Fußballclub Ingolstadt 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Ingolstadt 04 or FC Ingolstadt, is a German football club based in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The club was founded in 2004 out of the merger of the football sides of two other clubs: ESV Ingolstadt-Ringsee 1919 and MTV Ingolstadt 1881.
History
ESV Ingolstadt
ESV Ingolstadt (Eisenbahner-Sportverein Ingolstadt-Ringsee e.V.) was founded in 1919 as FC Viktoria. Two years later the football players of Turnverein 1861 Ingolstadt joined the club to form VfR Ingolstadt. A number of other clubs from the Ringsee district fused with this club, but to little effect. The club's achievement amounted to not more than a couple of seasons spent in the Gauliga Bayern in 1936–38. After World War II, the club was re-constituted as VfR Ingolstadt, changed its name to Erster Sportverein Ingolstadt (First Sports Club Ingolstadt) in 1951 and then changed it again to its current form in 1953 when "E" came to stand for Eisenbahner to reflect its affiliation with the railway.
ESV Ingolstadt joined the Regionalliga Süd (II) in 1963 when the Bundesliga – Germany's professional football league – was formed. After bouncing between tiers II and III, capped with two seasons spent in 2. Bundesliga Süd from 1979 to 1981, the club began a descent through tier III to Landesliga Bayern-Süd (IV), last playing in 1993–94. The sports club itself carried on until it went bankrupt in the summer of 2004 and those football players there were left to join FC Ingolstadt 04. ESV continues to operate today offering a number of other sports activities while acknowledging FC 04 on its website.
MTV Ingolstadt
MTV Ingolstadt (Männer-Turn-Verein von 1881 Ingolstadt) is the city's largest sportsclub with 3,400 members and has an on-and-off relationship with its football side. The club was founded in 1881 and took up football in 1905. The footballers set up a separate club in 1924, but returned to the fold in 1933 at the direction of sports authorities in the Third Reich. After World War II occupying Allied authorities ordered the dissolution of all organizations in Germany, including sporting associations. The club was re-founded as Städtischer SV Ingolstadt 1881. Their original name was restored in 1948.
MTV spent two seasons in 2. Bundesliga Süd after Amateurliga Bayern champion 1. FC Haßfurt declined promotion in 1978. When ESV faced bankruptcy in 2004, MTV allowed its footballers to leave to help form FC Ingolstadt.
Current Newly formed FC Ingolstadt began play in the Oberliga Bayern (IV) and managed to finish second in their first season In 2004–05. Their success continued in 2005–06 when they captured the divisional title and won promotion. They finished their debut Regionalliga Süd (III) campaign 2006–07 with a fifth-place result. League restructuring was planned for the 2008–09 season with the introduction of a national third division and FC would have to finish their 2007–08 Regionalliga season in the top 10 to qualify. They exceeded that goal by finishing second and advancing to the 2. Bundesliga.
Ingolstadt won its debut second division match, but the following months proved less successful for the club and by the mid-winter break they had dropped to 12th place. The latter half of the season proved even worse with the club only realizing 1 win in 18 matches. They finished the season in 17th place and were subsequently relegated to the 3. Liga.
FC delivered a steady performance in third division play and ended their campaign in third place. A new promotion/relegation format accompanied the introduction of the 3. Liga and the club's finish earned them a play-off versus Hansa Rostock which had finished in 16th (third last) place in the 2. Bundesliga. Ingolstadt won both legs of the two match play-off and returned to the second division alongside the top two third-tier teams which advanced automatically by virtue of their finishes.
On 17 May 2015, they clinched the 2014–15 2. Bundesliga title and won promotion for the first time in their history to the Bundesliga. Ingolstadt finished 11th in the 2015–16 Bundesliga, but the following year they fell to 17th and were relegated back to the 2. Bundesliga.
In the 2018–19 2. Bundesliga, Ingolstadt finished 16th and lost the relegation playoff against SV Wehen Wiesbaden on away goals.
In the 2019–20 3. Liga qualified for the promotion playoffs, but suffered more heartbreak, as a last second goal from Fabian Schleusener saw Ingolstadt lose to FC Nürnberg on away goals.
In the 2020–21 3. Liga, Ingolstadt were once again part of the relegation playoffs, and a 3–0 win over VfL Osnabrück in the first leg gave them the advantage heading into the second leg. Despite a 3–1 loss in the second leg, Ingolstadt won 4–3 on aggregate, and won promotion to the 2021–22 2. Bundesliga. The club were relegated back to the 3. Liga on the 31st matchday after a 2–2 draw against Karlsruhe.
In May 2024, the club announced that the previous U19 coach Sabrina Wittmann would coach the men's team until the end of the season. She was the first female head coach in German professional football.
Sporting development after the merger
Bavarian and regional league (2004–2008) The team aimed for promotion to the Regionalliga in its first season in the Bayernliga, but ended up in second place behind SpVgg Bayreuth, which delayed promotion by a year. After retaining the Regionalliga in 2006/07, FC Ingolstadt 04's objective for the second Regionalliga season in 2007/08 was to qualify for the new 3rd division and, if possible, even gain promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. During the winter break, coach Jürgen Press publicly confirmed for the first time that he was aiming for the second division, but the FCI management did not trust him to achieve this and suspended Press on 1 January 2008. Three days later, Thorsten Fink was introduced as the new coach. Under him, Ingolstadt was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga with a 2:0 victory over SpVgg Unterhaching on 31 May 2008.
First time at national level (2008–2015) After finishing the first half of the first Bundesliga season in twelfth place, but then going eleven games without a win in the second half of the season and slipping to a relegation spot, Thorsten Fink was suspended on 21 April 2009.On 5 April, the club had given him a job guarantee until the end of the season and supervisory board member Andreas Schleef said in an interview on 17 April that a change of coach no longer made sense at this point. Michael Wiesinger, who had previously coached the U23s, stepped in as interim head coach for a few days. Horst Köppel became the new head coach on 26 April, but the run of winless matches continued under him. Relegation was sealed on matchday 32 with a 1–0 home defeat against FC St. Pauli.
On 9 November 2009, Köppel was released after a home defeat against Wuppertal. Co-trainer Michael Wiesinger took over the training. At the end of the 2009/10 third division season, the team finished third and played in two relegation matches against Hansa Rostock. FCI won both games (1–0 at home, 2–0 in Rostock) and thus managed an immediate return to Bundesliga 2.
However, the start to the 2010/11 season was a clear failure. After eleven games, FC Ingolstadt finished bottom of the table with just four points. Following a 2:1 defeat against Energie Cottbus on matchday 11, coach Wiesinger and assistant coach Uwe Wolf were sacked. Benno Möhlmann was introduced as his successor on 7 November 2010, with Sven Kmetsch as his new assistant coach. Almost exactly one year later, the club parted ways with Möhlmann and his assistant coach. At this point, FC Ingolstadt was in 18th place in the table with just nine points from 14 games. Tomas Oral was presented as the new coach on 10 November. Together with him, Thomas Linke was introduced as the new sporting director.
After a mixed 2012/13 season overall, which ended in 13th place, Oral was dismissed on 28 May 2013. Marco Kurz, who had previously worked for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and had led 1. FC Kaiserslautern to the Bundesliga in 2010, was appointed as his successor for the 2013/14 season. However, after just nine match days and the seventh defeat – Ingolstadt was bottom of the table – the club parted company with Kurz on 30 September. On 4 October 2013, he hired Austrian Ralph Hasenhüttl as the new head coach, who led Ingolstadt to 10th place. The second division club extended Hasenhüttl's contract until 2016 and on 19 October 2014, the team won 1–0 at FSV Frankfurt. This was the 18th consecutive away match without defeat, a feat that no other club had achieved in the 40-year history of the Bundesliga 2.Ingolstadt remained unbeaten away from home until matchday 14, a run of 19 matches.
Starting the 2014/15 season as outsiders, they won the second division championship at the end of the season and were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time. On 11 July 2015, the club was awarded the Bavarian Sports Prize in the "Personal Prize of the Bavarian Minister President" category.
Bundesliga (2015–2017) In the first season, the team managed to stay in the league without being relegated for a single match day. The professional team set a record on 19 September 2015: With a 1:0 win at Werder Bremen and the preceding victories on 15 August 2015 at 1. FSV Mainz 05 and on 29 August 2015 at FC Augsburg, FC Ingolstadt 04 had become the first Bundesliga promoted team to win its first three away matches. After surprise victories at home against Schalke and Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Schanzer team ended up in eleventh place. During the summer break, coach Hasenhüttl moved to new league rivals RB Leipzig for a record fee. Markus Kauczinski was introduced as his successor. The start to the 2016/17 season did not go according to the expectations of those responsible and Kauczinski was dismissed after just two points from ten games. Maik Walpurgis was appointed as the new coach on 12 November. Despite an improved performance in the second half of the season, the team was unable to avoid relegation on match day 33 after a draw at SC Freiburg.
Bundesliga 2 and Bundesliga 3 (since 2017) The 2017/18 season began with a 1–0 home defeat against Union Berlin. After two further defeats against Sandhausen and Regensburg, Walpurgis was dismissed. His successor was former professional footballer Stefan Leitl, who had already spent the last six years of his playing career in the service of FC Ingolstadt 04. After working their way up to fourth place and coming within a few points of the top three, the Schanzers slipped back into mid-table at the end of the season. As a result, they only finally secured their place in the league with a 2–0 win at Eintracht Braunschweig on matchday 33. After victories against TSV 1860 München and SpVgg Greuther Fürth, the team reached the round of 16 in the DFB Cup for the second time in the club's history, but was eliminated against the outsiders SC Paderborn from the 3rd football league.