VfL Hamm
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| Full name | Verein für Leibesübungen 1883 e.V. Hamm/Sieg |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1883 |
| Ground | VfL Stadion |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| Chairman | Axel Mast |
| Manager | Jens Hannas |
| League | Bezirksliga Rheinland-Ost (VII) |
| 2015–16 | 9th |
VfL Hamm/Sieg is a German association football club from the town of Hamm, Rhineland-Palatinate. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the tier three Oberliga Südwest in 1982 and 1985, with the club spending nineteen seasons at this level until relegation in 2003.
Hamm has also participated five times in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, courtesy to Rhineland Cup wins.
Formed as TV Hamm in 1883 the club first fielded a football team in 1908. This team left the club in 1916 to form an independent club, the 1. FC Einigkeit Hamm. The club soon folded again and the footballers returned to TV but were forced to leave the club in the 1920s to form Sportfreunde Hamm. In 1935 this club folded again and the footballers once more returned to TV, now permanently. The club changed its name to the current one, VfL Hamm, after this but the football team was forced to restart at the bottom of the league system. The football team withdrew from competition during the Second World War but restarted in 1945. The team rose as high as the tier four 2. Amateurliga between 1957 and 1962 but then descended the league system again.
VfL Hamm earned promotion to the highest league of the Rhineland Football Association, the Verbandsliga Rheinland, now the Rheinlandliga, in 1978. The first two seasons in the league saw the club struggle but it improved after this and won the league in 1982. Hamm was promoted to the tier-three Oberliga Südwest but finished last in the league and was relegated again. The club came runners-up in the Verbandsliga in 1984 and won another league championship the season after, thereby being promoted to the Oberliga again. It also made its first German Cup appearance in this era when it lost 4–6 after extra time to fellow amateur side Urania Hamburg in 1981.
For the next eighteen seasons VfL Hamm played in the Oberliga Südwest. Initially a tier-three league, the Oberliga dropped to fourth tier when the Regionalligas were introduced in 1994. Hamm's first four seasons saw the club finish in the upper half of the table, coming third in 1987. The 1985–86 and 1986–87 season saw the club also win the Rhineland Cup. On both occasions this qualified VfL for the first round of the German Cup, where it lost to FC Gütersloh on penalties in the replay in 1986 and 2–7 to KSV Hessen Kassel in 1987. Between 1989 and 1995 the club entered a less successful era in the Oberliga, mostly struggling against relegation.
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