About 1. FC Köln
History
The club history of 1. FC Köln 01/07 e.V. starts on the 13th of February, 1948, when the two clubs “Kölner BC 01” and “SpVgg Sülz 07” merged along with Cologne club founder Franz Kremer´s visionary question: “Do you want to gain the German championship together with me?” 14 years later, in 1962, the dream came true for the first time. Another two years later, 1. FC Köln won the first German championship of the newly founded Bundesliga.
German Champion
1962, 1964, 1978
German Cup Winner
1968, 1977, 1978, 1983
Mascot
It was during carnival in 1950, that ringmaster Carola Williams bestowed a living billygoat as a lucky charm to the club.
In the meantime “Hennes” is Germany´s best-known mascot and heraldic animal – Hennes has his own fashion label named “Geißbock-Kollektion”. And Hennes’ club is one of the few that accomplished the leap forward to an independent brand.
Structure
The demerger of the commercial business operation into a public limited company in March 2002 gave 1. FC Cologne a new decision-making structure. The general meeting of 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V. retains its autonomy in regard to bye-laws and continues to elect club directors and members of the governing board. In turn, both these bodies exercise for the club the controlling rights and the rights to appoint the executives of Verwaltungs (Management) GmbH (is liable for and manages the KGaA).
Steering committee of 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V.
Wolfgang Overath, President
Friedrich Neukirch, Vice President
Jürgen Glowacz, Vice President
Management of 1. FC Köln GmbH & Co. KGaA
Claus Horstmann, Finances
Michael Meier, Sport
The management at 1. FC Cologne has had a new home since mid-June 2004 – the RheinEnergie Stadium. Most of the club employees have moved into new offices in the East Stand of the RheinEnergie Stadium. Led by club Director Claus Horstmann, the Finances, Marketing & Merchandising, Media & Communication, Members & Customer Service, Organisation/Support/Safety as well as Ticketing and Stadium Management departments ensure everything runs smoothly off the field of play.
However, the home of the FC remains the Geißbockheim in the RheinEnergie Sport Park. This is still where the entire operation for the professional game is run and where the academy offices are located. Training for the professional players and the training and running of the FC junior teams continue to be held around the Franz-Kremer Stadium.
One city, one club! Close contact
1. FC Köln – figurehead of the Rhine metropolis, which has a population of more than a million and is the fourth largest city in Germany. In so far as factors such as future potential, economic power and quality of life are concerned, Cologne is second only to Berlin. Hardly any other city follows their team so passionately – 80 % of the population are interested in the club. And hardly any other city is so cosmopolitan and multicultural – nearly a fifth brings international flair to Cologne. 17,2 % of the city´s population does not have a German passport.
1. FC Köln – one large family
The importance of 1. FC Köln reaches out of the city of Cologne. 1. FC Köln has more than 30.000 club members since 2005 – 45 % of which are from Cologne or the area. More than 1.000 1. FC Köln fanclubs exist in Germany – yet there are also plenty abroad, e.g. in Belgium, England, Spain and even in Canada, Costa Rica and Nigeria!
FIFA World Cup 2006™
The RheinEnergieStadion is home of 1. FC Köln. It was a venue for 5 matches at the FIFA World Cup 2006. All of them were sold out with 225.000 visitors in total. During the Bundesliga season, the club welcomes up to 50.000 visitors to every home match.
Economic efficiency
According to an analysis of creditworthiness of all German football clubs by the well-known credit agency “Creditreform”, 1. FC Köln ranks third of all professional clubs. 1. FC Köln is financially sound. 1. FC Köln was the first club that managed to place performance-based profit-participation certificates amounting to € 5.000.000.
The club also successfully issued a long-term bond for 1. FC Köln partners and fans to the amount of € 5.000.000. 1. FC Köln obtained the Bundesliga licence for years without any additional requirements.
Force of attraction
In the season 2005/06 1. FC Köln achieved a new spectator record with an average 48.300 supporters every home match. The RheinEnergieStadium was sold out nearly every match! More than 96% of the seats were sold. Furthermore, with 25.500 season tickets sold, 1. FC Köln scored a new all-time high.
Merchandising
1. FC Köln supporters are loyal and like to show their love for the club. Therefore the volume of sales was more than doubled in the past two years. Furthermore with the “Geißbock”-Kollektion (“Geißbock” = billygoat, our mascot) our exclusive fashion label was created. It is a trendy leisure-time-collection rather than traditional supporter wear yet with emotional connection to the club.
Marketing
In 2005/06, the club budget broke through the € 40.000.000 benchmark for the first time in the history of 1. FC Köln. This financial power is a result of teamwork with large, regionally rooted and internationally successful partners. With main sponsor Gerling, RheinEnergie - the company the stadium is named after -, REWE, Ford, the Galeria Kaufhof and the Gaffel brewery, six of the eleven top sponsors are headquartered in Cologne. More than 20 sponsors, approximately 50 business club partners and about 50 box sponsors support 1. FC Köln in addition to the eleven premium sponsors.
Brand
From 2001 to 2004, 1. FC Köln was able to increase its brand awareness from 84% to 93% with people interested in football above the age of 14. 1. FC Köln is known to more than 56 million people throughout Germany. The affection value rose from 40% to 45% over the same period. According to these figures, 1. FC Köln is in the top ten of all German football clubs.
Media
1. FC Köln is constantly in the media spotlight and reaches around 1,5 billion people each year. Four daily publishing newspapers, some of them nationwide, report on the club every day. The number of homepage visits went through the roof in 2005 with more than a million a month in 2005. Since then 1,1, million visits are registered every month.
Youth players
The success of our youth players department is not only measured by the number of championships won, but also how many of these players manage the leap to the professional squad. 1. FC Köln creates the best possible conditions in every age bracket to bring the players forward in their overall development. In addition to coaching in necessary football skills and techniques, attention is also devoted to team spirit and personal development.
Team of the future
In 2001 1. FC Köln created a sponsorship scheme named “team of the future”. The concept envisions that each company in the sponsor pool adopts a team of the youth players department. The amount of money in this pool is exclusively used for the youth teams to allow optimal training.
School project
The school project is an inherent part of the perfect combination between training in football and education in school. The school project creates ideal training conditions for top talents between the ages of 12 to 18 in cooperation with three Cologne schools.