SV Waldhof Mannheim

Waldhof Mannheim

Full name	Sportverein Waldhof Mannheim 07 e.V.
Nickname(s)	Waldhof Buben (The Waldhof Boys)
Founded	1907; 117 years ago (1907)
Ground	Carl-Benz-Stadion
Capacity	25,667
Chairman	Bernd Beetz
Manager	Bernhard Trares
League	3. Liga
2023–24	3. Liga, 16th of 20
Website	https://www.svw07.de/
Home colours Away colours
Current season

SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today^[when?] has a membership of over 2,400.

The club was founded 1907 and played in the second division of the Westkreis-Liga before the First World War. Waldhof became part of the Kreisliga Odenwald in 1919 and won this league in 1920 and 1921. In each of those seasons, the club failed to advance in the Southern German championship because it was grouped with all-powerful 1. FC Nürnberg at the time. The club took a Bezirksliga Rhein championship in 1924 before joining the Bezirksliga Rhein-Saar in 1927, where it won five out of the next six division titles without ever performing particularly well in the Southern championship.^{[citation needed]}

Its enjoyed its best performances in the Gauliga Baden, one of sixteen top-flight divisions established through the 1933 re-organization of German football under the Third Reich. Waldhof dominated the division through the 1930s and into the early 1940s, capturing the title five times. They were unable, however, to translate that into success at the national level. Their best result came in 1940 when they went out in a semi-final against FC Schalke 04, the dominant side of the era, before settling for fourth place after losing a consolation round match to Rapid Vienna.

After World War II, Waldhof competed in the Oberliga Süd, where they earned mid-table results until being relegated to the 2nd Oberliga Süd in 1954. They bounced up and down between first and second division play until the formation of the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, in 1963. The next season saw them in the tier II Regionalliga Süd alongside local rivals VfR Mannheim. A string of unimpressive results finally led to relegation to the Amateurliga Nordbaden (III) in 1970.

Support from a new sponsor, the snack chip maker Chio, revived the team and helped their return to the second division where they played as SV Chio Waldhof Mannheim from 1972 to 1978. They continued to play as a middling side there until they broke through to the Bundesliga in 1983. Waldhof spent seven seasons in the top flight until a 17th-place finish saw the club relegated at the end of the 1989–90 season. They played for seven seasons as a 2. Bundesliga club until slipping to the Regionalliga Süd for two seasons in 1997–99. A merger with VfR Mannheim was considered in 1998 but the club walked away from a deal at the last minute. Their return to the 2. Bundesliga in 1999 after a season-long struggle with Kickers Offenbach was cut short in 2003 when financial irregularities saw the German Football Association deny the team a licence, dropping them to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (IV). Another attempt at a merger with VfR failed that same year. The club played in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg until 2007–08, when a third-place finish allowed them to qualify for the Regionalliga.

After coming fourth in the Regionalliga Süd in 2008–09, the club moved to the Regionalliga West in 2009–10 to balance out the three Regionalligas.^[1]

Waldhof again had their licence withdrawn in 2010 and were demoted back to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg, now the fifth level of German football, despite having finished clear of the relegation zone with the league's smallest budget.^{[citation needed]} Waldhof spent only one year in the Oberliga, winning the league in 2010–11 and advancing directly back to the Regionalliga. On 11 June 2011 they defeated FV Illertissen 6–0 in their final league match to clinch promotion and also set a new fifth division attendance record of 18,312. It surpassed the previous record, the 2009 Leipzig derby, by more than 3,000 spectators.^[2]

At the end of the 2011–12, season the club was grouped into the new Regionalliga Südwest, which replaced the Regionalliga Süd in the region. Waldhof won the league in 2015–16 but lost to Sportfreunde Lotte in the promotion round. They also lost promotion play-offs in the following two seasons after finishing second in the Regionalliga Südwest, to Meppen on penalties in 2017 and to KFC Uerdingen in 2018 after crowd disturbances caused the second leg to be abandoned while Waldhof were losing 3–1 on aggregate.^[3] In the 2018–19 season, the team secured the Regionalliga Südwest championship and direct promotion to the 3. Liga on the 30th matchday with a 1–0 home win over Wormatia Worms.^[4]

As of 30 August 2024^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  GER Jan-Christoph Bartels 2 DF  GER Sascha Voelcke 4 DF  GER Tim Sechelmann 5 DF  GER Marcel Seegert (captain) 6 DF  GER Niklas Hoffmann 7 MF  GER Nicklas Shipnoski 9 FW  GER Felix Lohkemper 11 MF  GER Rico Benatelli 12 GK  ISR Omer Hanin 13 FW  USA Terrence Boyd 15 DF  GER Malte Karbstein 17 FW  GER Samuel Abifade 18 DF  TUR Seyhan Yigit 20 DF  GER Henning Matriciani (on loan from Schalke 04) 21 MF  GER Julian Rieckmann

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 DF  GER Janne Sietan 23 MF  GER Yusuf Wardak 24 DF  GER Lukas Klünter 26 DF  ALG Madéno Albenas 27 GK  GER Malwin Zok 29 MF  GER Adrian Fein 30 GK  GER Lucien Hawryluk 31 MF  GER Maximilian Thalhammer 32 FW  NGA Kennedy Okpala 33 MF  POL Martin Kobylański 35 FW  ALB Arlind Rexhepi 36 FW  AUT Kelvin Arase 37 FW  GRE Minos Gouras 43 DF  GER Manuel Braun (on loan from VfL Wolfsburg)

The SV Waldhof II, historically also referred to as SV Waldhof Amateure, rose to the tier-IV league Verbandsliga Nordbaden in 1986 and remained there until gaining promotion to the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg in 2001. After two seasons in the Oberliga with good results, the team had to be withdrawn due to the forced relegation of the first team. In the 2007–08 season, the team narrowly missed out on Verbandsliga promotion when it finished second on equal points to the SV Sandhausen II.^[6]

The club's honours:

• ^‡ Won by reserve team.

Recent managers of the club:^[7][8]

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:^[9][10]

• With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the 3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.

Waldhof have a fierce rivalry with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. However, due to the league gap between the two sides, the rivalry was rarely competed until the 2019–20 season, where the two sides met for the first time in 22 years in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. Past meetings between the two have resulted in violence between the two sets of supporters, as well as between supporters and police. Another incident before a derby saw weapons seized by police.^[11]

Waldhof also share smaller rivalries with Kickers Offenbach^[12] and Mannheim city-rivals VfR Mannheim.

SV Waldhof plays its home games at the Carl-Benz-Stadion, which holds 27,000 and opened in 1994.^[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SV Waldhof Mannheim.

• Official website
• Abseits Guide to German Soccer
• SV Waldhof Mannheim at Weltfussball.de
• Das deutsche Fußball-Archiv – historical German domestic league tables (in German)