Thinking of that Everton friendly reminded me of this back in the 70s

Mainz in Germany thought they were playing Wolves, who were one of the better First Division teams of the time, while Oxbarn FC, in the 7th division of the Wolverhampton Sunday League hadn't realised they were playing what were one of the top teams in Germany.....

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...istaken-240429

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Mainz in Germany thought they were playing Wolves, who were one of the better First Division teams of the time, while Oxbarn FC, in the 7th division of the Wolverhampton Sunday League hadn't realised they were playing what were one of the top teams in Germany.....

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...istaken-240429

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Lol, nice one Eric, going to paste article on my group, will of course give you the credit. I for one was not aware of this!

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Originally Posted by emjayblue

Lol, nice one Eric, going to paste article on my group, will of course give you the credit. I for one was not aware of this!

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Great article, Eric should write more.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Mainz in Germany thought they were playing Wolves, who were one of the better First Division teams of the time, while Oxbarn FC, in the 7th division of the Wolverhampton Sunday League hadn't realised they were playing what were one of the top teams in Germany.....

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/new...istaken-240429

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I remember that!
The German side did some pre-match routine, then looked expectantly at the Brits, the captain shouted a ine from a popular fruit juice ad at the time -
"The man from Del Monte - he says YES!"
"YEEESSSS!" went the rest of the team.
Funny as feck.

Mainz have only recently made it to the top division :sherlock:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ance_Chart.png

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

Great article, Eric should write more.

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:hehe::hehe:

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

Mainz have only recently made it to the top division :sherlock:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ance_Chart.png

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Interesting. They played in the top flight until the founding of the new professional league, the Bundesliga, in 1963 and would go on to play as a second division side. My original source for the information made the claim about Mainz, never thought of a reason to question it. It could be argued that they were a relatively large club in Germany until a decade before the friendly. If that graph is correct, they must have been a reason why they weren't a Bundesliga side in 1972/3.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Interesting. They played in the top flight until the founding of the new professional league, the Bundesliga, in 1963 and would go on to play as a second division side. My original source for the information made the claim about Mainz, never thought of a reason to question it. It could be argued that they were a relatively large club in Germany until a decade before the friendly. If that graph is correct, they must have been a reason why they weren't a Bundesliga side in 1972/3.

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They were a Southwest regional team until 1974 when there was a restructuring of German football, they then lasted two seasons in Bundesliga 2 before crashing into the Amateur league due to financial problems in 1976. They later restablished their professional status before the long climb to the top division.

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

They were a Southwest regional team until 1974 when there was a restructuring of German football, they then lasted two seasons in Bundesliga 2 before crashing into the Amateur league due to financial problems in 1976. They later restablished their professional status before the long climb to the top division.

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The southwest regional division was the second tier of German football from 1963 - there were 5 different districts, with some sort of playoff system at the end of each season to find 2 teams to promote. Mainz won the division in 1973 but missed out on returning to the top flight, where they had been until 1963. I still tend to agree that they were a pretty decent name in German football at the time.

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

The southwest regional division was the second tier of German football from 1963 - there were 5 different districts, with some sort of playoff system at the end of each season to find 2 teams to promote. Mainz won the division in 1973 but missed out on returning to the top flight, where they had been until 1963. I still tend to agree that they were a pretty decent name in German football at the time.

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The Oberliga Südwest was the highest level of the German football league system in the southwest of Germany from 1945 until 1963. It covered the two states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

I've learnt more about the German league in the last hour than in my entire life :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

Mainz have only recently made it to the top division :sherlock:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ance_Chart.png

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They didn't play FSV Mainz, they played SVW Mainz

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Originally Posted by City123

They didn't play FSV Mainz, they played SVW Mainz

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So Mainz had two teams? The plot thickens ...

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

The Oberliga Südwest was the highest level of the German football league system in the southwest of Germany from 1945 until 1963. It covered the two states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

I've learnt more about the German league in the last hour than in my entire life :biggrin:

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Same here. Quite interesting, really.

SVW Weisenau-Mainz spent 4 seasons in the top flight (as it was pre-1963), FSV Mainz were ever-present. In 1967, SVW missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga, while 2 seasons later, both SVW and FSV were involved in a relegation battle. According to a translation of Wikipedia, FSV requested a merger with SVW, which was declined. FSV had the last laugh by surviving, while SVW dropped into the third tier, the amateur league (if you can call it that with 5 divisions comprising the second tier), where they would have been when they played Oxbarn.

Curiously, every online article I can find on the match calls Mainz a top division team....

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

Same here. Quite interesting, really.

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Some more info ..

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV_Weisenau

You can find the history of SVW Mainz in here - http://www.svw-mainz.de

"Für Furore sorgte zu Saisonbeginn 1973/74 ein Privatspiel gegen ein Team aus England, welches aus
Wolverhampton nach Weisenau kam. Die Mainzer gewannen mit sage und schreibe 20:0 Toren, was
besonders bei einer bekannten englischen Tagespresse (DAILY MAIL) für Aufsehen sorgte und einen
ausführlichen Bericht zur Folge hatte. Die Redakteure nahmen nämlich an, es handelte sich bei dem
Debakel in Weisenau um die englische Profi-Mannschaft von Wolverhampton Wanderers, was sich
aber bald als eine Ente entpuppte. Nicht die Profis waren in Mainz angetreten, sondern eine Amateur-
auswahl von Oxbarn Wolverhampton, wonach sich die englische Presse wieder beruhigte, aber an
dem Ergebnis und den Toren trotzdem nichts ändern konnte. Die laufende Saison dagegen verlief
keineswegs furios, was Erfolge anging. Es trat ein, wovon in Weisenau niemand zu träumen wagte:
Die Mannschaft stieg aus der obersten Amateurklasse ab."

No "Adolf"?

https://s22.postimg.cc/uiz7nwi9d/Scr...716-132850.png

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

No "Adolf"?

https://s22.postimg.cc/uiz7nwi9d/Scr...716-132850.png

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I can't see a single mann schaft in that photo, thankfully!