Atlas Delmenhorst

Atlas Delmenhorst

Full name	Sportverein Atlas Delmenhorst e.V.
Founded	13 July 1973 (original club) 4 April 2012 (reformed)
Ground	Stadion an der Düsternortstraße
Capacity	12,000
Chairman	Nikola Petkovski
Manager	Jürgen Hahn
League	Regionalliga Nord (IV)
2021–22	8th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Atlas Delmenhorst is a German association football club from the city of Delmenhorst, Lower Saxony, playing in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nord.

The club, originally formed with a merger in 1973, discontinued in 2002 after declaring insolvency but was reformed a decade later in 2012. The club's previous greatest success was to play in the Regionalliga Nord, then at tier three level, for three seasons from 1995. The club has also made two appearances in the DFB-Pokal, first in 1980–81 and then again, after reforming, in 2019–20.

History

SV Atlas Delmenhorst was formed on 13 July 1973 when three local Delmenhorst clubs, FC Roland, VSK Bungerhof and SSV Delmenhorst, merged with the support of local building equipment manufacturer Atlas Weyhausen GmbH. The new club took up the stadium of SSV, built in 1930, the Stadion an der Düsternortstraße, as its home ground as FC Roland's was too small and VSK neither had a football team nor a stadium. ^[1]

The new club quickly rose through the league system, winning promotion to the tier four Landesliga Niedersachsen in 1975. Atlas won this league as a freshly promoted side and moved up to the tier three Oberliga Nord for the 1976–77 season. The club played for six seasons in the league until 1983 when an eighteenth-place finish meant relegation again. In between the club finished as high as fourth place in the league in 1979–80. ^[2] It also made a single appearance in the DFB-Pokal for 1980–81, reaching the fourth round, eliminating 2. Bundesliga sides Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and Kickers Offenbach on the way before being knocked-out by Borussia Mönchengladbach. ^{[3] [1]}

Atlas was back in the highest league of Lower Saxony, the tier four Verbandsliga, from 1983 to 1986, taking out league titles in 1984 and 1986. It failed to win promotion to the Oberliga in 1984 but succeeded in 1986. After two difficult Oberliga seasons the club was relegated back to the Verbandsliga in 1988. The club struggled for a number of seasons in the Verbandsliga and came close to relegation but recovered and finished runners-up in 1992 and 1994. The latter qualified the club for the new Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen when the Regionalliga Nord was established as the new third tier in Northern Germany and the Oberliga Nord was replaced by two regional leagues. ^{[1] [2]}

Atlas finished runners-up in the new Oberliga in 1995 and won promotion to the Regionalliga. The club struggled in the league for next three seasons, never finished above twelfth place and got relegated again in 1998. ^[4] Back in the Oberliga the club came thirteenth in 1999. With the loss of support from long-term sponsor Atlas Weyhausen the fortunes of the club declined. It played three more seasons in the western division of the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen and was renamed to Delmenhorster SC in October 1999. It came last in the league in 2001–02 and had to declare insolvency, being eventually stricken from the register of clubs. On 10 June 2002, Eintracht Delmenhorst was formed to take over and continue the youth department of Atlas, with the latter de-registered. ^[1]

On 4 April 2012, the football department of Eintracht Delmenhorst split from the club to form the new Atlas Delmenhorst club, taking over Eintracht's league place. Atlas won promotion from the Kreisliga to the tier seven Bezirksliga in 2013–14, where it played for two seasons until a league championship took it up to the Landesliga. ^{[5] [1]} In the subsequent year the club won the Landesliga Weser-Ems, earning promotion to the Niedersachsen Oberliga.

In 2019, Delmenhorst won the Niedersachsenpokal, a local amateur cup tournament, and thus qualified for the 2019–20 DFB-Pokal. The club was knocked-out in the first round by Werder Bremen.

Honours

League Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen Runners-up: 1995 Verbandsliga Niedersachsen Champions: (3) 1976, 1984, 1986 Runners-up: (2) 1992, 1994 Bezirksliga Weser-Ems 2 Champions: 2016 Landesliga Weser-Ems Champions: 2017

Cup DFB-Pokal Last sixteen: 1980–81

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club: ^{[2] [5]}

Year	Division	Tier	Position
1994–95	Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen	IV	2nd ↑
1995–96	Regionalliga Nord	III	14th
1996–97	Regionalliga Nord		12th
1997–98	Regionalliga Nord		17th ↓
1998–99	Oberliga Niedersachsen/Bremen	IV	13th ↓
1999–2000	Niedersachsenliga West	V	6th
2000–01	Niedersachsenliga West		9th
2001–02	Niedersachsenliga West		19th
2002–2012	defunct
2012–13	Kreisklasse Oldenburg	IX	2nd ↑
2013–14	Kreisliga Oldenburg	VIII	2nd ↑
2014–15	Bezirksliga Weser-Ems 2	VII	2nd
2015–16	Bezirksliga Weser-Ems 2		1st ↑
2016–17	Landesliga Weser-Ems	VI	1st ↑
2017–18	Oberliga Niedersachsen	V	9th
2018–19	Oberliga Niedersachsen		10th
2019–20	Oberliga Niedersachsen		2nd ↑
2020–21	Regionalliga Nord – Süd	IV	11th
2021–22	Regionalliga Nord – Süd		8th

• With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 and the 3. Liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2. Bundesliga, all leagues below dropped one tier.

↑ Promoted

↓ Relegated

References

1. Geschichte Archived 3 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine (in German) Atlas Delmenhorst website – Club history, access: 2 February 2014
2. Historic German football league tables (in German) Das Deutsche Fussball Archiv, accessed: 2 February 2015
3. 1980–81 DFB-Pokal (in German) Weltfussball.de, accessed: 2 February 2015
4. Regionalliga Nord tables and results (in German) Weltfussball.de, accessed: 2 February 2015
5. Atlas Delmenhorst at Fussball.de (in German) accessed: 2 February 2015

External links

• Official website (in German)