Full name | FC 1920 Gundelfingen VfL e.V. |
---|---|
Founded | 27 February 1920 |
Ground | Schwaben Stadion |
Capacity | 8,000 |
Chairman | Viktor Merenda |
Manager | Francisco Copado |
League | Bayernliga Süd (VI) |
2015–16 | Landesliga Bayern-Südwest (VI), 1st (promoted) |
The FC Gundelfingen is a German association football club from Gundelfingen an der Donau, Bavaria. A longtime fourth and fifth division side, the club is one of the top sides from Schwaben and has six Schwäbischer-Pokal (Schwaben Cup) wins to its credit.
The history of the club began in 1920, when a handful of young men from Gundelfingen bought a football and formed the "Wald- und Wiesenclub". Later, on 27 February 1920, 20 football-enthusiasts formed FC 1920 Gundelfingen at the "Gasthaus zum Kreuz". Shortly afterwards, in December 1921, the footballers became part of the gymnastics club Turnverein 1863 Gundelfingen.
The club survived the turbulent days of 1923 with its hyper inflation, travelling to away matches on horse-drawn carts, and went on to win its first title in 1924 when they won the C-Klasse and gained promotion to the B-Klasse. Despite struggling financially, the club became independent again 1 March 1924 and adopted green and white as the new team colours. They went on to capture the B-Klasse title, but refused promotion due to their poor financial state. In 1926, FCG met local rival FC Lauingen for the first time with the clubs playing to a 2–2 draw. 1928 brought another B-Klasse championship and this time the club accepted promotion to A-Klasse. On the club's tenth anniversary in 1930, it had 150 members.
FCG continued to suffer financial problems through the early 1930s and the formation of two new clubs, Catholic-sponsored DJK Gundelfingen and the worker's club ASV Gundelfingen, drew members away. The rise to power of the Nazis led to a ban on faith-based and worker's clubs in 1933, while other clubs like FCG were forced to accept club chairmen selected by the local NSDAP leader. The club did not distinguish itself in competition in those years and suffered a 0–9 defeat against BC Augsburg in 1937 regional cup match. Success returned in 1939 with the capture of the Kreisklasse Nord title, followed by an unbeaten run through the promotion round into the Bezirksklasse Schwaben.