The traditional soccer team could descend for the first time and would no longer be the only one to participate in all the German first division seasons

Hamburg SV is one of Germany's historic and traditional clubs, not only because it was founded more than 98 years ago, but for having won six First Division championships, three German Cups, two League Cups, one Cup Winners' Cup Europe, two Intertoto Cups, and the most important title in its history: a European Cup, currently known as the UEFA Champions League

Leer en español: El dinosaurio alemán está en peligro de extinsión

However, the greatest pride of the institution is to be the only club to have played each and every one of the first division seasons of German soccer. For this reason, the club has a clock in the northwest corner of its stadium, the Volksparkstadion, which marks the entire time the team has been in the first division. Therefore, the clock has registered since the founding of the Bundesliga on August 24, 1963 until today. The clock currently marks more than 54 years of permanence, but at the end of this season, that is, the weekend of May 12, the clock count could reach its end.

Years of crisis

Hamburg, nicknamed "The Dinosaur" for having the longest history of German football, not only has years of experience in the first division, it has also been years of institutional and sports crisis. The club won the last league of its history in the 1982-83 season and in the decade of the 90 suffered great financial crisis that knew how to solve with the sale of some of its greatest star players. From then on, the team has only managed to occupy modest positions in the standings.

The second decade of the 21st century has been the most resounding for Hamburg. In the 2011-12 season, the team finished in the fifteenth position saving itself for just 5 points to play a promotion phase. However, the squad could not avoid this phase in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons after finishing in the sixteenth position. These promotional games, played respectively against Greuther Fürth and Karlsruher SC of the second division, allowed the permanence with a goal as visitor in 2014 and with a goal in overtime in 2015.

Last season 2016-17, Hamburg managed to save itself from playing the promotion phase again by scoring a goal in the final minutes of the match on the last day, which allowed it to be one point above Wolfsburg. This last team was sentenced to play the repechage on that occasion.

The fate of Hamburg seems to have come to an end, because the current season is the worst of its history: march in the seventeenth position after 26 days. The team has only achieved four wins and with 18 points needs seven to reach the team holding the sixteenth place. If it manages to reach this position, it can aspire to play the promotion phase. The long crisis seems to have reached its highest point.

The fans suffer with the possibility of losing the great honor

On March 10, 2018, after losing dishonorably against Bayern Munich by six goals to zero, Hamburg fans hung 11 crosses on the club's training ground with a banner saying: Its time has come! They cannot escape! "The creepy threat is due to the club's horrible present and the great possibility of descending, which would mean losing the great honor of being the only club to have played each and every one of the German football's first division seasons.

However, it is not the first time that the Hamburg fans show up with terrifying threats. On February 17, 2018, in a home match against Bayer Leverkusen some fans hung a banner with the following sentence: "Before the clock goes off we will chase them in the city". The club reinforced security in its stadium and it started investigations, however, members of Hamburg know that the club's current situation is really bad. "We are not competitive in various parts of the club, I believe that continuity is the wrong strategy, everything must be put to the test", admitted Bernd Hoffmann, president of the HSV, company in charge of Hamburg SV

Hamburg does not win a game since November 26, 2017, its performance is miserable and the catastrophe seems to be the future of the club. The great label of the club, which has left so much honor in the institution, seems to have an expiration date. The clock in the stadium of Hamburg seems to stop at the end of the season and another case of a big drop could happen in the history of soccer.

LatinAmerican Post | Javier Aldana
Translated from “ El dinosaurio alemán está en peligro de extinsión”