SC Charlottenburg Berlin (Germany)

Now here's a club with a long and distinguished history who are currently languishing in the lower tiers of German football. At one time SCC Berlin fought their way up as high as the second division, averaging gates of around 4000, but now they sadly ply their trade in the sixth tier, and are having a good day if their crowd numbers break into triple figures. But that is a shame, because there's a lot more to them than that.

You might think that it's been a long and lonely life for the club as they formed as long ago as 1902 as Charlottenburger Sport-Club 1902. In the early days they played in a slightly eye-melting mix up of yellow and blue, but changed to the black and white stipes when they merged with Sport-Club Westen 05 in 1911, finally changing their name to the one we know today in 1927. They played most of their early years in the Berlin city leagues - which in most other countries would be a lowly existance, but those in Germany are among the most hotly contested in European football. Their true glory days though were in the 1980s, where a sudden spectacular rise up the ranks saw them work their way up the regional leagues to attain that magical play in 2. Bundesliga in the 1983/84 season.

Sadly this was as good as it got, and they went straight back down again - although they did narrowly miss out on promotion back up in 1986, when they were beaten in a play-off tournament by the more famous names of FC St Pauli and Rot-Weiß Essen. A couple of years of poor results saw them float gradually down the pyramid to the Verbandsliga Berlin, where they still play today.

They rattle around in the relatively massive multi-sports Mommsenstadion, an 11,500 capacity ground in the shadow of the Olympic Stadium. Indeed, on match days, the slightly disheartening cheers of the Hertha fans can be heard drowning out the support of their loyal few dozen.

All photos © lays with the owners
Videos from YouTube. Underlying © lays with the owners of the clips.