Hannover 96

Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 , Hannover, HSV (although this may cause confusion with Hamburger SV) or simply 96, is a German association football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. Hannover 96 play in the Bundesliga, the top tier in the German football league system.

Hannover 96 was founded in 1896. Hannover have won two German championships and one DFB-Pokal. Hannover's stadium is the HDI-Arena. Hannover 96 has a big rivalry with VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Braunschweig.

Hannover 96 was founded on 12 April 1896 as Hannoverscher Fußball-Club 1896, upon the suggestion of Ferdinand-Wilhelm Fricke, founder of the Deutscher FV 1878 Hannover. Their initial enthusiasm was for athletics and rugby; football did not become their primary interest until 1899. Most of the membership of Germania 1902 Hannover became part of 96 in 1902, while others of the club formed Hannoverscher Ballspielverein. In 1913, they merged with Ballverein 1898 Hannovera (formed in the 1905 merger of Fußballverein Hannovera 1898 Hannover and Hannoverscher BV) to become Hannoverscher Sportverein 1896. Hannoverscher FC's colours were black-white-green, but they played in blue, while BV played in red. The newly united team kept black-white-green as the club colours, but they chose to take to the field in red, giving the team the nickname Die Roten (en: The Reds). The team's third jersey is in the club's official colours. The club made regular appearances in the national playoffs through the early 1900s, but were unable to progress past Eintracht Braunschweig, planting the seeds of a rivalry that has survived to this day. HSV continued to field strong sides and make national level appearances on into the 1920s. Under the Third Reich, German footba