Full name | Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Loki |
Founded | 12 March 1902 |
Ground | Nagyerdei Stadion |
Capacity | 20,020 |
Chairman | Gábor Szima |
Manager | András Herczeg |
League | OTP Bank Liga |
2015–16 | OTP Bank Liga, 3rd |
Website | Club home page |
Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club is a Hungarian League professional football club, based in Debrecen. They are best known internationally for reaching the group stages of the UEFA Champions League 2009–10 season. Debrecen have become the most successful club in Hungary since 2000, winning the Hungarian League seven times.
The club was founded on 12 March 1902, initially being known as "Egyetértés Futball Club" but on becoming independent it was renamed "Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club" (Debrecen Railway Sports Club). In 1926 professionalism came to the Hungarian football scene, with the unfortunate result that Bocskai FC was formed using players from DVSC and city rivals DKASE and DTE, with the result that Bocskai FC ruled the football roost in Debrecen for 15 years while DVSC continued to struggle in the lower divisions. In 1940 the professional/amateur division of players was abolished and Bocskai FC suffered financial collapse, returning DVSC to top-dog position in the city. Debrecen reached the Hungarian First Division for the first time in 1942–43, but then suffered something of a yo-yo existence for the next fifty years, suffering eight relegations in all, and even starting the 1967 season in the Third Division. During this period the club underwent a number of name changes. It became "Debreceni Vasutas Sport Egyesület" in 1948–49, "Debreceni Lokomotiv" (hence the nickname) in 1949, "Debreceni Törekvés" in the 1955–56 season, and it was known as "Debreceni Vasutas SC" from 1957 to 1979. In 1979 the two city teams, DVSC and DMTE were united into one team, called DMVSC, but after ten years the clubs split again and the team adopted its current name.
Debrecen's most successful period has been since its most recent promotion to the First Division in 1993, since when the club has won its only national honours – the Hungarian Cup was won in 1999 and 2001, and the Hungarian League title for the first time in 2005. Although the team was relegated from top flight football in 2001 as a result of questionable refereeing on home matches (Ref. Béla Kiss was helped to escape from the stadium by officials in order to avoid the crowd's anger after the match against Budapest Honvéd FC), the then promoted BKV Előre SC could not afford to play in the first league in lack of the necessary financial conditions, thus DVSC remained in the top flight as the better relegated team according to the rules and regulations of the championship which led to some controversy whether it was just.
The first international matches were played in 1998 in the Intertoto Cup. Debreceni VSC beat Dnepr Mogilev, FC Hradec Králové, , and lost to Ruch Chorzów in the semi-finals.
In 1999 Debrecen played in the first round of the UEFA Cup 1999-00 and they were beaten by the German VfL Wolfsburg 3–2 on aggregate. Although Debrecen beat the German club 2–1 at home, they lost 2–0 in the away-game, and their first UEFA Cup season ended.