Augsburg II

Formation

A merger of Augsburg's two most successful clubs, TSV Schwaben and BC Augsburg, was discussed as early as the late 1940s, but distrust between the two sides and a fear that the other club would dominate the merger caused each side to hesitate, despite the financial trouble both clubs were in. A first serious meeting between the two sides was held in 1964, both clubs having dropped out of tier-one football by then. The leadership of the multi-sports club Schwaben was completely behind a merger, but the club's football department was not, and once more the process of forming FCA was stalled. Traditionally, BCA saw itself as a working-class club, based in the north of Augsburg, while Schwaben was the club of the more affluent and based south of the city, with the river Wertach forming something of a boundary between the two clubs territories.

In 1968, with BCA struggling in the third division after relegation from professional football the year before and Schwaben soon to follow, another effort was made. In April 1969, a high-level meeting between the two club bosses brought the decision to merge the clubs and name the new side FC Augsburg. FCA was to be a football club only, with no other sports department. The then-mayor of Augsburg, Hans Breuer, was one of the driving forces behind the move.

The merger came at a time of on-the-field decline for both sides, Schwaben had just been relegated from the tier-two Regionalliga Süd and decided that an attempt to regain their status was financially impossible, while BCA narrowly missed out on promotion to the league that season. In June, 256 of 265 of BCA's members present voted for the merger while, shortly after, 75 percent of Schwaben's members also approved the motion.

Schwaben, however, opted for the "small solution"—the club was to remain independent with only its football department merging into the new club. But even this move was not universally popular within the club, with some former members forming a new football club, Eintracht Augsburg, and restarting from the lowest level of the pyramid. For this reason, FCA is generally not considered to carry on the traditions of TSV Schwaben, only those of BC Augsburg. A year later, the footballers of Eintracht rejoined Schwaben but, since then, have always remained an amateur club. It took the new football department until 1981 to regain its third-division status, where they were to meet FCA for the first time in league football and renewed the Augsburg derby.

The new FCA played its first game on 30 July 1969, when it met 1. FC Nürnberg in Augsburg in front of 13,000, losing 0–3 in extra time.

Early years (1969–1974)

After the formation of the club in 1969, the side was to spend most of its time in tier-two and three leagues, the Bayernliga, Regionalliga Süd and the 2. Bundesliga. The new side, despite now concentrating Augsburg's football forces, was no instant success. A fourth-place finish in the league and dwindling supporter numbers proved that the new merger side had not yet been accepted in the city. The following season, FCA finished one place better in the league but, with an average support of 300 spectators per game, the club found it difficult to retain its top players. The 1971–72 season saw further decline, an eighth-place finish, but from there the team improved, winning the league the following year and returning professional football to the town. By then, the club had found acceptance in the town and, in the final game of the season, 15,000 spectators had turned up to celebrate the Bayernliga championship.

The 1973–74 season saw the return of one of Augsburg's greatest football talents to the city, and the FCA—former German international Helmut Haller had returned to the club after 11 years in Italy playing for Bologna and Juventus. FCA paid DM 44,000 for the transfer of Haller.

FCA became an instant success in the Regionalliga, drawing an average crowd of over 22,000 for its home matches. When the club traveled to Munich to meet 1860 Munich in the then-new Olympic Stadium, 80,000 flocked to the game, starting what remains today as a fierce rivalry between the two clubs. FCA dominated the season, eventually winning the league title as a freshly promoted team. The mood in Augsburg was one of excitement, and the newspapers spoke of the atmosphere in the stadium as of "Augsburg, the Napoli of Germany."