Eintracht Braunschweig: the anti-yoyo club that refuse to go down
The term ‘yoyo club’ describes a team that often gets promoted to the big time, but usually due to economic constraints goes down every time. It creates a cycle of achievement followed by disappointment which can be quite confusing and frustrating for the fans of that team. It makes the ambitions of a club somewhat murky, and any success is often shadowed by the fear of the reversal of it the very next season.
But we must consider that to be in this position is a privilege for the fans and for the clubs themselves. It means they are doing something right, and eventually with enough chances they may well achieve survival in the topflight, with a base to build upon. Many English people seem to think this is a purely English football pyramid phenomenon, but it is very common throughout Europe.
The first example that comes to mind is in Serie A: take Empoli, who from 2016 to 2021 either got relegated or promoted 4 times before finally maintaining a steady stay until 2025. Or Frosinone who just got promoted this year, having been up and down 7 times in the last decade. In France, Metz may just take the ultimate crown though, in which it is easier to count the seasons in which they haven’t gone up or down in the last 25 years. In this millennium alone, Metz fans have celebrated 8 promotions, and endured 9 relegations, including another one this year.
Examples like this led us to question if this style of extremes is both sustainable and enjoying for fans. Football is built on stability after all, and when you look at examples like Norwich, who are the historical kings of the art of the yoyo, and how they have fared in recent years, it is understandable that maybe a fan might prefer being worse off in the short term before making a push for promotion.
And here is where we draw our attention to the topic of discussion today. I bring to you Eintracht Braunschweig, from a town of just over 250,000 and just underneath the much larger Hanover. As you can imagine both The Lions (Die Löwen) and Hannover 96 are fierce rivals, and whilst the latter club can boast a much large fan base and stadium, the Lower Saxon clubs have relatively similarly large trophy cabinets. In fact, Braunschweig have even won the Bundesliga more recently, having been crowned champions in 1967, with Hannover having won it most recently in 1954.
Eintracht Braunschweig fans protesting against away fan allocations: ‘No half measures - full guest account quota!’
The Lions used to be a Bundesliga main stay until their relegation in 1985 that marked an era of immense struggles, including multiple seasons languishing in the 3rd division in the 90s. In fact, it took nearly a decade to return to the Bundesliga 2 in 2003, but they were relegated the next season. Braunschweig became a prominent yoyo club during the 2000s, dropping in and out of the 2nd and 3rd divisions several times between 2003 and 2013. In the 2012/13 season the club achieved their best feat in the club’s modern history by finding themselves back in the Bundesliga.
Significant this was the first time that Braunschweig and Hannover found themselves in the same division since they both dropped into the 3rd tier during the late 90s, in which the clubs both competed for the title, and in which Hannover unforgettably pipped them to. In some ways that season defined what would be polarising histories, as Hannover became Bundesliga mainstays for most of the last 2 decades. In their one season in the Bundesliga, Braunschweig went down, finishing dead last, but not without beating Hannover 3-0 at home, whilst also running a pig with 96 (for Hannover 96) painted on it through their rival’s town centre before the reverse fixture. Since then, meetings between the 2 clubs have been sparce because of Braunschweig’s instabilities on and off the field, where they have been no strangers to the 3rd tier.
The pig that Eintracht Braunschweig fans let loose onto the Hannover town centre
Since the 2022/23 season both clubs have maintained 2nd tier status, which is where we get into why The Lions are changing their script. Trading the yoyo lifestyle for consistency has been a key feature of the club since their promotion. In the last 4 seasons, Braunschweig have finished 15th, 15th, and 16th, narrowly escaping relegation for 3 successive seasons, including last season where they needed a 120th minute goal to beat Saarbrucken over 2 legs in the relegation/promotion playoffs. And the story is predictably the same this year, with Braunschweig sitting just a point above Armienia Bielefeld in the playoffs and 3 points clear of direct relegation.
The club have had a poor run in, with just 4 wins since the turn of the year, including 2 that came in the last 3 games. There is just one game left of the season, and so direct relegation looks unlikely, but they face already championed Schalke away on the final day. This could be a saving grace, as Schalke have nothing to play for and their players were seen getting drunk on a boat last week, meaning they are quite literally already on the beach. Bielefeld play Hertha Berlin at home and Fortuna Dusseldorf will travel to Greuther Furth, who are all but relegated already. Greuther Furth are 2 points adrift and will need to win, whilst also relying on Bielefeld to lose in order to leapfrog them. The positive situation for Braunschweig is that they need just a point to stay up, but for the sake of this article and the sake of consistency I would love them to drop down a place into 15th, staying up for a 4th successive season by the skin of their teeth.
They beat Dynamo Dresden on the last match day, with only Dusseldorf also winning around them, so the team has ensured themselves to be in a really strong position to stay in the same division for 4 successive seasons for the first time since the early 2000s. Even though for the fans, this has been a very stressful period, it’s weirdly been their most stable period for 2 decades, and so perhaps if they can see it through on Sunday, it could be the turning point for change for The Lions.
But, of course with optimism comes caution and to add to a potential relegation still to follow is the fact that Hannover could also still go up on the other side of the table. Their fate too will be decided on the final day, and it is insanely close. There are 3 clubs, Elversberg, Hannover and Paderborn all sit on 59 points only divided by their superior goal differences on the other.
It is worth noting that Elversberg are surely the real story of the season in the Bundesliga 2 this season, as if they do win on Sunday, they will surely be the smallest club to ever win promotion to the top tier of Germany. The town they hail from, Spiesen-Elversberg, is a town of just 13,000, and a stadium capacity of only 10,000, sitting right beside the French border and so for the neutral, and indeed for all Eintracht Braunschweig fans, it would be incredible to see them go up.
And they only need a home win to bottom of the table Preussen Munster, whilst Hannover host 9-time Bundesliga champions Nurnberg. There is so much drama still to be had at both ends of the Bundesliga 2, with so much that could change in the Lower Saxon region of Germany, but for now we must wait and see how the dynamics change.
Eintracht Braunschweig are not a successful club, but they are a club that know how to survive, and surely this experience will help to keep them around for another season. See you Sunday.
