Sydvest

2003–2004: Establishment

In the summer of 2003 the initiative of gathering the best players in the Southwestern corner of Sønderjylland on one team was begun behind the scenes. Seven football clubs and local rivals, Ballum Idrætsforening (founded 1940), Bredebro Idrætsforening (founded 1920), Bylderup-Burkal Idrætsforening (founded 1966), Højer Idrætsforening, Løgum Idrætsforening, Skærbæk Boldklub (founded 1910; football department established on 3 March 1994 as an independent section under the same name) and Tønder Sportsforening Fodbold (founded 17 May 1920; football department as an independent section since 2003), convened at a preliminary meeting in early August 2003 in Bredebro. On the agenda in the meeting between representatives of the neighbourly clubs, Jørgen Kristensen (Ballum IF), Lars Bach Sørensen (Skærbæk BK), Flemming Søndergaard (Skærbæk BK), Ove Danielsen (Højer IF), Keld Hansen (Løgum IF), Jørgen Juul Pedersen (Bylderup-Burkal IF), Gunnar Jordt (Tønder SF) and Flemming Jordt (Bredebro IF), was a debate between the disappointing results on the pitch, their common struggles in the lower tiers of Danish football, and wishes from the players of competing at a higher level. The solution was to be a collaborative project between the regional clubs in reaching social and sportive success. Following the first meeting, Bylderup-Burkal IF withdrew from a potential collaboration whereas the remaining six clubs continued to draw up plans for a merger with the intention of letting each club surrender its best players to a common elite-team which would represent the parent clubs, FC Sydvest 05.

Following a determined effort to realise the project during the fall of 2003, a model for a future collaboration between the regional clubs was presented to their respective boards at a meeting in Løgumkloster in January 2004. Present at the meeting were 30 participants, who agreed to a month of considerment regarding their continued support for the process, as well as reflect on the option of involving youth teams in the merger, which had until that point only related to a senior side. After consulting their board and senior team, Skærbæk Boldklub and Højer Idrætsforening chose to withdraw from further participation, which representatives informed the other clubs at the next meeting in March 2004. The remaining four regional clubs, Ballum Idrætsforening, Bredebro Idrætsforening, Løgum Idrætsforening and Tønder Sportsforening Fodbold, however, agreed to continue to process of creating a new united cooperative. Expectations were that a larger workload would lie ahead, which led representatives from the four clubs to include four more club representatives, which meant that the voluntary collaboration committee included eight representatives, two each of the four clubs involved in the plans. Meanwhile, the representative from Løgum IF had decided to quit due to not having sufficient time to work voluntarily, which meant that a new collaboration committee was made up of Jørgen Kristensen and Orla Simonsen from Ballum IF, Ejvin Toft Nielsen and Flemming Jordt from Bredebro IF, Morten Gram and Morten Classen from Løgum IF as well as Gunnar Jordt and Torsten Vestergaard from Tønder SF.

Plans for merging the four regional clubs was announced at a press conference by the board of the four parent clubs involved in May 2004 under the name "FC Sydvest 05". The newly formed club in the Western parts of Southern Denmark would make its competitive debut as early as 2005 and begin with an integrated first team on senior level and a common youth team to play in the local divisions of Region 4 of the DBU Jutland, its Southwestern region (hence its name, "Sydvest" literally meaning "Southwest"). The name was chosen as the result of a naming competition, where the proposal from Hanne Clausen from Bredebro won. The reserve teams and second teams on senior level would remain part of the parent clubs, while Tønder SF's youth team was incorporated under the FC Sydvest 05 name, opening up the possibility for competing with more than one youth side. The overall objective for the first team was declared to be promotion in its second season, after which a period of stabilisation was expected before taking the next step up to the Jutland Series in 2007, the sixth highest level of Danish football. In the long run the merger was to compete at Denmark Series (fourth tier division) level and obtain status as the second club of Southern Denmark, only behind SønderjyskE Fodbold.

After the respective boards of Tønder SF, Bredebro IF, Løgum IF and Ballum IF had reached an agreement on the merger, the members of the collaboration committee made sure that all requirements for participation in DBU Jutland competitions were met before the holding of the extraordinary general assembly of the four parent clubs. A kickoff meeting with 40 participants from the four clubs was held prior to the general assemblies. On 5 August 2004, the final mandate to go ahead with the project was agreed upon by an overwhelming majority (90%) of the 150 voting attendees, who showed their support for a closer collaboration between the clubs. Contrary to Ballum IF, Bredebro IF and Løgum IF, there were some members of Tønder SF who had expressed their skepticism prior to the vote. However, among the 60 attendees present at the final decision in the clubhouse, only four voted against the merger, while 54 voted for the merger and two abstained.