Preparations for the Rückrunde also involve a training camp in Tenerife. However, the first two weeks start with indoor football, which is really popular in the 80s and 90s. The shindig involves 18 tournaments when the teams were able to qualify for the finals that saw the first DFB Indoor Cup (also called the Hall Masters). The big finals tournament is held in Frankfurt. Every club has to have played in at least two tournaments. A complicated system saw eight teams qualify for the DFB Indoor Cup.
So-called assessment points determine qualification with final places and points from the last three seasons plus the first half of the current campaign are taken into account. The individual tournaments are given a values rating, which in turn depends on the assessment of the participants and individual tournaments. Winners and finishers were awarded place points. The total of all the numbers produce the final points tally, which is reflected in the table. From those, five other teams qualify alongside the hosts Eintracht Frankfurt. Ten Bundesliga teams have already ruled out participation in the DFB Indoor Cup as they prefer training camps in preparation for the Rückrunde.
Bayer 04 take part in three tournaments – in Hanover, Dortmund and Herne. Although the tournament in Hanover was not recognised as a qualifying tournament the Hall Masters.
The team set off for Hannover and Herne on Friday 15 January 1988. The team fail completely in Herne on that Friday losing all three group matches against DSC Wanne-Eickel (1-2), Westfalia Herne (1-2) and Hamburg SV (2-3). The other but the team in Hanover do not do much better – 2-2 against TSV Havelse, 0-0 against Hannover 96 (Reserves) and a 4-1 win against ASC Nienburg. Saturday sees the two 'indoor specialists' Knut Reinhardt and the second team player Dieter Regh arrive in Herne from Hanover to give the team support in the important tournament. That is the play-offs, the quarter-finals for us against the top team from the other group, in this case Rot-Weiss Essen. We inflict a 5-1 defeat on Essen. The semi-final brings revenge against Hamburg SV with a 3-2 victory but then we lost 6-3 to Wattenscheid 09 in the final. The team in Hanover finishes in a disappointing fourth place.
The tournament in Dortmund follows a week later. Again we reach the final but suffer a heavy 5-2 defeat to VfL Bochum. At the end of the day, the two second places are not enough to qualify for the DFB Indoor Cup. Preparations for the Rückrunde, and obviously the UEFA Cup quarter-final against Barcelona, begin with a flight to Tenerife on 25 January.
Bernd Schneider, born in Jena on 17 November 1973, spent his early years in the German Democratic Republic. He took his first steps in football at the two Jena clubs BSG Aufbau and FC Carl Zeiss, the biggest club in his hometown. He played in the second division for six years in the 90s. Bernd Schneider stood out as an accomplished dribbler with his experience from street football always evident. His nickname Schnix comes from the Thuringian dialect: ‘Schnixeln’ is a synonym for dribbling, being able to control the ball. After Jena were relegated in 1998, Schnix went in the opposite direction. Newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt brought into the Bundesliga. He spent a year there.
Show more18 June 1950 saw a friendly match for FC Köln, formed from the merger of two clubs in February 1948, against the Werkself at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. The two teams had already faced each other in May 1949 as winners of the Rhine district leagues in the final for promotion to the Oberliga West. The new club from Cologne came out on top in the two games and were promoted.
Show moreIn a messed-up season in 1984/85 everybody is happy that the battle against relegation is over before the final matchday. The visitors are UEFA Cup contenders SV Waldhof Mannheim in front of a sparse 6,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Waldhof lads under their coach Klaus Schlappner are the surprise packet of the season. In their second campaign in the Bundesliga, the team from Mannheim are fifth on 35 points (with two points for a win back then) ahead of the game in Leverkusen and in a UEFA Cup qualifying spot. Two points behind them are Bayer 05 Uerdingen and Hamburg SV.
Show moreTranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
Show moreSince the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
Show more