History
The club has its origins at the SG Praunheim. At Praunheim a women's football department was established in 1973. The club had no showings at national championship or cup tournaments, but managed qualification for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1990 nonetheless. In the early 1990s Praunheim achieved mid-table results with a tendency for slight improvements from season to season.
The foundation for the club's later success was laid in the 1993–94 season when former captain Monika Staab as coach and head of the women's football division and Siegfried Dietrich as manager and investor developed a professional concept to lead the club to lasting success — the first such concept in German women's football as FFC Frankfurt claims. Thus Frankfurt qualified for the playoffs for the German football championship for the first time in 1995–96, losing the final 0–1 to TSV Siegen. In the following seasons FFC Frankfurt managed to stay amongst the top clubs in German football, but won no titles. Also during that time they were always put behind by local rival FSV Frankfurt.
On 1 January 1999 the women's department left Praunheim to form 1. FFC Frankfurt. The club had success immediately winning the cup and the championship in their first season. In 1999–2000 Frankfurt won their second cup, but lost the championship to FCR Duisburg which in the previous season had finished second only to Frankfurt in both competitions. From 2000 to 2003 Frankfurt won three consecutive doubles while also rising to the pinnacle of European football with a victory in the UEFA Women's Cup's inaugury season in 2002. During these years a club from Potsdam had begun to challenge the supremacy of FFC Frankfurt. Thus in 2003–04 Turbine Potsdam won a double of their own, leaving Frankfurt without a title after winning ten titles in five years.
In the following seasons both clubs retained their dominance in German football, but European success was elusive as Umeå IK from Sweden won two consecutive titles in the UEFA Cup, also brushing away FFC Frankfurt 8–0 on aggregate in the 2004 final. After Turbine had won its own UEFA Cup title in 2005 both clubs met in the final of the UEFA Cup. Thanks to a 4–0 victory at Potsdam in the first leg Frankfurt was able to claim their second European title. The final was attended by a record crowd of 13,100 and even German chancellor Angela Merkel was amongst the spectators.
Having conceded the preceding three cup finals to Potsdam Frankfurt won another double in 2006–07, but lost in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup to Norwegian Kolbotn. Frankfurt won their second treble in the 2007–08, thus becoming the first and as yet only club to win the UEFA Cup three times. The second leg of the final against Umeå was attended by 27,640, a new record attendance for a women's club football game in Europe.
Frankfurt's performance dropped considerably in the 2008–09 season. A fourth place finish in the league was the club's worst performance since a uniform Bundesliga was put into place. Also Frankfurt did not reach the cup final for the first time since 1998, losing in the second round to Bayern Munich, thus marking their worst cup performance since 1991–92. In the UEFA Cup Frankfurt was eliminated by FCR 2001 Duisburg in the quarter-finals.
Read more about this topic: 1. FFC Frankfurt
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