Kickers Emden

The Ostfriesland-Stadion is built for people who stand. Of its 7,200 places for competitive matches, only about 400 are seats, all in the main stand; the ground could technically take 12,000. Kickers Emden have played there through promotions, a withdrawal from professional football and an insolvency.

The Deichkicker, the "Dyke Kickers", take the name from the sea embankments of East Frisia. The other nickname, the Ottifanten, nods to the comedian Otto Waalkes, who comes from the region. The club itself dates from 24 March 1946, when the football section of the Emder Turnverein, a gymnastics society founded in 1861, became a separate club in blue and white.

The peak came late. In 2008–09, the first season of the 3. Liga, Emden finished sixth. They then withdrew voluntarily for financial reasons and were relegated administratively. In 2012 the club filed for insolvency and dropped to the sixth-tier Landesliga Weser-Ems.

Earlier decades had produced a steadier list of trophies: the Verbandsliga Niedersachsen in 1989 and 1991, the Lower Saxony Cup in 1996 and 2000, and the Oberliga Nord in 1994 and 2005. Jörg Heinrich played here from 1990 to 1994 and then went to SC Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid. His years coincide with the club's first Oberliga Nord title.

The rebuilding took a dozen years. In 2023–24 Emden won the Oberliga Niedersachsen and returned to the Regionalliga Nord. There the fixtures against VfB Oldenburg, the regional rival, are once more billed as the derby.