BFC fans throw Pyro onto the field: Oldenburg is back in professional football after 25 years

In 1992, VfB Oldenburg almost rose to the Bundesliga, after which the northern club temporarily faded into insignificance.

BFC fans throw Pyro onto the field: Oldenburg is back in professional football after 25 years

In 1992, VfB Oldenburg almost rose to the Bundesliga, after which the northern club temporarily faded into insignificance. In the coming season, however, VfB is again third-rate. Oldenburg wins the relegation against BFC Dynamo, the Berlin fans provoke a break in the game.

VfB Oldenburg has made its comeback in German professional football perfect after a quarter of a century. In the decisive relegation second leg against the Berliner Nordost winners BFC Dynamo, the champions of the Regionalliga Nord had to go 1:2 (1:1) for the last free third division place after VfB had won the first leg in the capital 2:0. Oldenburg was relegated from the 2nd Bundesliga in 1997 before the 3rd Bundesliga was introduced in 2008 as the lowest professional league in Germany.

In Oldenburg, the lead of the hosts by Max Wegner eleven minutes before the break after the win in the first leg a week ago meant the preliminary decision. Dynamo equalized before the change of sides through Niklas Brandt (45'), but despite the winning goal through an Oldenburg own goal (90' 6) they were unable to force the hoped-for extra time or even turnaround in the second half.

The Berlin top scorer Christian Beck could have made the promotion question exciting again earlier. But the 34-year-old hit the post in the 56th minute and the crossbar in the 57th minute. In addition, VfB defender Marcel Appiah saved after a Beck header on the goal line (67th). The record champions of the former GDR must therefore continue to wait for their return to the third division 22 years after their relegation.

The game had to be briefly interrupted in the second half because a large police force marched in front of the Berlin fan block. Some of the 1,300 supporters who had traveled with them had repeatedly thrown pyrotechnics onto the pitch. The BFC had actually gone into these two promotion games as favorites because they had previously left ambitious clubs such as Carl Zeiss Jena, Energie Cottbus and Chemnitzer FC behind in the Regionalliga Nordost.

With Oldenburg's promotion, the third division field of participants for the coming season is complete. Before the North Germans, ex-champion Rot-Weiss Essen (champion Regionalliga West) as well as SV Elversberg (Südwest) and SpVgg Bayreuth (Bavaria) had already been promoted to the lowest professional league in German football. The quartet takes the places of Viktoria Berlin, Würzburger Kickers, TSV Havelse and Türkgücü Munich.

The Oldenburgs played in the 2nd Bundesliga from 1990 to 1993 and in the 1996/97 season and narrowly missed promotion to the Bundesliga in 1992. After that, the Lower Saxony temporarily fell down to the fifth class. Since the club is now returning to professional football after 25 years, there will also be derbies against VfL Osnabrück and SV Meppen again in the coming season.