VfL Pinneberg is a German association football club from the town of Pinneberg,

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

. Despite its location in Schleswig-Holstein the club plays in the football leagues of near-by

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the tier two

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

in 1973, where it played for a season. ''VfL'' also made one appearance in the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

, the German Cup, in 1976–77, where it lost 4–0 to

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. T ...

in the first round. Apart from football the club also offers other sports like

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

History

Formed in 1945 VfL Pinneberg entered league football in the 1946–47 season at the lowest level in Hamburg, eventually working its way up to what was then the tier two Amateurliga Hamburg in 1960. ''VfL'' became a strong side at this level which dropped to the third tier after the introduction of the Bundesliga in 1963. After a number of league titles and unsuccessful promotion rounds to the

Regionalliga A (, plural ) is a regional league in numerous Sports governing body, sports governing bodies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, usually located in the upper or middle tiers of the sports leagues. The term is often associated with the Germa ...

the club finally moved up in 1973.Die Fußballabteilung des VfL Pinneberg
VfL Pinneberg website, Club history, accessed: 3 December 2015 The 1973 Landesliga title earned the club promotion to the

, the level below the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

Northern Germany Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...

at the time. ''VfL'' came last in the 1973–74 Regionalliga season, with the league disbanded at the end of it. Back in the Landesliga ''VfL'' won the league in 1975 and 1977 and, after the latter, earned promotion to the Oberliga for the first time. The club played a single season in the

Oberliga Nord The Oberliga Nord was the fourth tier of the German football league system in the north of Germany. It covered the states of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. With the introduction of the 3. Liga, the league ceased to exist fr ...

in 1977–78 but finished 18th and was relegated again. For the next fifteen seasons ''VfL'' was back in Hamburgs highest league again, now renamed to Verbandsliga, earning top-four finishes most years. At the end of the 1993–94 season, with the Oberliga Nord disbanded, a fourth place was enough for the club to qualify for promotion. The next ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 ''VfL'' played in the tier four

Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein The Oberliga Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein was the fourth tier of the German football league system in the north of Germany, existing from 1994 to 2004. It covered the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. With the re-formation of the Oberliga No ...

, generally as an upper table side, with a fourth-place finish in 1996 as its best result. When the league was disbanded in favor of the re-formed Oberliga Nord at the end of the 2003–04 season a ninth-place finish was not enough to qualify. Instead ''VfL'' dropped down to the Verbandsliga again and suffered another relegation four seasons later, now to the Landesliga. After three seasons there the club recovered and returned to the highest level in the city state again, now renamed to Oberliga. Since 2011 the club has been playing in the tier five

Oberliga Hamburg The Oberliga Hamburg, sometimes referred to as ''Hamburg-Liga'', is the highest league in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Hamburg, incorporating some of its surrounding districts. It is one of fourteen Oberliga (football), Oberligen ...

where it finished fourth in 2014 and 2015.

Honours

The club's honours: * Landesliga Hamburg (6): 1963–64, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1976–77 * Landesliga Hamburg-Hammonia: 2010–11 * Verbandsliga Hamburg-Germania: 1959–60

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:Historic German football league tables
Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv, accessed: 3 December 2015VfL Pinneberg at Fussball.de
accessed: 3 December 2015 * With the introduction of the

s in 1994 and the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.

References

External links

*
Official site of the football department

VfL Pinneberg at worldfootball.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinneberg, Vfl Football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Schleswig-Holstein Association football clubs established in 1945 1945 establishments in Germany