-Pokal semi-final by second division team VfL Wolfsburg. The matches they played in the Intertoto Cup semi-finals in 1997 were their last European matches for a long time.
In 1997, the Hartmann era ended and Albert Caspers, one of Ford's former CEOs, became the team's president. He first decided to make economic changes to the team. Caspers, which turned the team into a company, renovated the Mündersdorfer Stadium and reopened it under the name "Rhein Energie Stadion". The link between city and club has also been strengthened.
Club membership and ticket sales peaked at the beginning of 2000. However, sporting success still did not come. In 1997-98 the team was relegated for the first time. The club that brought Bernd Schuster to power still could not return to the Bundesliga. One season later, they achieved this goal with Ewald Lienen.
2000s
Although the tenth place in 2001 was considered a good success, the 2001-02 season started badly for the team again. Lienen was fired in January 2002, when the team was last in the league. He was replaced by Friedhelm Funkel, but he could not save the team from relegation. They broke a record by not scoring a goal in 1034 minutes during the season.
Even though they made it to the Bundesliga again in 2002-03, Funkel was fired from the team, which started the season very poorly. His replacement, Marcel Koller, recruited youth players Lukas Podolski and Lukas Sinkiewicz to save the team, but he failed. In March 2004, Wolfgang Overath took control of the team thanks to the opposition movement he started. His first act as president was to replace Koller with Huub Stevens.
In the 2004-05 season, they were promoted to the Bundesliga again with the second league title. They broke the attendance record in that season they spent in the 2nd League. At the end of the season, coach Stevens left the team due to family reasons and was replaced by Uwe Rapolder, but he was fired after Köln made the worst start in their history in the Bundesliga.
His replacement, Hanspeter Latour, could not save the team from relegation. Nevertheless, he was given the task of making the 2nd League squad in 2006–07. However, in the middle of a bad second league season, former coach Daum came back to the team. In the 2007-08 season, FC Köln was promoted to the Bundesliga again.
2010s
With the 2008–09 season, Köln broke their combined record and club membership record. Daum, the coach of the team that finished the season in the middle ranks without fear of relegation, left the team at the end of the season. Cologne, which started the 2009-10 season with the return of Croatian coach Zvonimir Soldo and famous football player Podolski, finished thirteenth in the league.
FC Köln, which struggled to stay in the relegation in the 2011-2012 season, was relegated by losing to Bayern Munich in the last week.
The team, which finished fifth in its first season in the 2. Bundesliga, appointed Peter Stöger, who led Austria Wien to the Austrian championship the previous season, as coach before the 2013-14 season. Cologne, which secured the championship 3 weeks before the end of that season, was entitled to play in the Bundesliga the next year.
The team finished ninth in the 2015-16 season, its best finish since 1992. The team started the 2016-17 season very well, and after beating SC Freiburg 3-0 in the 3rd week, they took the first place for the first time in 20 years, even if they had more than one match. The team, which did not fall below eighth throughout the season, maintained its European chances until the last week.
Defeating 1. FSV Mainz 2-0 at home on 20 May 2017, the team finished fifth in the league as a result of the defeats of its rivals SC Freiburg and Hertha Berlin and guaranteed to qualify for the UEFA Europa League groups. In the 2017-18 season, the team was a big disappointment and had no wins in 14 league matches and only three draws, and coach Stöger was dismissed.
Although the new coach Stephan Ruthenbeck gave the team hope with the points he received in the first term of his duty, Cologne was relegated to the last place in the league as a result of the bad results towards the end of the season.
Stadium
1. FC Köln's stadium is the RheinEnergie Stadium. Its predecessor was the Müngersdorf Stadium, built on the same site in 1923. The stadium was rebuilt for the 1974 FIFA World Cup but was completed in 1975. Today's stadium was completed on January 31, 2004. The difference from the previous stadium is that athletics activities do not take place in this stadium.
The stadium, with a capacity of 50,374, was one of the 12 stadiums selected by Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, it was named "Germany Cologne World Cup Stadium" due to the ban imposed by UEFA on sponsor names. It was made ready for international matches in the 2004-05 season, and in the same season Alemannia Aachen played its UEFA Cup matches in this stadium. On the north side of the stadium is the "FC-Museum", where the history of 1. FC Köln is exhibited.
Mascot
The goat "Hennes" is the goat that also appears on the crest of 1. FC Köln. The first goat, Hennes I, was given as a joke to the club by Carol Williams, artistic director of the city circus, during the Cologne Carnival. Its name comes from Hennes Weisweiler, one of FC Köln's most important coaches. With the goat's death, numbers began to be added to the name, although Hennes remained in naming future goats. The mascot used since July 24, 2008 is Hennes VII.
The goat is brought to every football match played in Cologne. The goat always received a special ovation from the fans when he was brought to the stadium with his farmer Wilhelm Schäfer. Schäfer had continued his duties on his farm in Cologne since Hennes III, but died on 11 June 2006, at the age of 69. After his death, his wife took over the care of the goat.
Staff
- As of February 18, 2025
Good luck
Germany
- German League/Bundesliga
- Champion (3): 1962, 1963-64, 1977-78
- Second (7): 1960, 1963, 1964-65, 1972-73, 1981-82, 1988-89, 1989-90
- 2. Bundesliga
- Champion (4): 1999-00, 2004-05, 2013-14, 2024-25
- Second (1): 2002-03
- DFB-Pokal
- Champion (4): 1967-68, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1982-83
- Second (6): 1953-54, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1972-73, 1979-80, 1990-91
Europe
- UEFA Cup
- Second (1): 1985-86
Notable football players
- Wolfgang Overath (1962-1977), (542 matches, 119 goals), Footballer with the most appearances for Cologne. He was in the squad that won the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
- Harald Schumacher (1972-1987), (541 matches, 0 goals), The footballer who played the most in the league with 422 Bundesliga matches. He was in the squad that won the 1980 European Football Championship. Footballer of the Year in Germany in 1984 and 1986.
- Hans Schäfer (1948-1965), (507 matches, 304 goals), Top scorer in Cologne history, was in the squad that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Footballer of the Year in Germany in 1963.
- Johannes Löhr (1964-1978), (505 matches, 235 goals), is the league's top scorer in Cologne's history with 166 Bundesliga goals.
- Pierre Littbarski (1978-1986), (1987-1993), (504 matches, 144 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
- Bernd Cullmann (1969-1983), (485 matches, 41 goals), was in the squad that won the 1974 FIFA World Cup and the 1980 European Football Championship.
- Heinz Flohe (1966-1979), (453 matches, 118 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
- Bodo Illgner (1983-1996), (382 matches, 0 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
- Paul Steiner (1981-1991), (356 matches, 26 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
- Dieter Müller (1973-1981), (326 matches, 231 goals), Bundesliga top scorer with 34 goals in 1977, 24 goals in 1978.
- Matthias Scherz (1999-2009), (289 matches, 72 goals), is the player who played the most matches and scored the most goals in the second league in the history of Cologne, with 148 matches and 45 goals in the 2. Bundesliga.
- Herbert Zimmermann (1974-1984), (267 matches, 30 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1980 European Football Championship.
- Klaus Allofs (1981-1987), (220 matches, 120 goals), Bundesliga top scorer with 26 goals in 1985.
- Thomas Häßler (1983-1990), (182 matches, 18 goals), was in the squad that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Footballer of the Year in Germany in 1989.
- Lukas Podolski (1995-2006), (2009-2012), (181 matches, 86 goals), 2. Bundesliga top scorer with 24 goals in 2004.
- Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (1958-1963), (178 matches, 11 goals), German Footballer of the Year in 1962.
- Milivoja Novakovic (2006-2012), (176 matches, 82 goals), 2nd Bundesliga top scorer with 20 goals in 2008.
- Paul Mebus (1951-1957), (103 matches, 2 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
- Thomas Allofs (1986-1989), (82 matches, 37 goals), Bundesliga top scorer with 17 goals in 1989.
- Bernd Schuster (1978-1980), (76 matches, 14 goals), He was in the squad that won the 1980 European Football Championship.
Members, fans and sponsors
According to information in March 2010, the club has 52,000 members. According to information in the summer of 2008, more than 1000 fan clubs were established. A fan project called "1.FC Köln 1991 eV" emerged between the club and its fans in 1991. The project, which is one of the largest such organizations in Germany with 5,400 members, defines itself as both a fan club and a service that serves all Cologne fans. A message between fans
The project, which sees itself as a work tool, also demonstrates social responsibility with the projects it has prepared for disabled fans and young FC Köln fans. 60 people work voluntarily in this project.
Another important part of the stadium culture is the songs generally sung in the local language. While some of these are songs directly related to FC Köln, others are Carnival songs. Club songs:
- Mer stonn zo Dir, FC Kölle (Höhner, 1998): This song began to be used as a club anthem a few years after its release. It is sung by fans before every match. The song is a Scottish folk song originally sung by Loch Lomond.
- Unser Hätz schlät för dr FC Kölle (Höhner, 1986): The melody of the anthem, which takes its lyrics from Höhner's song "Echte Fründe", is taken from the British anthem "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".
- FC Jeff, Jas! (BAP, 1998): The song is an adapted version of the band's song "Für ne Moment", released for the team's 50th anniversary in 1998.
Carnival songs:
- Wenn et Trömmelche jeiht (De robbers)
- Mir sin kölsche Mädche/Jonge (Et fussich Julie)
- The most unserm Veedel (Bläck Fööss)
- Viva Colonia (Höhner)
- Hey Kölle, Dubess e Jeföhl (Höhner)
- Jetzt geht's los (Höhner)
- Superjeilezick (Brings)
- Du bes die Stadt (Bläck Fööss)
Jersey sponsor since 1979
- Pioneer (1979-1982)
- Doppeldusch (1982-1985)
- Daimon (1985-1987)
- Samsung (1987-1991)
- Citibank (1991-1993)
- Pepsi (1993-1994)
- Ford (1994-1999)
- VPV (1999-2003)
- Funny frisch (2003-2005)
- Gerling (2005-2007)
- REWE Group (since 2007)
jersey brand
- Le Coq Sportif (1974-1977)
- adidas (1977-1978)
- Erima (1978-1979)
- adidas (1979-1985)
- Puma (1985-2002)
- Sport-Saller (2002-2005)
- adidas (2005-2008)
- Reebok (since 2008)
