TuS Koblenz


TuS Koblenz is a German association football club, located in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Fussball Club Deutschland Neuendorf, which was formed in 1911, is viewed as the foundation of the modern club.

History

Nazi era (1933–1945)

The original club was lost in 1917, but in 1919 the successor side Fussball Verein 1911 Neuendorf was assembled out of the former memberships of FCD, Fussball Club Concordia 1910 Neuendorf, and Fussball Club Alemania 1912 Neuendorf, both of which had folded in 1914.
In 1933, FV joined the Gauliga Mittelrhein, one of sixteen top flight divisions established with the re-organization of German football in Nazi Germany that year. The club was immediately relegated, and in 1934 was joined by Turnverein 1864 Neuendorf, Arbeitersportverein Neuendorf and DJK Neuendorf, to create Turn- und Spielvereinigung Neuendorf. Both ASV and DJK were forced into the merger through the policies of the Nazi regime which regarded worker's and church-sponsored clubs as politically undesirable. TuS Neuendorf returned to first division play in 1935 and was in and out of the Gauliga over the next several seasons.
In 1941, the Gauliga Mittelrhein was divided into two new divisions: the Gauliga Köln-Aachen and the Gauliga Moselland. TuS again returned to first division football in the Gauliga Moselland and this time earned much better results, finishing second in 1942 and then winning their group in 1943 and 1944 before decisively taking the division in single game playoffs in each of these seasons. That put the club into the national playoffs, where they were eliminated in the early going in both appearances. As World War II progressed and Allied armies advanced into Germany, the Gauliga Moselland played progressively shorter schedules until the league finally collapsed and did not play the 1944–45 season.

Postwar

In the immediate post-war period, the club returned to tier I football in the Oberliga Südwest in 1946 as SpVgg Neuendorf. Resuming their old identity as TuS, they re-appeared in the national playoffs in 1948 even though they had managed only a third-place finish in their division. 1. FC Saarbrücken had taken second place by finishing three points ahead of TuS and so were entitled to a playoff spot. However, Saarbrücken was one of several teams in the French-occupied Saarland which the French were actively working to establish as an independent state or make part of France. This led to Saarland-based German teams being refused permission to play the German national playoffs, and even the participation of a Saarland national side in the 1954 World Cup preliminaries. TuS earned its place that season through politics and advanced as far as the semi-finals before being put out 1–5 by 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
The club continued to play well through the early and mid-50s, earning additional turns in the national playoffs in 1950 and 1956, but was once again eliminated in both appearances in the early going. By the end of the decade their performance began to slip and in 1959 they were relegated. They returned to the Oberliga Südwest in 1961 but could not now escape the lower half of the table.

Formation of the Bundesliga

With the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963, TuS found itself placed in the second division Regionalliga Südwest. In both 1968 and 1969, the club played well enough to participate in the playoff for a Bundesliga spot, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. By the 1970s, they were a third division side, playing in the Amateurliga Rheinland, missing opportunities for promotion to the 2. Bundesliga in playoff rounds in both 1977 and 1978. By 1981, the club had crashed below the third division where they were mired for nearly a decade-and-a-half.

TuS Koblenz

In 1982, the club adopted the name TuS Koblenz, but the change did little to help their performance, as they lingered in the Verbandsliga Rheinland. The fortunes of the club improved with their ascent to the fourth division Oberliga Südwest in 1994 where they remained for a decade. An Oberliga Südwest championship in 2004 was followed by a quick ascent through the Regionalliga Süd where a second-place finish in 2005–06 earned the club a spot in the 2. Bundesliga. Their 2006–07 campaign ended with TuS finishing ahead of expectations in 12th place, meriting an unexpected stay on the second level.
Any hopes of further improvement ended in the late stages of the 2007–08 season when TuS was penalized by the deduction of eight points for not providing contracts for Marko Lomić and Branimir Bajić, turning a potential upper table finish into a lesser result. This was later reduced to six points for the actual season and three points for the following season 2008–09.
The club suffered relegation from the 2. Bundesliga in 2009–10 and played for a season in the 3. Liga before withdrawing to the level below for financial reasons. After the 2011–12 season in the Regionalliga West TuS became part of the new Regionalliga Südwest for the following year but was relegated from the league in 2015, dropping to the tier five Oberliga Rheinland-Pfalz/Saar. Koblenz won the Oberliga in 2015–16 and made an immediate return to the Regionalliga, but were relegated again at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Honours

The club's honours:

League

Recent managers of the club:
ManagerStartFinish
Colin Bell1 July 198910 December 1996
Rainer Kannegieser11 December 199631 August 1998
Thomas Neis1 September 19987 October 1998
Jürgen Roth-Lebenstedt8 October 199830 June 2002
Milan Šašić1 July 200223 April 2007
Uwe Rapolder25 April 200713 December 2009
Uwe Koschinat14 December 200928 December 2009
Petrik Sander29 December 200930 June 2011
Michael Dämgen1 July 201116 September 2012
Peter Neustädter17 September 201220 August 2013
Evangelos Nessos21 August 20138 December 2014
Petrik Sander1 January 2015Present

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:
SeasonDivisionTierPosition
1999–2000Oberliga SüdwestIV9th
2000–01Oberliga SüdwestIV9th
2001–02Oberliga SüdwestIV11th
2002–03Oberliga SüdwestIV11th
2003–04Oberliga SüdwestIV1st ↑
2004–05Regionalliga SüdIII11th
2005–06Regionalliga SüdIII2nd ↑
2006–072. BundesligaII12th
2007–082. BundesligaII10th
2008–092. BundesligaII14th
2009–102. BundesligaII17th ↓
2010–113. LigaIII11th 1
2011–12Regionalliga WestIV17th
2012–13Regionalliga SüdwestIV8th
2013–14Regionalliga SüdwestIV14th
2014–15Regionalliga SüdwestIV16th ↓
2015–16Oberliga Rheinland-Pfalz/SaarV1st ↑
2016–17Regionalliga SüdwestIV8th
2017–18Regionalliga SüdwestIV15th ↓
2018–19Oberliga Rheinland-Pfalz/SaarV4th

↑ Promoted↓ Relegated

Current squad