Wuppertaler SV

In 1974–75, Wuppertaler SV finished their last Bundesliga season bottom of the table with 12 points, the second-worst return the league has recorded. The Lions had won the Regionalliga West in 1972, went up, and finished fourth in 1972–73, which took them into the 1973–74 UEFA Cup.

The man behind the promotion was Günter Pröpper, known as "Meister". He scored 52 goals in 1971–72, a second-division record. Horst Szymaniak won 20 caps for Germany while at the club, but it was Pröpper's season that carried WSV up.

The club itself is younger than its roots. It was formed on 8 July 1954 when TSG Vohwinkel and SSV Wuppertal merged, and the colours came from the two: red from Vohwinkel, blue from SSV.

WSV have mostly played in the regional leagues. They won the Oberliga Nordrhein four times between 1990 and 2003 and the Niederrheinpokal seven times, most recently in 2021. Rot-Weiss Essen are the rivals here, and the fixture is billed as a Traditionsduell.

In 2004 the club merged with Borussia Wuppertal and added "Borussia" to its name. The suffix was dropped in 2013. That was also the year of bankruptcy and relegation to the fifth division. WSV won the Oberliga Niederrhein in 2016 and have since worked their way back to the Regionalliga West.

When Bayern Munich came in the 2007–08 DFB-Pokal, the Stadion am Zoo could not hold the crowd. Only 6,500 of its 23,067 places are seats, so the tie was moved to the Veltins-Arena. The drop from Bundesliga to fifth tier took 38 years, from 1975 to 2013.