SfB-Oure FA () is a Danish professional association football club based in the town of Svendborg, that competes in Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football league system. Founded in 2018 as an elite superstructure of Svendborg fB and Oure FA, it is affiliated to DBU Funen. The team plays its home matches at Høje Bøge Stadium where it has been based since its foundation.
The club has roots dating back to 1900 where the cricket club "Phoenix", which would since become Svendborg fB, was founded, while the first professional superstructure in the South Funen region was established in 2008 with FC Svendborg. In 2017, the professional department of SfB known as FC Svendborg was declared bankrupt. Six months later, however, an elite structure was established between Svendborg fB and Oure FA, the football department of Skolerne i Oure which is the largest boarding school environment in Denmark. The new club, named SfB-Oure FA took over the licence of Oure FA and was therefore placed in the Denmark Series, the fourth tier of Danish football. They reached promotion to the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier, in June 2020.
History Svendborg fB's ups and downs (1900–2004) Founded on 25 January 2018, SfB-Oure FA is the superstructure of Oure Fodbold Akademi, a football academy which is part of Skolerne i Oure, the largest boarding school environment in Denmark, and Svendborg fB, which has a long-standing history as an association football club in the Danish football league system.
The main parent club of this merger, Svendborg fB has a history dating back to the dawn of the 20th century. In the spring of 1900, a group of young men decided to establish a cricket club, "Phoenix", which in 1901 was renamed "Union", its founding date set to 2 April 1901 to commemorate the centennial of the Battle of Copenhagen of 1801. Following the formation of the club, the side started to play association football as one of the first clubs in Svendborg, which gradually suppressed the interest in cricket. The Svendborg club joined DBU Funen (FBU) in 1906, two years after the foundation of the local football federation, which officially made football a part of the club. Their first match under the FBU, in which they wore a kit consisting of black shorts and red and white striped jerseys and had their home ground at Nyborgvej Stadium, resulted in a 5– 0 win over North Funen side Start Otterup from Otterup. In the summer of 1915, the club changed its name to Svendborg Boldklub (SB). By winning the local rounds organised by the local football federation, the Svendborg-based club managed to qualify as FBU's only representative to participate in the 1925–26 season of the Denmark Tournament, a Danish FA-organised club football tournament between the championship clubs from each of the six regional football associations. Here, Svendborg Boldklub only made one appearance, on 30 May 1926, a match which was played in Vejle during the second round of the tournament DBU Jutland (JBU)'s representative Horsens fS, which they lost 3–1.
In 1954, another Svendborg-side was founded, Kammeraternes Boldklub (KB), who became a direct competitor to Svendborg Boldklub, a rivalry emanating from the clubs' table tennis departments. KB was formed through a merger between the sports clubs Fremad (Est. 1938) and Frem (Est. 1926 as Arbejdernes Boldklub (AB), name change to Frem in 1932), and had its home ground at Skovsbovej Stadium. Svendborg Boldklub had for years been close to reaching promotion to the 3rd Division (then Denmark's third highest tier) via its predecessor Kvalifikationsturneringen (Qualification Tournament; popularly called the "4th Division", today known as the Denmark Series). Meanwhile, Kammeraternes Boldklub only competed in the regional divisions, the Funen Series at the fifth highest tier. Between 1961 and 1962, the "bourgeoisie" club Svendborg Boldklub and the so-called working-class side Kammeraternes Boldklub merged and continued under the new name, Svendborg forenede Boldklubber (Svendborg fB or SfB), keeping Svendborg Boldklub's original founding date. In 1970, the new sports facility, Høge Bøge Stadium, was made the club's new official home ground.
Three years after uniting with the local rivals, the merger club managed to qualify for the Danish divisions for the first time in Svendborg fB's history by securing promotion to the Danish 3rd Division ahead of the 1964 season. Divisional status was lost after relegating to the newly created Denmark Series, the fourth tier, which was the tier below the three divisions, where the club played in the 1967, 1968 and 1970 seasons. In 1969, Richard Møller Nielsen was appointed head coach for Svendborg fB. Under him, the side claimed the Danish 3rd Division West championship and reached promotion to the Danish 2nd Division in the 1972 season, the first time appearance at this level in club history. Møller Nielsen would later coach the Denmark national team to victory at the 1992 European Championship. From the 1971 season until the 2002–03 season the club had an uninterrupted run in the Danish divisions, with, among others, striker John Eriksen (1975–1977, 1991–1993). Led by head coach Viggo Jensen (1982–1987), the club experienced its third-best season in the 1986 Danish 2nd Division. At the onset of this stretch the club's spectator record also occurred, with over 8,000 spectators present at Høje Bøge Stadium on 9 November 1975 – the end of the 1975 Danish 2nd Division – where the club faced eventual promotee and regional rivals Odense Boldklub (OB). Svendborg fB never managed to participate in the highest tier of Danish football, but played in the second tier for 15 seasons the third tier for 26 seasons. Svendborg fB reached the greatest achievement its league history in the 1996–97 season, finishing third, only six points from promotion to the Danish Superliga. In a direct match for promotion at Høje Bøge Stadium against eventual promotees, Aarhus Fremad, on 9 June 1997, the Funen club lost 1–3.
After suffering relegation from the third tier following the 2002–03 season, another successive relegation saw Svendborg fB compete in the fifth tier, the former Kvalifikationsrækken, in the autumn season 2004 as a result of a last place finish in the 2003–04 Denmark Series. To make matters worse the club faced financial issues after the relegations, effectively ending their venture into professional football which saw most players leave. However, the finances and equity of SfB Prof ApS, the professional division of Svendborg fB, were normalised at an extraordinary general meeting on 26 November 2004 through a capital injection from the club's amateur division, retaining the majority shareholding, and businesses in south Funen, which meant that Svendborg fB would once again be eligible to receive a license from the Danish Football Union to conduct professional football in the event of a promotion to the Danish divisions. The club eventually won their group in the fifth division during the spring of 2005, and immediately returned to the Denmark Series. In their first season back in the fourth tier, Svendborg ended fifth in the table after having competed for promotion throughout most of the season under head coaching duo Ole Pedersen and player-coach Graham Easter. After a five-year absence from the divisions, the team managed to reach promotion to the third tier again in the 2007– 08 season, ending in second place of Group 1 of the Denmark Series.
Cup history
In the Danish Cup, "the whites from South Funen" managed to advance to two quarterfinals: in the 1976–77 season, where they were knocked out of the tournament by recently promoted second tier club Vanløse IF after a 3–0 away defeat; and in the 1989–90 season, where they lost 0–3 at Høje Bøge Stadium to Vejle Boldklub from the highest tier. Kammeraternes Boldklub never became a regular participant in the Danish Cup unlike Svendborg Boldklub, who in the early years of the tournament reached the main rounds through qualification in the regional rounds under DBU Funen.In the first round of the 1958–59 Danish Cup, a match was played between Kammeraterne and Aalborg Chang (who won the away match 1–7). It is, however, unknown whether this was the parent club of Svendborg fB, Boldklubben Vejle Kammeraterne, Frederiksberg Kammeraternes IF (now part of FA 2000), the Boldklubben Standard Kammeraterne (now part of the Kløvermarkens fB) or a completely different football club. Source: Svendborg Boldklub's first match in the cup was played in the fall of 1954 and ended in a 1–2 away defeat to the then lower division side Viborg FF. Kim Hansen, with his 378 official appearances during the 1970s and 1980s in the first team, is the record-holder of appearances for Svendborg fB.
First attempts of a South Funen merger (2004–2008) When it became a fact that the Danish 2nd Division team from Svendborg could not avoid relegation from the Danish divisions in the 2002–03 season, local media and members of the parent club began suggesting the option of establishing a closer cooperation on a professional level with the surrounding association football clubs of Svendborg and South Funen in general. These plans had already been voiced before the 2002–03 season, and were meant to provide an opportunity to attract better sponsorship deals from local businesses. The executive board of Svendborg fB eventually met the board of its professional department on 14 May 2008 with the initial idea of a possible joint South Funen professional elite team on their agenda. The idea of a common merger of elite teams – rather than a partial or complete merger of clubs in South Funen – were at a very early stage prior to the meeting, and a committee was formed in order to continue working on the idea. The committee was assigned to, amongst others, contact representatives from smaller clubs in the area: Thurø Boldklub af 1920 and Tved Boldklub in Svendborg Municipality, who had their first teams in lower-tier regional divisions, to investigate possibilities for a large scale superstructure. However, further plans for cooperation did not come to fruition during the following months, as the regional clubs had not shown interest in the establishment of a merger project.
From SfB to FC Svendborg (2008) As Svendborg fB reached promotion from the Denmark Series back into the Danish 2nd Division in the 2008–09 season, a number of organisational changes decided by the executive board were implemented aimed at meeting new challenges associated with returning to the divisions. To successfully reintroduce professional football in Svendborg fB for the first time since their relegation from the third tier in the 2002–03 season, club management had planned a financial goal of raising DKK 3 million in sponsor revenue as well as expanding the staff handling sponsorship deals in the professional department of Svendborg fB ahead of the following season. In order to cover salaries of the players in the first team, an external sponsorship manager, a physical therapist joining the team for home and away matches, and a coaching staff for the senior team, under-19s and under-17s, respectively, were added to the staff.