SAMSTAG 15:30

Founded: May 3, 1905
Club Members: 15,043
Nickname: Die Arminen
Coach: Michél Kniat
Captain: Fabian Klos

Bundesliga.2 Champions: 4
3.Liga Champions: 1
Oberliga Westfalen: 1
Western German Cup: 2
Landespokal Westfalen Winner: 3

Website: www.arminia-bielefeld.de

There's a long-running joke in Germany that the city of Bielefeld, tucked away in North Rhine-Westphalia, doesn't actually exist after college student Achim Held light-heartedly suggested as much on an early internet forum in 1994. Like other urban myths in the same vein (e.g. trains never stop in Wolfsburg), it was fuelled by the subsequent internet boom and soon gained traction to become part of German satire. The conspiracy theory was the subject of a film Die Bielefeld Verschwörung (The Bielefeld Conspiracy) made by the local university and a marketing group offered €1 million in 2019 to anyone who could prove the city's non-existence. Even the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel referenced it as she remembered a visit to Bielefeld, adding "so it does exist." Credit to the city though which has taken the joke in good spirit, and it seems that same sense of humour is needed to support its football team - Germany's most promoted and, by definition, most relegated club !

Deriving their name from General Arminius who led the Cherusci Germanic Tribe to victory over the Roman army at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, DSC Arminia Bielefeld (Deutscher Sport-Club Arminia Bielefeld) were formed in 1905 as 1. Bielefelder FC Arminia and spent their early years going through mergers and name changes whilst achieving a degree of success in local championships - winning the Westphalian Championship in 1912 before lifting successive West German Championship titles in 1922 and 1923. Four consecutive Westphalian Championship titles followed between 1924-1927 and, after the club had taken its current name, the Westphalian Cup was lifted in 1932. As German football was restructured into 16 regional divisions following the Nazi rise to power, Arminia made a one-season cameo in the Gauliga Westfalen in 1933 before securing a return to the top-flight in 1938. The 1939-40 season marked the club's high-water mark in the Gauliga with a second-place finish; and a couple of years later, they were one of only two teams to win a match against the dominant side of the era - FC Schalke 04. 

After being part of a combined wartime side called KSG Bielefeld following a short-lived merger with local rivals VfB 03 Bielefeld, Arminia reformed and emerged from the chaos of World War 2 to play in the third-tier for the first time in their history. Arminia however have long been a club associated with scandal, and after a dominating campaign in the 1947-48 Bezirklasse, they were given a 14 point penalty for fielding an ineligible player. After a number of years playing in local championships, Arminia secured a place in the second-tier Regionalliga West following the restructure of German football in 1963 which saw the creation of the Bundesliga and, after building momentum with a number of strong campaigns including a West German Cup final victory against Alemannia Aachen in 1966, achieved promotion to the top-flight for the first time with a play-off victory over Tennis Borussia Berlin in 1970.

Their stay in the Bundesliga was mired in controversy however as the club became embroiled in the Bundesligaskandal at the end of the 1970-71 season. Horst-Gregorio Canellas, club president of Kickers Offenbach, had begun to suspect that all wasn't what it seemed in Germany's top-flight as his club - despite enjoying a good run of results - had been unable to pull away from the drop zone on account of the impressive form also being shown by fellow relegation threatened clubs ... including Arminia. Far from it being a case of an over-active imagination or plain sour grapes, Canellas' suspicions in the end proved to be well-founded and a day after Offenbach's relegation had been confirmed he invited a whole list of celebrities, reporters and fußball luminaries, including the German national manager Helmut Schön, to his house and instead of serving up 'Kaffee und Kuchen ' played an audio tape to the stunned gathering. 

Phone calls, voices, payments, bribes.   

Famous names were at the heart of the deception with Nationalelf  defender Bernd Patzke and Hertha Berlin team-mate Tasso Wild recorded discussing a DM 140,000 bribe from Canellas himself to throw a game against Arminia. Patzke admitted being offered DM 220,000 to throw the same game by someone else also claiming to represent Bielefeld. Canellas' revelations were just the tip of the iceberg and for weeks the only story in the Deutsche Zeitungen was about the scandal. The subsequent investigation by the DFB's chief prosecutor, Hans Kindermann, uncovered 18 matches that had directly affected the relegation battle in the 1970-71 season and over DM 1Million had exchanged hands in the process. It was a nationwide scandal with as many as 50 players, managers and officials from other clubs being implicated including Arminia players Waldemar Slomiany and Jürgen Neumann who were banned from football for life. Arminia also had their licence to play in the Bundesliga revoked and were demoted to the Regionalliga - although this didn't come into effect until the end of the following season due to the length of time it took Kindermann and the DFB to investigate the whole sorry affair.

As German football cleaned up the mess and set about repairing its damaged reputation, Arminia made a quick return to the Bundesliga in 1978 - but only after their fans had seen them throw away a 4-0 lead to lose a promotion play-off against TSV 1860 München the previous year. Life back in the Bundesliga was brief and despite a memorable 4-0 mauling of Bavarian giants FC Bayern München, they were back in the second tier after just one season. Another promotion immediately followed with a tour-de-force season in which they helped themselves to 120 goals, a 28-match unbeaten run and a Bundesliga.2 record win of 11-0 over SV Arminia Hannover as they won 30 of the 38 league matches. The transition from second division juggernauts to top-tier underdogs was handled better this time and Arminia managed to enjoy an unbroken five year spell in the Bundesliga which included successive eighth place finishes in 1983 and 1984. Unfortunately, they were back in Bundesliga.2 a year later as things began to unravel off the pitch too with overextension and mismanagement bringing Arminia to the brink of financial ruin with debts standing at DM 4.5 million.

The club dropped into the third-tier amateur Oberliga Westfalen before regaining their football composure and returned to professional football by winning the newly formed Regionallia West / Südwest in 1995. The "Elevator Club" then spent much of the late 1990s and early 2000's bouncing between the top two divisions before another five year spell in the Bundesliga which also included DFB-Pokal semi-final appearances in 2005 and 2006. 

From the end of the decade however, things began to go wrong again. Arminia not only crashed into Bundesliga.2, but carried on into the third tier as financial pressures continued to build after banking on long-term Bundesliga survival to pay for expensive stadium renovations in 2008. After scrambling back into the second tier in 2014, a final-day victory over SG Dynamo Dresden saved them from making an immediate return to the 3.Liga via the automatic relegation spots. They did however then have to negotiate the relegation play-off match but buoyed by that win over Dresden, Arminia travelled to SV Darmstadt 98 for the first leg and came away with a comfortable 3-1 win. Although the second leg went into extra time, with just 10 minutes to play Arminia were leading 5-4 on aggregate and their place in Bundesliga.2 seemed secure for at least another season as Darmstadt, having run out of ideas, resorted to firing pot-shots at the Bielefeld goal. Then, with Arminia being Arminia, in the 121st minute one of those Darmstadt pot-shots took a deflection and ended up in the Bielefeld net to send Die Blauen (The Blues) back down to the 3.Liga. It was a nadir that still weighs heavily on Arminia's supporters, but having managed to keep the core of the team together during those dark times including captain Fabian Klos who personified the club's grit, Arminia were back in Bundesliga.2 after recovering from a late season implosion to claim the 3.Liga title in 2015.

Arminia's problems weren't behind them though as debts of €30 million were threatening to swallow them up and the club were facing the prospect of their playing licence being revoked by the German FA (DFB). A financial restructuring plan was put in place to walk the club back from the cliff edge, which included the sale of the debt-ridden Schüco Arena to a local business consortium (Bundnis Ostwestfalen) and by the end of 2018, 95% of the club's debts had been wiped out. In return, Arminia must now pay a reported €800,000 a year to rent the stadium they've owned since 1926 but crucially, the deal includes a buy-back option after 15 years.

Securing the club's financial future also seemed to liberate them on the pitch as well and at the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign there was optimism that the club could make a push for promotion back to the Bundesliga. A disappointing start to the season however saw Jeff Saibene replaced by ex-Union Berlin and Dynamo Dresden coach Uwe Neuhaus who transformed the team - guiding them to a fourth place finish that year playing an attractive, attacking 4-3-3 formation. He then ended Arminia's 11 year absence from the top-flight, clinching the Bundesliga.2 title in 2020 with a slender victory over none other than SV Darmstadt 98 before the dictionary definition of a yo-yo club endured back-to-back relegations in 2022 and 2023 to round-off a rollercoaster decade for a club that, according to some, doesn't even exist !