Furth and vestenbergsgreuth are not far apart. It takes the spvgg greuther furth bus about 40 minutes to cover the nearly 50 kilometers before it arrives at the traditional stadium on schwalbenberg. It is a journey into the past. In the first game of his preparation for the upcoming season in the 2. In the first league, the team of coach frank kramer met the club whose soccer department joined the spvgg furth in 1996 and since then has not only added the club name "greuther" to its name but also contributed the black-white-red wooden shoe to the crest.
For Kramer, it was even a double return to his roots. From 2001 to 2002, he coached the reserve team of the spielvereinigung am schwalbenberg. "We had a great team. It was very familiar here and something "aubergewohnliches", the coach recalled.
But even though the spielvereinigung came to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the TSV vestenbergsgreuth, it was still a very special occasion. Not all the fans were in the mood for celebrating – even though they were able to enjoy several goals in their team's 14:0 (4:0) victory. Many supporters did not understand that their club was competing against a club that had once merged with theirs. Because since 2007 vestenbergsgreuth has again its own fubball department. "Hereby the TSV has shown in our eyes that the former entry to the spvgg is void", wrote the further ultra-association "horidos on their website. Accordingly, the congratulations were expressed. "Happy birthday TSV! The wooden shoe is back as a present", was only one of the transparencies hung on the ribbons. But also from their name the fans of the spielvereinigung were happy to get rid of something. "We file for divorce. Spvgg furth should be it again" was emblazoned on a poster near the further block.
What was better for the heart
As protest this should not be understood however. "This is not against greuth, but pro furth", explains a fan who helped put up the lettering but didn't want to see his name in the newspaper. Stefanie thomas can begin with such demands little. "That is laughable. The wooden shoe has already disappeared from the jersey emblem and now only the cloverleaf is visible. We don't get upset about it, but the name is important and should stay", remembers norbert konig, says thomas, who comes from vestenbergsgreuth and also has a season ticket for the games at further ronhof.
While the club is once again considered one of the favorites for promotion this year, the situation 17 years ago was quite different. The then spvgg furth was on the verge of being eliminated from the regional league. What brought salvation can be smelled throughout the test match and is only briefly obscured even by the bengal fire tongued by the further fans: tea. Through the money of the tea producer "martin bauer group", who supported the TSV, the klammen further were saved.
Rainer drescher, who has been with the "grun-weiben" for 47 years fiebert, can remember this time well. "I voted for the merger. We did not have many opportunities", he says. He was happy to do without the name affix. "For the heart it would be better if the greuther is canceled." with that he thinks the same way as rainer schmidt, who as a member was also in favor of a merger: "otherwise we would have been completely gone and would probably now be standing where TSV vestenbergsgreuth is. But the tradition is pushed away."
hack takes it easy
What unites supporters and opponents alike is gratitude to their president helmut hack. The 64-year-old comes from vestenbergsgreuth, was for many years the managing director of the martin bauer group and as president set the decisive course for the future. "At that time, flyers were distributed in the stadium on which hack explained that even a bundesliga promotion was not a utopia. Back then, we laughed about it", remembers norbert konig, who chose the stand behind the goal as the place he used to visit when bavarian league soccer was still played in vestenbergsgreuth. "For me, the greuther can remain quietly in the name."
Hack stands on the grassy back straight watching his team play against the club of which he is honorary chairman. He takes a relaxed view of transparency. "This does not hurt at all. We have young people here who simply express their opinions, and it would be completely intolerant of them if I were to say that it disturbs me, says hack: "they weren't even aware of the conditions under which we did this. This is part of football. Also opinion and diversity of opinion." the president does not want to draw any sporting conclusions from the game: "it's too early for that. We are in the middle of total fitness work. We trained extremely hard for two and a half hours this morning." this was noticeable for the cloverleaf, which initially lacked the train to the goal. It took 14 minutes for stephan furstner to get past TSV keeper georg donisch, who only had to make four saves in the first half.
After the change of sides, however, the match team shifted up more than one gear and, from the 75th minute onwards, made sure that the game was not over. Minute that the manual scoreboard was no longer sufficient. After kacpar przybylko's goal to make it 10-0, the children, who had made it their job to keep track of the score, drew a "1" on a sheet of A4 paper, stuck it in front of the actual score, and then put it on the board on a sheet of A4 paper, stuck it in front of the actual numbers and started again with the existing boards. The most successful scorers for the guests were ognjen mudrinski with five goals and przybylko with three goals. It was a journey into the past for the spielvereinigung. For TSV, an important step toward the future thanks to revenue that goes to youth work.