SV Merseburg 99

SV Merseburg 99

Full name	Sportverein Merseburg 1899 e.V.
Founded	1899; 125 years ago (1899)
Ground	Merseburg City Stadium
Home colours

SV Merseburg 99^[1] is a sports club from Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt. The club has existed since August 23, 1899. The club colors are green and white. The club's home base is the Merseburg City Stadium.

SV Merseburg was founded on August 23, 1899, by a total of 14 founding members, making it the oldest ball game club in Merseburg. As early as 1900, the club changed its name to Spielverein Hohenzollern. From 1901 onwards they played under the name Ballspielverein Hohenzollern. In 1921 there was the last renaming as SV Merseburg 1899. After the Second World War, the club was dissolved and replaced by the Merseburg Nord sports community. This was taken over in 1948 by the Buna-Werke company sports association (BSG) Chemie Buna Schkopau. Shortly before reunification, the BSG became SV Buna Schkopau on August 1, 1990, whose successor club was founded on February 7, 1991, under the name SV Merseburg 99. On July 1, 2019, the club merged with VfB IMO Merseburg. SV 99 was supposed to dissolve and the members joined VfB IMO, which renamed itself 1. FC Merseburg.^[2]  After the application for dissolution was made and most of the members of SV 99 joined the new club, some old members of SV 99 decided in 2020 to continue the club, whose dissolution had not yet been completed.^[3]

In 1923, the Merseburgers were promoted to the Saalegau League after several unsuccessful attempts, and from 1933 the club played in the Gauliga Mitte.^[4] In 1935 the club was relegated from the Gauliga, but managed to gain immediate promotion a year later. The best placement dates back to 1938, where the Merseburgers achieved third place. In 1940, SV Merseburg was finally relegated from the Gauliga.

After the Second World War, BSG Chemie Buna celebrated its first success in 1951. The Merseburgers surprisingly won the Chemnitz Cup against BSG Chemie Leipzig. In 1952, the BSG was one of the founding communities of the newly created third-class Halle district league. After winning the district championship in 1964, Schkopau failed in the elimination round for the GDR League, but was able to achieve promotion a year later. From 1974 to 1981 the chemists played continuously in the second league. In the 1970s, the Schkopauers reached the round of 16 once (0–1 against FC Karl-Marx-Stadt ) and the quarter-finals twice (3–4, 0–4 against FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt ) in the GDR Football Cup. In 1981, Schkopau celebrated the greatest success in football history with promotion to the GDR Oberliga. However, this league turned out to be too big. While the Schkopauers were able to win 3–1 against Energie Cottbus on the second matchday, there was a 1:10 debacle against Dynamo Dresden a week later. In their only league season, the Merseburgers managed a total of eleven points. The following regular team played in the league under coach Olaf Keller :

From 1982 to 1990, BSG Chemie Buna Schkopau played consistently in the second division again after being relegated from the Oberliga. In the summer of unity, the team was withdrawn from the second division for financial reasons. The club, which was renamed SV Merseburg 99 during the course of the season, competed in the premiere season of 1990/1991 in the Saxony-Anhalt State League, which was then third-class in the East German league system, and qualified as its first champions for the NOFV Amateur Oberliga, which was third-class in the whole of Germany from the 1991/92 season Football. After relegation in the summer of 1992, the following year they were promoted again to the amateur league for the 1993/94 season. Due to the introduction of the Regionalliga as a new 3rd division, the penultimate place was enough for the Merseburgers to remain in the now fourth-tier NOFV Oberliga for 1994/95. After relegation in 1995/96, Merseburg continued to prove to be an elevator team. After several relegations and promotions, the club established itself in the seventh-tier national league in 2012. In the 2014/15 season, the Merseburgers came second in the South Regional League. Since several teams had withdrawn from the Saxony-Anhalt association league, second place was enough for promotion to the now sixth-class association league. In its first season, 2015/16, SV Merseburg won the championship straight away and was promoted to the fifth-class Oberliga Nordost, from which the club was relegated after two seasons. The club played in the Landesliga Süd until the 2018/19 season.

Career from 2002 to 2019

• Jörg Emmerich (* 1974) - The long-time team captain of the second division club FC Erzgebirge Aue played in Merseburg until 1996
• Rainer Lisiewicz (* 1949) – First coach of the newly founded 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, was coach of SV 99 from 1991 to 1993
• Silvio Meißner (* 1973) – The Bundesliga player ( Arminia Bielefeld, VfB Stuttgart, 1. FC Kaiserslautern ) played at the club from 1985 to 1992

The women's soccer team played alternately in the association and state leagues until 2012 and brought out a Montenegrin national player, Maida Markgraf, in the 2011/12 season. After the upheaval and reorganization in 2012, the team played very successfully in the district class for two years. The women became undefeated champions and cup winners in the Saale district in the 2013/14 season. The first team has competed in the Saxony-Anhalt League South since the 2014/15 season. The second team took part in the 1st district class Saalekreis in season 1. Furthermore, three youth teams were founded. Before the start of the 2015/16 season, all women's and girls' football came to a standstill and was disbanded.

• Hardy Grüne : SV Merseburg/Chemie Buna Schkopau. In: Encyclopedia of German league football. Volume 7: Club lexicon. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-89784-147-9.
• www.f-archiv.de: The German Football Archive
• Uwe Nuttelmann (ed.): GDR Oberliga. 1962–1991. Self-published, Jade 2007, ISBN 978-3-930814-33-6.