Fodbold Club Sydvest 05 Tønder (), or simply Sydvest 05, is a Danish football club based in Tønder Municipality. The club is a merger established in Southwestern Sønderjylland in 2005 between Løgum IF Fodbold, Bredebro IF, Ballum IF and Tønder SF Fodbold. Therefore, the club is an affiliation between the neighbouring towns of Ballum, Bredebro, Løgumkloster and Tønder, who also share, since 2012, an under-19 and under-17 team besides the first team. The senior side is based in Tønder and Løgumkloster, and play the vast majority of their home games at Tønder Stadion and Løgumkloster Stadion which can hold a total of 1,200 spectators. Archived
Upon the establishment of the club in 2005, the first team competed in Serie 2, the seventh tier division of Danish football, from which it promoted during the first year of existence. After four seasons in Serie 1, Sydvest 05 reached promotion to Jyllandsserien and after two seasons another promotion was achieved to the Denmark Series, the fourth division. In 2012, the club earned promotion to the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier division.
The Southwest Jutland collaboration is a member of the local football union, DBU Jutland (JBU) through which it has membership of the Danish Football Union (DBU). The teams of the local clubs involved in the merger continue to be organised by these, and compete in the lower divisions of Danish football.
History 2003–2004: Establishment In the summer of 2003 the initiative of gathering the best players in the Southwestern corner of Sønderjylland on one team was begun behind the scenes. Seven football clubs and local rivals, Ballum Idrætsforening (founded 1940), Bredebro Idrætsforening (founded 1920), Bylderup-Burkal Idrætsforening (founded 1966), Højer Idrætsforening, Løgum Idrætsforening, Skærbæk Boldklub (founded 1910; football department established on 3 March 1994 as an independent section under the same name) and Tønder Sportsforening Fodbold (founded 17 May 1920; football department as an independent section since 2003), convened at a preliminary meeting in early August 2003 in Bredebro. On the agenda in the meeting between representatives of the neighbourly clubs, Jørgen Kristensen (Ballum IF), Lars Bach Sørensen (Skærbæk BK), Flemming Søndergaard (Skærbæk BK), Ove Danielsen (Højer IF), Keld Hansen (Løgum IF), Jørgen Juul Pedersen (Bylderup-Burkal IF), Gunnar Jordt (Tønder SF) and Flemming Jordt (Bredebro IF), was a debate between the disappointing results on the pitch, their common struggles in the lower tiers of Danish football, and wishes from the players of competing at a higher level. The solution was to be a collaborative project between the regional clubs in reaching social and sportive success. Following the first meeting, Bylderup-Burkal IF withdrew from a potential collaboration whereas the remaining six clubs continued to draw up plans for a merger with the intention of letting each club surrender its best players to a common elite-team which would represent the parent clubs, FC Sydvest 05.
Following a determined effort to realise the project during the fall of 2003, a model for a future collaboration between the regional clubs was presented to their respective boards at a meeting in Løgumkloster in January 2004. Present at the meeting were 30 participants, who agreed to a month of considerment regarding their continued support for the process, as well as reflect on the option of involving youth teams in the merger, which had until that point only related to a senior side. After consulting their board and senior team, Skærbæk Boldklub and Højer Idrætsforening chose to withdraw from further participation, which representatives informed the other clubs at the next meeting in March 2004. The remaining four regional clubs, Ballum Idrætsforening, Bredebro Idrætsforening, Løgum Idrætsforening and Tønder Sportsforening Fodbold, however, agreed to continue to process of creating a new united cooperative. Expectations were that a larger workload would lie ahead, which led representatives from the four clubs to include four more club representatives, which meant that the voluntary collaboration committee included eight representatives, two each of the four clubs involved in the plans. Meanwhile, the representative from Løgum IF had decided to quit due to not having sufficient time to work voluntarily, which meant that a new collaboration committee was made up of Jørgen Kristensen and Orla Simonsen from Ballum IF, Ejvin Toft Nielsen and Flemming Jordt from Bredebro IF, Morten Gram and Morten Classen from Løgum IF as well as Gunnar Jordt and Torsten Vestergaard from Tønder SF.
Plans for merging the four regional clubs was announced at a press conference by the board of the four parent clubs involved in May 2004 under the name "FC Sydvest 05". The newly formed club in the Western parts of Southern Denmark would make its competitive debut as early as 2005 and begin with an integrated first team on senior level and a common youth team to play in the local divisions of Region 4 of the DBU Jutland, its Southwestern region (hence its name, "Sydvest" literally meaning "Southwest"). The name was chosen as the result of a naming competition, where the proposal from Hanne Clausen from Bredebro won. The reserve teams and second teams on senior level would remain part of the parent clubs, while Tønder SF's youth team was incorporated under the FC Sydvest 05 name, opening up the possibility for competing with more than one youth side. The overall objective for the first team was declared to be promotion in its second season, after which a period of stabilisation was expected before taking the next step up to the Jutland Series in 2007, the sixth highest level of Danish football. In the long run the merger was to compete at Denmark Series (fourth tier division) level and obtain status as the second club of Southern Denmark, only behind SønderjyskE Fodbold.
After the respective boards of Tønder SF, Bredebro IF, Løgum IF and Ballum IF had reached an agreement on the merger, the members of the collaboration committee made sure that all requirements for participation in DBU Jutland competitions were met before the holding of the extraordinary general assembly of the four parent clubs. A kickoff meeting with 40 participants from the four clubs was held prior to the general assemblies. On 5 August 2004, the final mandate to go ahead with the project was agreed upon by an overwhelming majority (90%) of the 150 voting attendees, who showed their support for a closer collaboration between the clubs. Contrary to Ballum IF, Bredebro IF and Løgum IF, there were some members of Tønder SF who had expressed their skepticism prior to the vote. However, among the 60 attendees present at the final decision in the clubhouse, only four voted against the merger, while 54 voted for the merger and two abstained.
At the end of 2004, Gunnar Jordt and Torsten Vestergaard withdrew from the collaboration committee and were replaced by Børge Nielsen as Tønder SF's representative. The common collaboration committee, which was chosen instead of having a genuine board, consisted of nine members with the aim of having at least two representatives of each parent club present. This makeup meant that discussions and compromises were made before taking decisions rather than voting. A chairman, a vice-chairman, a treasurer and a secretary were selected in the collaboration committee to form a head of staff. Flemming Jordt, who had acted as the main spokesperson of the committee, was since elected to become the first chairman of the collaboration committee in the new club in Southern Jutland. Assessment meetings have been held every six months involving the boards of the parent clubs, alternating between meeting rooms in the four respective cities.
2004–2005: License and squad-building The former professional footballer and club captain for Danish Superliga side Esbjerg fB, Jørgen Kristensen was announced as the first player of the merger club, as well as its first captain. Besides playing, he would also become part of the collaboration committee on behalf of Ballum IF, where he was elected vice-chairman. Otto Christensen from Bredebro was simultaneously presented as the first team head coach. Carsten Jørgensen and Torben Baun were appointed coaches for the new common under-19 team, which would play its inaugural season in the highest youth division of DBU Jutland.
As a result of the positive output of the extraordinary general assemblies, all parent clubs involved in the merger decided to support the Tønder SF Serie 3 (eighth tier) team in the latter half of the 2004 season, and encouraged their best players to strengthen the Tønder SF team which enabled a turnaround and catch up of the leading clubs in the division, and participation in the playoff games for promotion to Serie 2 (seventh tier). At the summer break Tønder SF was only seven points short from clinching a promotion spot and ten points from first place. Players who had decided to help the team included former SC Weiche Flensburg 08 players Jørgen Kristensen, Søren Gram and Jannick Clausen, as well as Søren Lund and Morten Gram, who had also formerly competed at higher levels but now played for Ballum IF and Løgum IF, respectively. Prior to the merger entering into force, the Tønder SF first team reached promotion to Serie 2 in the 2004 season by winning its Serie 3 poule, in which another of the parent clubs, Bredebro IF, also competed. First place and the subsequent promotion was secured in October 2004 at Løgumkloster Stadion in an 11–2 win over Broager UIF/Boldklub Frem Egernsund who had already suffered relegation from the division at that point. The win meant the second consecutive promotion for Tønder SF since the club's relegation to Serie 4 in the 2002 season. Thus, in FC Sydvest 05's inaugural season, the 2005 season, its first team would compete in the DBU Jutland Serie 2 after adopting Tønder SF's sporting license; the club competing at highest level of the parent clubs. Tønder SF formerly spent multiple seasons in the Denmark Series (fourth highest division) and with two second places in 1977 and 1978 they even came close to reaching promotion to the third tier, which was then known as the Danish 3rd Division (today known as 2nd Division due to the introduction of the Danish Superliga which replaced the former 1st Division in 1991).
Shortly after the end of the 2004 season, open workouts were held in Bredebro during a span of four days, where 45 players from the four parent clubs as well as other regional players had the opportunity to be selected for the first team, which was to represent FC Sydvest 05 starting January 2005. This foundation, consisting of 26 players, was reduced to 18–22 players right before the winter transfer window. The new first team squad met for its first training session under the FC Sydvest 05 name on 29 January 2005 at the grounds in Bredebro, whereafter they played their first pre-season friendlies in February. Every Sydvest 05 player was still attached to their respective parent club, and were expected to play competitive matches for these in case the player was not selected for the Sydvest 05 match. On the other hand, the first team players of the parent clubs were also readily available for selection for Sydvest 05, where they played competitively on a voluntary basis.