VfL Pinneberg is a German association football club from the town of

Pinneberg Pinneberg (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Pinnbarg'') is a town in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. It is the capital of the district of Pinneberg and has a population of about 43,500 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18&nbs ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

. Despite its location in Schleswig-Holstein the club plays in the football leagues of near-by

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the tier two

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

in 1973, where it played for a season. ''VfL'' also made one appearance in the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

, the German Cup, in 1976–77, where it lost 4–0 to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () 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 ...

in the first round. Apart from football the club also offers other sports like

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

History

Formed in 1945 VfL Pinneberg entered league football in the 1946–47 season at the lowest level in Hamburg, eventually working its way up to what was then the tier two

Amateurliga Hamburg The Oberliga Hamburg, sometimes referred to as ''Hamburg-Liga'', is the highest league in the German state of Hamburg, incorporating some of its surrounding districts. It is one of fourteen Oberligen in German football, the fifth tier of the Germa ...

in 1960. ''VfL'' became a strong side at this level which dropped to the third tier after the

introduction of the Bundesliga The Introduction of the Bundesliga was the long-debated step of establishing a top-level association football league in Germany in 1963. The new league, the Bundesliga, played its first season in 1963–64 and continues to be the highest league in ...

in 1963. After a number of league titles and unsuccessful promotion rounds to the Regionalliga the club finally moved up in 1973.Die Fußballabteilung des VfL Pinneberg
VfL Pinneberg website, Club history, accessed: 3 December 2015 The 1973 Landesliga title earned the club promotion to the

, the level below the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

in Northern Germany at the time. ''VfL'' came last in the

1973–74 Regionalliga The 1973–74 Regionalliga was the eleventh season of the Regionalliga, the second tier of the German football league system. The league operated in five regional divisions, Berlin, North, South, Southwest and West. The five league champions an ...

season, with the league disbanded at the end of it. Back in the Landesliga ''VfL'' won the league in 1975 and 1977 and, after the latter, earned promotion to the Oberliga for the first time. The club played a single season in the Oberliga Nord in 1977–78 but finished 18th and was relegated again. For the next fifteen seasons ''VfL'' was back in Hamburgs highest league again, now renamed to Verbandsliga, earning top-four finishes most years. At the end of the 1993–94 season, with the Oberliga Nord disbanded, a fourth place was enough for the club to qualify for promotion. The next ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 ''VfL'' played in the tier four Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein, generally as an upper table side, with a fourth place finish in 1996 as its best result. When the league was disbanded in favor of the re-formed Oberliga Nord at the end of the 2003–04 season a ninth place finish was not enough to qualify. Instead ''VfL'' dropped down to the Verbandsliga again and suffered another relegation four seasons later, now to the Landesliga. After three seasons there the club recovered and returned to the highest level in the city state again, now renamed to Oberliga. Since 2011 the club has been playing in the tier five Oberliga Hamburg where it finished fourth in 2014 and 2015.

Honours

The club's honours: * Landesliga Hamburg (6): 1963–64, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77 *

Landesliga Hamburg-Hammonia The Landesliga Hamburg-Hammonia is the sixth tier of the German football league system and the second-highest league in the German state of Hamburg, together with the ''Landesliga Hamburg-Hansa''. It is named after the Latin word for Hamburg, Ha ...

: 2010–11 * Verbandsliga Hamburg-Germania: 1959–60

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:Historic German football league tables
Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv, accessed: 3 December 2015VfL Pinneberg at Fussball.de
accessed: 3 December 2015 * With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for th ...

in 2008 as the new third tier, below the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

, all leagues below dropped one tier.

References

External links

*
Official site of the football department

VfL Pinneberg at worldfootball.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinneberg, Vfl Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Schleswig-Holstein Association football clubs established in 1945 1945 establishments in Germany