Eintracht demoted by DFL

On Wednesday, the board of the German Football League (DFL) decided not to assign Eintracht Frankfurt a licence to take part to next season’s second-division German championship.

Great names fall
After the relegation of Austrian champions FC Tirol Innsbruck and the Swiss first-division clubs FC Lugano, FC Sion and Lausanne-Sports, the news has seen yet another former great of European football fail to deliver the necessary financial guarantees to obtain the right to participate in next season’s championship.

No licence
Frankfurt is the only one of the 36 professional clubs in Germany not to have obtained a licence for the forthcoming season. "The bank guarantee presented by Eintracht Frankfurt does not fulfil the conditions requested by the league to obtain a licence, and it puts at risk the financing of their match activities," said a DFL statement.

New start
This decision will force the club to make a new start in the Regionalliga, the third tierof the German league, while their second-division spot will go to SpVgg Unterhaching. The Frankfurt club has already announced an appeal against this decision. However, it is thought unlikely that this appeal will produce any change in the decision.

Greatest successes
Founded in 1899, Eintracht Frankfurt celebrated their greatest successes in 1959, when they won their first and only German league title, and in 1980 when they won the UEFA Cup after beating VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach on away goals in an all-German final.

Memorable matches
Eintracht made their name at international level when they met Real Madrid CF in the European Champion Clubs' Cup final on 18 May 1960 in Glasgow. After a memorable semi-final against Rangers FC, who they beat 12-4 on aggregate,  Madrid's legendary side brought Frankfurt's run to an end after a historic and heroic 7-3 victory.

Elusive second title
In 1974, Bernd Hölzenbein and Jürgen Grabowski, two of the most famous players in Eintracht's history, made an essential contribution to West Germany's second FIFA World Cup win. Since then, the club have won four German Cups, but a second domestic league title eluded them, most painfully in 1992 when the team coached by Dragoslav Stepanovic lost the championship on the very last day of the season.

Sad decline
The beginning of Eintracht's sad decline started in 1996 when the club was relegated for the first time since the introduction of the Bundesliga in 1963. After two seasons, Eintracht returned to the top division, but in 2001 a second relegation could not be avoided.