Club ProfileAnnex

Steckbrief – Facts, figures and milestones

1. FC Köln (full name: 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V.) was founded on February 13, 1948 through the merger of two football clubs, Kölner BC 01 and SpVgg. Sülz 07.

The "Effzeh" is the largest sports club in Cologne with more than 110,000 members (as of December 2019) and the sixth-largest in Germany. A founding member of the Bundesliga, the club were crowned the first-ever German champions in the new Bundesliga era in the 1963/64 inaugural season and remained in the top flight uninterrupted for 35 years until 1998.

Since March 6, 2002, the professional football division (first team, U21, U19 and U17) has been spun off into 1. FC Köln GmbH & Co. KGaA. The registered association holds 100 per cent of the share capital (€2.5 million) in the KGaA and is the sole shareholder of the fully liable general partner, 1. FC Köln Verwaltungs-GmbH.

1. FC Köln occupy eighth place in the Bundesliga all-time table (as of December 2019) and third place in the all-time Oberliga West table, the top division for west German clubs before the Bundesliga was introduced.