VfB Eichstätt
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Wikipedia - VfB Eichstätt
The VfB Eichstätt is a German association football club from the town of Eichstätt, Bavaria. From 2017 to 2023 it played in the Regionalliga Bayern, the fourth tier of the German football league system and the highest league in Bavaria, before being relegated to the fifth-level Bayernliga.
The club's greatest success came in 2019 when it was runners-up in the Regionalliga Bayern and the Bavarian amateur champion, which qualified the club for the DFB-Pokal.
History
VfB Eichstätt was formed on 1 August 1920 with an initial membership of 90 people.
For most of its history the club has been a non-descript amateur side in local Bavarian football. The club spent considerable time in the local A-Klasse, briefly moving up to the Bezirksliga above in the late 1970s. However, by 1991 VfB dropped to the lowest level of play in the region, the C-Klasse, and remained there for seven seasons. The club began to rise through the league system in the early 2000s, winning the tier seven Bezirksliga Oberbayern-Nord and earning promotion to the Bezirksoberliga Oberbayern in 2006. After two second-place finishes in 2007 and 2008 VfB won this league in 2009 and earned another promotion, now to the Landesliga Bayern-Süd.
In its first Landesliga season the club was a strong contender for another promotion but, after finishing first on equal points with SV Heimstetten, lost a championship decider and then also failed in the promotion round. The second year in the league proved much harder with VfB struggling against relegation and coming only 14th. The third year in the Landesliga, the final season of the Landesliga Süd before it was disbanded, the club came fourth.
The fourth place in the Landesliga in 2011–12 allowed VfB Eichstätt direct qualification for the Bayernliga, where it came ninth in its first year and fourth the season after. After a less successful 2014–15 season the club was moved to the northern division of the Bayernliga for the following one.
In 2016–17 VfB Eichstätt was champion of the northern division of the Bayernliga. Following that the club was promoted to Regionalliga Bayern. At the end of its first season in Regionalliga Bayern the club reached the seventh place. The following season, they were second behind Bayern Munich II, and qualified for the DFB-Pokal, in which they lost 5–1 in the first round to Hertha Berlin.