F.C. Hansa Rostock

Hansa Rostock
Full name	F.C. Hansa Rostock e.V.
Nickname(s)	Hansa, Hanseaten, Kogge,; Hansa-Kogge, Ostseestädter
Founded	December 28, 1965
Ground	DKB-Arena, Rostock; (Capacity: 29,000)
Chairman	Dirk Grabow
Manager	Andreas Zachhuber
League	2. Bundesliga
2008/2009	2. Bundesliga, 13th

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F.C. Hansa Rostock is a German football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and made several appearances in the 1. Bundesliga.

[edit] History

The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the polysportive Sportclub Empor Rostock. The football squad, however, couldn't be recruited from local Betriebssportgemeinschaften like the squad of the handball section, so a transfer of BSG Empor Lauter's squad from Lauter to Rostock was considered. The area around Lauter, near the Czech border, was well-represented in East German football by competitive sides including Wismut Aue, Fortschritt Meerane and Motor Zwickau, so politician Karl Mewis ordered the re-assignment of the footballers of Empor Lauter, over the futile protests of the team's local supporters, to Rostock. This was not an uncommon occurrence in East German football, as clubs were regularly re-named, re-structured, dismantled, or shuffled from city to city at the direction of well-placed communist officials.

The wholesale transfer of the Lauterers to Rostock part way through the 1954–55 season led to the disappearance of that association from play. A new club was formed in 1956 as BSG Motor Lauter and on 1 August 1990 it took up the tradition of the original side to play as Lauterer Sportverein Viktoria 1913.

[edit] Play in Rostock

Newly formed SC Empor Rostock took the place of the former Lauter-based club in first division play in November 1954. They finished second the next season, but in 1956 plunged to 14th place and were relegated. They quickly bounced back, rejoining the DDR-Oberliga in 1958, before going on to become a very competitive side with a series of three vice-championships to their credit from 1962–1964, as well as several appearances in the final of the FDGB Pokal. The re-organization of East German sports in 1965 led to the association's football department becoming independent as Fußball Club Hansa Rostock, which was designated as one of the country's 11 football clubs, "focus clubs" intended to groom talent for the development of a strong East German national side. The new club's name acknowledged Rostock's history as one of the major trading centres of northern Europe's Hanseatic League.

By the 70s the club was consistently finishing in the lower half of the league table and was relegated to the second division DDR-Liga for a single season on three different occasions late in the decade. They returned to form in the 80s and as the football leagues of the two Germanys were merged in 1991 after the re-unification of the country, Rostock won its first national championship in the last ever season of East German football, played out in the transitional NOFV Oberliga Nordost. They would also capture the last ever East German Cup with a 1:0 win over FC Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt.

[edit] United Germany and the Bundesliga

The squad of January 1990

The club's timely success earned them a place in the Bundesliga alongside Dynamo Dresden when the league was briefly expanded from 18 to 20 teams for the 1991–92 season to accommodate two former East German teams. Hansa was unable to stay up and was relegated after falling just a single point shy of the club ahead of them. Three seasons of tempering in the 2. Bundesliga would return the club to the top flight for the 1995–96 season. In ten years spent in the Bundesliga the team's best results were a pair of sixth place finishes. In spite of frequent placings in the bottom half of the league table, they would persist as the only former East German side able to consistently challenge the well-heeled clubs of the west.

Rostock had a very poor first half in the 2004–05 season, earning only a single win and five draws in 17 matches. They were unable to recover and at season's end were relegated, leaving the former DDR without a club in the top flight for the first time since re-unification. Like other East German teams they were the victims of a harsh economic reality as the wealthier, well-established western sides bought up the most talented eastern footballers as their clubs struggled to survive financially: Rostock's Stefan Beinlich, Oliver Neuville and Victor Agali were just three players sent west for cash. After two years in the 2. Bundesliga the club returned to the top flight for the 2007–08 season, but was soon relegated back to the 2. Bundesliga for the 2008–2009 season. They are currently in danger of relegation to the 3rd Liga, as they are 17th in the 2. Bundesliga.

[edit] Recent seasons

Year	Division	Position
1999–2000	Bundesliga (I)	15th
2000–01	Bundesliga	12th
2001–02	Bundesliga	14th
2002–03	Bundesliga	13th
2003–04	Bundesliga	9th
2004–05	Bundesliga	17th (relegated)
2005–06	2. Bundesliga (II)	10th
2006–07	2. Bundesliga	2nd (promoted)
2007–08	Bundesliga (I)	17th (relegated)
2008–09	2. Bundesliga (II)	13th
2009–10	2. Bundesliga (II)

[edit] Honours

East German champions: 1991
East German vice-champions: 1955, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968
East German Cup: 1991
East German Cup finalists: 1955, 1957, 1960, 1967, 1987
2. Bundesliga champions: 1995
German Indoor champions: 1998
German Under 17 championship runners-up: 2005

[edit] Fans

A study published in 2007 by Sportfive reported Hansa's fanbase to be the seventh largest in Germany, involving up to two million supporters.^[1] According to another study published in 2008 by Allensbach Institute, Hansa is the most popular german football club in the New Länder and the most popular club of the former GDR in reunited Germany.^[2] However, Hansa also struggles with hooliganism, estimating up to 500 supporters to be leaning towards violence.^[3] The club itself as well some fans' associations are anxious to curtail these in several ways.^[4]

[edit] Stadium

The original Ostseestadion was built in 1954, with the participation of several hundred citizens of Rostock who helped for free. The first international match in the Ostseestadion of East Germany was on September 26, 1956. In 2001, the stadium was refurbished and modified to accommodate 30,000 spectators. On July 2, 2007 the naming rights were sold to Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB), hence the new official name is "DKB-Arena".

[edit] Trivia

Hansa Rostock's official anthem is "FC Hansa, wir lieben Dich total" (Hansa FC, We Totally Love You), recorded in 1995 by the East German band the Puhdys.
On December 1, 2002 Rostock became the first club to field six foreigners from the same country in a Bundesliga match (Prica, Lantz, Wibran, Jakobsson, Arvidsson and Persson – all Swedes).
In 2005, the club successfully sued three streakers who disrupted their 2003 match against Hertha Berlin, to recoup the €20,000 they were fined by the DFB for failing to maintain adequate security at their ground.

[edit] Current squad

For recent transfers, see List of German football transfers summer 2009

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Jörg Hahnel
2	MF	Dexter Langen
4	DF	Orestes
5	DF	Tim Sebastian
6	MF	Martin Retov (captain)
7	MF	Oliver Schröder
9	FW	Enrico Kern
10	FW	Thomas Breu
11	FW	Enrico Neitzel
13	MF	Mario Fillinger
14	MF	Kevin Schlitte
16	MF	Bradley Carnell
18	DF	Bastian Oczipka (on loan from Bayer Leverkusen)

No.	Position	Player
19	DF	Tom Buschke
22	MF	Sebastian Albert
24	FW	Marcel Schied
26	DF	Stephan Gusche
27	MF	Fin Bartels
29	MF	Tobias Jänicke
31	DF	Kai Bülow
32	FW	Felix Kroos
33	GK	Alexander Walke
35	DF	Kevin Schöneberg
36	DF	René Lange
37	GK	Andreas Kerner

[edit] Hansa Rostock II squad

Manager: Axel Rietentiet

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Florian Kirsch
		GK	Oliver Radseck
		DF	Uwe Ehlers
		DF	Felix Freitag
		DF	Thomas Götzl
		DF	Hannes Grundmann
		DF	Kay-Uwe Pittwehn
		DF	Georg Schumski
		DF	Fabian Zittlau
		MF	Daniel Becker