VfL Bochum is a football club that is found in the city of Bochum in North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was started in 1848 and it plays its home games at the Vonovia-Ruhrstadion, holding almost 30,000 fans. It is currently playing in the second tier of German football, of which it has been crowned champion on three occasions.
History of VfL Bochum
1849
VfL Bochum can claim to be one of the most historic sports clubs that you will find across the globe. It can track its founding back to 1849 when it was originally a club for gymnastics. It was not until 1911 that it created a football side of the club for the first time.
1919
It merged with another local club in 1919 for a few years before splitting up. VfL Bochum was then forced into a merger by the Nazi Party and it took part in the top flight of football in Germany.
1965
The club restarted following the Second World War, starting back in the second tier of football. The VfL Bochum being ranked in the third tier called the Amateurliga Westfalen starting off. They won this division in 1965 and got promoted up to the Regionalliga West (II), starting off a steady climb that saw them reach the Bundesliga for the first time in 1971.
1968
Along this journey, they got the final of the DFB-Pokal for the first time in 1968 but lost out on a 4-1 scoreline to 1. FC Koln. Despite being a team that would regularly finish in the lower half of the table, it managed to stay in the top tier for 20 seasons. It got to another final of the DFB-Pokal in 1998 but this time lost out to a single goal from Eintracht Frankfurt.
1993
It was in 1993 that the team got relegated and this began a trend of going up and getting relegated out of the top tier. The best finish VfL Bochum has registered in the Bundesliga was a 5th place finish, achieving this feat in both 1997 and 2004. During these seasons, they qualified for the UEFA Cup, making it to the third round in 1997 before losing to Ajax.
2011
Currently, the club has more than 5,000 members and about half of these are directly related to the football side of things. There are also basketball, badminton, dance, table tennis, hockey and volleyball as well as a number of other sports that are making up the VfL Bochum. The team has been playing in the second tier since 2011.
The stadium
VfL Bochum has been playing their home games in the Ruhrstadion for many years, with this being one of the initial modern stadiums in Germany that was dedicated to football. It was during the 1970s that it was built, with there being a total attendance capacity of nearly 28,000, with about 12,000 of these being standing only.
The arena itself has been hosting football games since 1911, with the stadium being first built in 1921 before being massively reconstructed between 1976 and 1979. Over the years, there were four international games that were held at the Ruhrstadion, with the most recent one being a friendly against Ghana in 1993.
Betting on games
While VfL Bochum currently plies its trade in the second tier of German football, it is aiming to get back up to the top tier. It consistently finishes just outside the top three places as it pushes hard for a higher finish. All of the VfL Bochum games will be available for you to place bets on when you are dealing with the best football betting sites.
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