Marburg Mercenaries

The Marburg Mercenaries are an American football team from Marburg, Germany.

Internationally, the club's greatest success came in 2005, when it won the EFAF Cup, followed by a losing appearance in the Eurobowl in 2007. Domestically, the team's greatest achievement was to reach the 2006 German Bowl, where the team lost to the Braunschweig Lions.

History

The Marburg Mercenaries were formed in 1991 under the official name of AFV Marburg Mercenaries e.V..Geschichte
Marburg Mercenaries website - Club history, accessed: 16 January 2011

The club entered competitive league football in the following year, playing in the tier-five ''Verbandsliga Hessen'', a regional league in its home state of Hesse. The ''Mercenaries'' gradually worked their way up through the local league system, culminating in a title in the tier-three '' Regionalliga Mitte'' in 1997, which allowed the club to take up promotion to the ''2nd Bundesliga''.

For the next five years, the team played in the southern division of this league, once more gradually improving its performances, to a point where they won their division in 2001 and 2002. In its first attempt at promotion to the German Football League, the team failed however, losing to the Franken Knights in both promotion games. It performed much better the following year, defeating the Munich Cowboys in both promotion games and moving up into the GFL.

The ''Mercenaries'' first season at this level became a struggle, winning only one out of twelve league games, and having to defend their league place against the Simbach Wildcats in the relegation round. With this successfully achieved, the team moved on to much better performances from now on.

The club became a constant contender for the division title from now on, winning it in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010 and reaching, as a minimum, the play-off semi finals on each occasion. The team's best season domestically however was 2006, when it reached the German Bowl, where it lost 13–31 to the Braunschweig Lions. Apart from the significances of this achievement to the club, it also broke a thirteen-year drought for the clubs from the southern division, as no southern club had reached the German Bowl since the Munich Cowboys won it in 1993.

Internationally, the ''Mercenaries'' won their first title in 2005, when they won the second-tier EFAF Cup. In 2007, the team also participated in the European Football League, where it reached the final, the Eurobowl, but lost quite clearly to the Vikings Vienna.

Marburg has since failed to reach another final, but remains a strong team in the southern division of the GFL. The team came second in its division in 2011, qualifying for the play-offs where they were knocked out by the Düsseldorf Panther

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