SV Darmstadt 98
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| Full name | Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V. |
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| Nickname(s) | Die Lilien (The Lilies) |
| Founded | 22 May 1898 |
| Ground | Jonathan-Heimes-Stadion am Böllenfalltor |
| Capacity | 17,400 |
| Chairman | Klaus Rüdiger Fritsch |
| Manager | Torsten Frings |
| League | Bundesliga |
| 2015–16 | 14th |
| Website | www |
SV Darmstadt 98 is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919 the association was briefly known as Rasen-Sportverein Olympia before merging with Darmstädter Sport Club 1905 on 11 November that year to become Sportverein Darmstadt 98. Merger partner SC was the product of a 1905 union between Viktoria 1900 Darmstadt and Germania 1903 Darmstadt. The footballers are today part of a sports club which also offers its approximately 5,500 membersathletics, basketball, cheerleading, hiking, judo, and table tennis.
The football department competed in the Bundesliga for the 2015–16 season after a 33-year run in lower leagues. They managed to hold their position and will be competing in the Bundesliga for the 2016–17 season. Dirk Schuster has been the manager of the club since 28 December 2012.
Olympia played as a lower table side in the Westkreisliga between 1909 and 1913. In the late 20s and early 30s the club played as SV Darmstadt in the Kreisliga Odenwald and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen, Gruppe Hesse, but struggled to stay in top flight competition. In 1933, German football was reorganized under the Third Reich into sixteen premier divisions known as Gauligen. Darmstadt was not able to break into upper league play until 1941 when they joined the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau, Gruppe 2. Their stay was short-lived and they were relegated after their second season of play at that level. By 1944–45 the division had collapsed in the face of the advance of Allied armies into Germany.
Darmstadt enjoyed a long run as a second division team through the 50s and then again from the time of the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 on into the 70s. However, they were never better than a lower to mid-table side until they finally managed a breakthrough in 1973 with a Regionalliga Süd championship and participation in the promotion rounds for the Bundesliga where they finished a distant second to Rot-Weiss Essen.
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