VfB Stuttgart

Verein fur Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart, is a Geman sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg. VFB is the largest sports club in the state and the fifth largest in the country. The club is best known for its football team that has featured in all but two German Bundesliga seasons and has won the national championships five times.

VFB Stuttgart were estblished on April 2, 1912 by the merger of Stuttgarter FV and Kronen-Club Cannstatt. In 1933 when German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into 16 top-flight divisions called Gauligen, Stuttgart featured in the Gauliga Wurttemberg, winning the title in 1935,1936,1938,1940 and 1943.

After World War II, VFB continued to play first division football in the Oberliga Sud and won the title in 1946,1952 and 1954. They won the German Cup in 1954 and 1958.

When the German Bundesliga was organized in 1963, Stuttgart were one of the 16 teams to feature in the inaugural season. They qualified for the UEFA Cup in the 1972-1973 season and reached the semi-finals of the same in 1974.

VFB Stuttgart struggled in the 1970s and were even relegated to the second division. They bounced back soon and then in 1980 reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. They also won their first German Bundesliga title in 1984. Stuttgart reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 1989.

Stuttgart won the Bundesliga title again in the 1991-1992 season and reached the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1998. They finished runners-up in the Bundesliga in the 2002-2003 season and

VFB Stuttgart won the Bundesliga again in the 2006-2007 season.

VFB Stuttgart play their home matches at the Mercedes-Benz Arena that has a capacity of 55,896. They bear the nicknames Die Roten and Die Schwaben.