Saarland football team
.svg) |
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| Association | Saarländischer Fußball-Bund |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Helmut Schön |
| Most caps | Waldemar Philippi (18) |
| Top scorer |
Herbert Binkert Herbert Martin (6) |
| Home stadium | Ludwigsparkstadion |
| FIFA code | SAA |
| First international | |
 Saarland 4–2 Switzerland  (Saarbrücken, Saar; 22 November 1950)  Norway 2–4 Saarland (Oslo, Norway; 24 June 1953) Last International  Netherlands 5–2 Saarland (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 6 June 1956) |
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| Biggest win | |
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Switzerland 0–5 Saarland (Bern, Switzerland; 15 September 1951) |
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| Biggest defeat | |
Saarland 0–7 Uruguay  (Saarbrücken, Saar; 5 June 1954) |
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The Saarland national football team (German: Saarländische Fußballnationalmannschaft) was the association football team representing Saarland from 1950 to 1956 during the French occupation following World War II. As France opposed the inclusion of the Saarland in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1956, they administered it separately from Germany as the Saar Protectorate.
As the local population did not want to join France, separate organisations were founded. A National Olympic Committee was founded in 1950, leading to an appearance of Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Also, considering themselves not an independent nation different from Germany, the football team was not designated as a "national team", and was more generally referred to as a "selection" (German: Auswahl) or some similar term.
Due to post-war partition, Saarland was separate from both the Federal Republic of Germany (aka West Germany until 1990) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Saarländischer Fußballbund (SFB) was founded on 25 July 1948 in Sulzbach, with Willy Koch as first chairman. The clubs of the Saarland played in the local Ehrenliga for three seasons from 1948 to 1951, with the exception of the strong 1. FC Saarbrücken club, which played as guests in French Ligue 2 in 1948–49, where they were known as FC Sarrebruck. They easily finished top of the division that season. However, after French clubs voted unanimously against them joining the French Football Federation (resulting in the resignation of president Jules Rimet, who had suggested that Saarbrücken join), the club left the French league. Not interested in rejoining the weak in the Ehrenliga they established a short-lived invitational tournament, the Internationaler Saarlandpokal, which attracted a number of top teams and is regarded as a forerunner to the European Cup. In 1955, Saarbrücken became the sole club representing Saarland in the newborn European Champion Clubs' Cup, winning the first leg in San Siro against the Italian champions AC Milan (3–4), but they were heavily defeated (1–4) and eliminated in the second leg at home by the Lombard opponents. By that time, however, 1.FCS and other leading Saarland clubs had already rejoined the DFB league system, playing in the Oberliga Südwest on a mutual agreement.
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