What does VfB mean?
Especially in the world of football you come across many club abbreviations, but it is often not clear what they actually mean. If you think of football you might think VfB means club for ball sports, and you are not always right here. Because often conclusions can be drawn about the history of the club from the club abbreviations.
What Vfb means and why the name is so chosen
As mentioned above, Vfb is often not called an association for ball sports, but rather an association for exercise games (sometimes also an association for disabled sports). This is due to the history of sport in Germany.
- Sport, as it is known today, has only developed since the middle of the 19th century. Century spread around the world. Often not until the beginning of the 20th Century or later. Before, there were usually only games or Movement games.
- The idea of competition only emerged with industrialization. Economic competition began to be reflected in the games and many new sports emerged. At the Football (and also in other new sports) the focus was not on competition or fun. Rather, certain values should be taught and lived, e.g. B. Team and fair play or the dignified winning and losing.
- In addition, the new knowledge that exercise is good for health played a major role. In Germany, the health aspect was lived through the gymnastics movement by gymnastics father Jahn. Football, for example, was frowned upon or even forbidden in large parts because it was used by the enemy or Competitor England was invented. Therefore, there were initially only gymnastics clubs in Germany.
- It was only when football became more and more popular that it also found its way into gymnastics clubs, resp. football clubs (and other sports clubs) have also been established. The road up to then was very long and one can speak of a real competition between sport and gymnastics. It is therefore also important to strictly separate sports and gymnastics in this context.
With a few exceptions, true fans are not interested in who is ...
- With a brief glimpse into the history of sport, it becomes clear why VfB is often called the Association for Movement Games. Because clubs for exercise games will initially be gymnastics clubs or similar. Ä. have acted, in which a sports department was subsequently added.
So should you ever come across a club abbreviation that you don't like with the sport connect, it may well be that the sport was only incorporated into the club at a later date.
Other interesting examples of club abbreviations
- In addition to VfB, there are other interesting examples, which are often former gymnastics clubs. VfL, i.e. the association for physical exercises, is a good example of this, or TGS, the gymnastics society.
- But there are also enough examples where you can see the subsequent incorporation very nicely in the name. TSV (gymnastics (sometimes diving) and sports club) or TSG (gymnastics and sports community).
- With some club abbreviations you can also see that a sport or a certain sport was played here from the start. For example FC (football club), FSG (football sports community), RKV (cycling and motorists association), SpVgg (Game Association / Sports Association), VSf (United Sports Friends) or WSV (Water Sports Association / Winter sports club).
